Trauma Skills
This skill helps people to identify and measure the level of dissociation that's currently being experienced.
What is Back of the Head Scale?
This trauma symptom occurs when a person suddenly feels as if a past traumatic experience is happening again in the present moment.
What is a flashback?
These are the six components of the mindfulness what and how skills.
What are observe, describe, participate, nonjudgmentally, one-mindfully, and effectively
You pause, take a breath, notice your thoughts and surroundings, and choose your next step carefully instead of reacting automatically. The skill you used is
What is STOP?
This is the smoke alarm of the brain
What is the amygdala?
This three part skill helps people to feel "safe enough" by scanning the environment, other living beings, and ourselves.
What is Orienting to Safety?
People experiencing this trauma symptom may try to stay away from places, conversations, people, or activities that remind them of a traumatic event.
What is avoidance?
This emotion regulation skill asks us to look for evidence that supports or does not support our thoughts about a situation.
What is Check the Facts?
This skill involves mentally rehearsing how you will cope with a difficult situation before it happens.
What is Cope Ahead?
These are the three major areas of the brain that were discussed in group.
What are the reptilian brain, mammalian/emotion brain, and the thinking brain?
This skill uses bilateral stimulation through shoulder taps to help people feel grounded during a flashback.
What is Flash for Flashbacks 2.0 (or butterfly hug/butterfly tap).
This trauma symptom involves feeling constantly on edge, scanning the environment for danger, and/or feeling easily startled.
What is hypervigilance?
This emotion regulation skill involves intentionally scheduling pleasant or meaningful activities in daily life to strengthen positive emotional experiences.
What is Accumulating Pleasant Emotions/Experiences?
This distress tolerance skill involves using the five senses to calm and comfort yourself during distress.
What is self-soothe?
This concept describes the range of emotional and physiological states where someone can stay regulated and handle life’s challenges. When someone has experienced trauma, this range may become smaller as a result.
What is the Window of Tolerance?
This skill is designed to help people build awareness around stimuli or experiences that may prompt intense emotional and physiological distress. Its components include recording the date, time, situation, thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations, the associated intensity levels on a scale from 1 to 10, reflecting on what was happening just before the increased emotional distress, and how you coped with the experience of increased emotional distress.
What is Recognizing Triggers and Triggering?
These unwanted recollections or images of a traumatic event can pop into someone’s mind even when they are trying not to think about it.
What are intrusive memories?
You feel the urge to avoid a friend because you’re feeling ashamed, but you decide to send a message instead because connection aligns with your goals.
What is opposite action?
You choose to practice a new skill, such as learning a recipe, improving a hobby, or finishing a small project, in order to increase confidence and competence. This is an example of using the __________ skill.
What is Build Mastery?
Cues or stimuli connected even indirectly to specific trauma events are called _____. These have the potential of evoking strong physical and emotional responses.
What are triggers?
This skill helps people to recognize when they are reacting to the past and can help people to learn the difference between when they are safe, but triggered, vs. when they are in real danger. Its components include recording the time of day, what you are doing, what sensations and feelings you notice, what belief seems to explain why you're feeling this way, and whether the thoughts/feelings make more sense in the present or past.
What is Differentiating Past and Present/Updating?
Feeling numb, passive, detached, unable to think, disconnected, and/or shut down after experiencing increased stress are signs of
What is hypoarousal?
This DEARMAN step involves asking clearly for what you need or saying no respectfully.
What is A for Assert?
You are very stressed after a difficult day and decide to watch your favorite show or go for a walk to give your brain a break. This is an example of the ___________ skill.
What is the A in Distracts with ACCEPTS?
These are the main characteristics that make up the safety and stabilization phase of trauma treatment.
What are establishing bodily safety, a safe environment, emotional safety, and having a stable life in the here and now?