SOME THOUGHTS ON TRAUMA SPECIFIC TRAINING What social workers bring to the therapy table BY JACKIE BARKLEY, RSW
Our college has recently determined the need for improved
exceptionalism compared to the UK and the US with regard to
and accountable skill levels regarding trauma to be assessed
white supremacy and the impact of enslavement.
for private therapists. Why now, what does this reflect, how do we assess the issue overall, and what are the challenges
Surprisingly, but positively, these movements have truly begun
social work therapists need to consider?
to pressure and have an impact on the day-to-day direct delivery of mental health counselling. Institutions such as child
First, trauma has become the new buzzword in the field of
welfare, the Canadian military, the so called “justice” systems,
mental health, with expectations that service delivery should
the public and private mental health agencies, employee
reflect the need for specialized education in this area. I
assistance programs – to name but a few – are actually
suggest this can be traced, at least in part, to the increasingly
being forced to assess their capacity to provide service to the
intense political struggles of the past two years. The Truth
increasing numbers of persons self-describing their trauma.
and Reconciliation report exposed Canadian colonialism and
All this added to the ongoing struggle of women experiencing
the genocidal history settler Canadians have been unwilling
sexual assault and domestic violence, and persons identifying
to begin addressing until now. And the death of George Floyd,
as gender non-conforming to obtain appropriate psychological
followed by the powerful resistance to anti Black racism
supports for their suffering means the word “trauma” (mostly
has also exposed another brutal underbelly of our (white
appropriately – though its overuse is potentially dangerous
settler persons) assumptions of Canadian “goodness” and
and the subject of more discussion) is on the radar of mental
18 Connection | Winter 2022
