What is Trauma-Informed Care?

Trauma-informed care is an approach in healthcare and social services that involves understanding, recognizing, and responding to the effects of all types of trauma. It emphasizes physical, psychological, and emotional safety for both providers and survivors, and helps rebuild a sense of control and empowerment for the individual.

Why Trauma-Informed Care is Vital

The significance of trauma-informed care lies in its ability to holistically address the underlying and often extensive repercussions of trauma that manifest in an individual's daily life, shaping their perspectives and actions. Ensuring that therapeutic methods are grounded in a trauma-informed perspective safeguards against unintentionally causing further trauma, while simultaneously cultivating an environment conducive to healing. By adopting this approach, professionals are better positioned to provide interventions that resonate deeply, paving the way for enduring resilience and comprehensive recovery.

• The Ubiquity of Trauma: Traumatic experiences are not uncommon or exclusive occurrences. A significant number of people have faced traumatic situations at some point, whether as a one-time incident or through recurrent experiences.

• Beyond Tangible Manifestations: While the physical implications of trauma are evident, its mental, emotional, and societal consequences can persist over time. Such experiences can lead to challenges in trust, pervasive feelings of guilt, shame, anxiety, depression, and other psychological distresses.

• Cultivating Safe Spaces: For individuals who have experienced trauma, specific environments or scenarios can evoke distress or trauma-related reactions. The essence of trauma-informed care lies in fostering an environment where individuals can find comfort, security, and validation.

• Empowerment and Healing: Central to this methodology is the objective of empowering individuals, equipping them with the knowledge and resources to understand and manage their emotional responses. The approach pivots the dialogue from an accusatory "What's wrong with you?" to a compassionate "What occurred in your life?"

Trauma-Informed Care @ SBCS

At Space Between Counseling Services, we believe trauma-informed care is a crucial element of the art of therapy itself. In order to provide this service in Baltimore we strive to:

• Create a sense of safety, trust, and collaboration, so that you feel empowered to make decisions and set boundaries both within and outside of the therapy session.

• Assist you in developing an understanding of the relationship between trauma and attachment, so you are able to recognize the root cause and know how to address trauma moving forward.

• Help you to develop recognition of trauma's life-long effects on the mind, body, and relationships. Additionally, we aim to assist clients in recognizing the role that trauma plays in current behaviors and reasoning.

  
  

At the same time, our team of clinicians ACKNOWLEDGES that trauma is endlessly nuanced.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused trauma-related complexities to evolve at a rapid pace, unlike ever before. We understand that in order to provide both competent and compassionate trauma-informed care, it’s essential to maintain the sense of both curiosity and creativity in order to explore the origins of trauma and the many potential paths of healing. Even in the moments when understanding or healing may never come, we’ll sit with you in a sea of emotions or utter blankness, and strive to find potential solutions moving forward.

TELL ME ABOUT FEES AND INSURANCE.

Clinician fees at SBCS range from $160-$275 per individual 45-minute session. Couples intake sessions range from $275-$650 and $275-$425 per follow-up appointment. Sessions with a graduate student intern range from $0-$75, depending on client need and clinician experience.

SBCS is not paneled with any insurance plans but can offer you "out-of-network benefits" (OONB). Not everyone has this as part of their benefits package, so please call your healthcare plan and ask these questions:

Do I have out-of-network benefits?
What percentage of my therapist's fee does my plan pay for?

MOST OON Benefit PLANS REIMBURSE BETWEEN 50-90% OF OUR FEES.

At times insurance plans request upfront billing codes I will be using.  You can share this list of codes for their approval:

• 90791  Psychiatric Diagnostic Assessment (from 1-4 sessions, depending on the problem)

• 90847  Family Psychotherapy, conjoint psychotherapy with the patient present

• 90834 Psychotherapy, 45 minutes

• 90832  Psychotherapy, 30 minutes

When using OON benefits, your clinician would provide you with a monthly document called a "superbill," which is like an invoice but contains the service codes, dates of treatment, and monies paid during therapy. You would submit this to your plan directly, and your plan would reimburse you directly as well.

You can get in-network therapy if this is out of your budget. Your plan can identify providers who are in-network should you need to use your benefits.

HOW ARE our RECORDS STORED?

We at SBCS utilize a HIPAA-compliant, encrypted, electronic medical record called Simple Practice that safely holds all of our client's mental health records. You will get a link to a client portal where you fill in demographic information and can access documents like invoices and superbills on your own.

HOW DO I PAY my therapist?

Simple Practice has a credit card processing system named Stripe embedded in it.  If choosing to work with a therapist at SBCS, you will upload your credit card number, and your therapist will charge you after each session or late cancelation for the fee.  Your therapist will only have access to the last 4 digits of your card, and it is completely secured.

DO YOU HAVE A CANCELLATION POLICY?

All clinicians at Space Between Counseling Services have a 24- business hour cancelation policy You will be responsible for an entire session fee ($160-$275/$275-$650) if the change is made in less than 24 business hours' notice. Exceptions may be made for emergencies such as sudden illness or accidents, at your therapist’s discretion. It should be noted that insurance does not reimburse for canceled sessions and HSA and FSA cards can't be used in these cases.