Trauma Informed care Role Play

Client - Andrew

Andrew was been married in his early 20's, divorced in his early 30's. He has two children, now young adults, one still living at home. He is now in his mid-forties, living with his partner and her two children in their late teens. He is a successful small business owner, financially stable and reports that life is good. He explains that he and his partner have been having difficulties regarding his adult son, who he describes as fairly lazy and de motivated. His partner has expressed concern over the fact that the 20-year-old is only working a few hours a week, attends his TAFE course a few hours a week, and spends considerable time online gaming.

Andrew has been able to establish that he has had great difficulty being the task master for his son out of fear. He expresses considerable loss over his lifetime, a baby brother who died of SIDS at 4 months of age, when Andrew was only 4 yrs. old, his parents appeared to neglect him following this loss, family violence through alcoholism from his father. His first wife was quite emotionally stilted. His teenage daughter left his care when she was 14yrs old due to Dad offering rules and boundaries that Mum did not offer, which devastated him. The relationship is now back on track with his daughter, but she has never returned to his care, she is now 18

He feels that he shuts down when it comes to anything emotional, he cannot freely talk about his emotions, he cannot freely discuss the emotions of his partner as she struggles with this block. He states that the goal from seeking help is to establish a plan for lowering his emotional walls and re-connecting with his partner and being able to offer a framework or boundaries for his son. He has summarised his goal of counselling down to "Help me work out this fear of emotions please".

1) What questions to ask?

2) Support and develop strategies provide that reflect the principles of trauma informed care and recovery-oriented practice