Transforming Trauma: Episode 072

In this episode of Transforming Trauma, our host Emily is joined by Dr. Sandra Bloom. Dr. Bloom is a Board-Certified psychiatrist, Associate Professor of Health Management and Policy at Drexel University, and the Founder of Creating Presence, an online organization for creating trauma-informed systems. She is the founder of the Sanctuary Model which provides inpatient psychiatric programs for the treatment of trauma-related emotional disorders. Dr. Bloom is the author of a series of books on trauma-informed care, including “Creating Sanctuary: Toward the Evolution of Sane Societies.”

Dr. Bloom is also the co-chair of a new national organization, the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP), whose goal is to advocate for public policies and programs that incorporate scientific findings regarding the relationship between trauma and many social and health problems.

Dr. Bloom shares that she began her work with complex trauma before there was research on it or even a name for it.  In the 1980’s, she was listening closely to her patients in the in-patient program that she had developed and started to create an understanding of the “traumatogenic culture” that is impacting so many individuals, families and communities. She began collaborating with others to implement trauma-responsive policies and procedures which helped evolve our understanding of how to treat complex trauma. Dr. Bloom would like listeners to “get a sense of the connection between trauma work and working with individual patients and the bigger picture of how trauma and adversity impact our workplaces and impacts our society in very similar ways to the way it impacts individuals.”

Dr. Bloom introduces the SELF tool for working through trauma: Safety, Emotions, Loss, and Future. Dr. Bloom likens these four domains to a compass, “You move it around depending on where the person is at in the process.” SELF provides an organizing framework for the complex problems presented by trauma survivors, by families with problems, and by chronically stressed organizations. 

We hope you will enjoy this episode with Dr. Sandra Bloom, one of the pioneers in the modern trauma-informed field.  We are grateful for her being able to follow in her footsteps in bringing trauma-informed care to individuals and communities everywhere.

We invite you to listen to the full episode and follow Transforming Trauma in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

 

About Dr. Bloom:

Dr. Sandra L. Bloom is a Board-Certified psychiatrist, graduate of Temple University School of Medicine and currently Associate Professor, Health Management and Policy at the Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University. For the past forty-two years, Dr. Bloom has done pioneering work in the field of traumatic stress studies and is a past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Dr. Bloom is the Founder of the Sanctuary Model (1980) and in 2020 introduced a new, online organizational approach called Creating PRESENCE™. Since 2012, Dr. Bloom has also served as Co-chair for the Philadelphia ACEs Task Force. Since 2015, Dr. Bloom serves as Board Chair of the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP).

 

Learn More:

https://www.creatingpresence.net

https://www.philadelphiaaces.org

https://www.ctipp.org

https://sandrabloom.com