Trauma-Informed Care Flashcards
7 cards from real MAC practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Trauma-Informed Care flashcards as text
What is the foundational paradigm shift that distinguishes trauma-informed care from traditional treatment approaches?
Answer: Shifting the question from 'What is wrong with you?' to 'What happened to you?'
Trauma-informed care reframes client behavior as adaptive responses to trauma rather than deficits, shifting focus to understanding what happened rather than pathologizing the person.
According to the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, higher ACE scores are most strongly associated with:
Answer: Increased risk of substance use disorders and chronic health problems
The ACE study demonstrated a dose-response relationship between childhood adversity and negative health outcomes, including significantly elevated risk of substance use disorders.
Which of the following is NOT one of SAMHSA's six key principles of a trauma-informed approach?
Answer: Confrontation of denial and resistance
SAMHSA's six principles are safety, trustworthiness, peer support, collaboration, empowerment, and cultural humility — confrontational techniques are inconsistent with trauma-informed care.
The 'Window of Tolerance' in trauma-informed treatment refers to:
Answer: The optimal zone of arousal in which a client can effectively process trauma
The Window of Tolerance describes the zone between hyperarousal and hypoarousal where clients remain regulated enough to engage in therapeutic processing without becoming overwhelmed or dissociated.
Complex trauma is best distinguished from single-incident PTSD by:
Answer: Repeated, prolonged interpersonal trauma often beginning in childhood
Complex trauma results from repeated, chronic interpersonal trauma (often early in life), producing pervasive effects on identity, affect regulation, and relational capacity beyond single-incident PTSD.
In trauma-informed addiction counseling, re-traumatization is best prevented by:
Answer: Establishing safety and trust while following the client's pace for disclosure
Re-traumatization prevention centers on creating a safe therapeutic environment and allowing clients agency over the pace and depth of trauma disclosure and processing.
The fight-flight-freeze survival response to trauma is mediated primarily by:
Answer: The amygdala and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis
The amygdala detects threat and activates the HPA axis, triggering cortisol and adrenaline release that drives autonomic survival responses including fight, flight, and freeze.