Impactful: A Conversation About Trauma-Informed Care with Therapist Sarah Adelmann

In this week's episode, therapist Sarah Adelmann of Resilient Birth shares guidelines about how to mindfully choose our words as part of giving trauma-informed care to survivors of trauma and abuse.

Learn more about Resilient Birth at https://www.resilientbirth.com/

TRANSCRIPT:

Sara P.:

Sarah is an advocate, counselor and educator whose focus is on supporting those with grief and trauma. She specializes in working with survivors of sexual and intimate partner violence in the perinatal period. Sarah has an MA in counseling psychology from Boston College, and a certification in traumatic stress studies from the Justice Resource Institute. She co-founded Resilient Birth, which provides strength-based and trauma-informed care and education for birthing people and providers. Sarah, welcome.

Sarah A:

Thank you so much for having me, Sara.

Sara P.:

I'm looking forward to chatting with you. And so will you just start by introducing yourself to our listeners? What is your background with birth work and how did you get involved?

Sarah A.:

My experience postpartum, actually, is what led me into birth work. And I was an educator and a mental health counselor, but was completely caught off guard by the postpartum period with my first child. There's no support, no check-ins. And I was basically on my own trying to figure things out. And trying to figure out how to take care of a newborn after having a C-section. And I was so sure that as a mental health counselor, I would be able to see the signs, or if I was struggling, advocate for myself, as I did tell my clients to do, but that is not how my experience went at all.

And looking back, I realized I was suffering from postpartum anxiety. But I didn't realize how debilitating that was. Until this distinct moment that stands out to me, where this like shift happened, which then sent me on this trajectory of birth work. I was lying in bed and, you know, another sleepless night of a newborn, which I know many birthing people and parents have experienced, and I just wanted to sleep. And I thought at this point that I actually might die if I didn't get sleep. And then the very next thought that was in my head was like, but if you were dead, you'd be sleeping. So. And that's when I had a pausing moment. And I realized that what I was experiencing wasn't normal. And that I needed to take that step back and find the care and support for myself. And I had no intention of wanting to leave my child or leave my family. And I feel like it was my mind’s way of reminding me that I existed, and that I mattered. And that was my catalyst where I saw my own counseling and I saw my own support.

And before I had given birth and became a mother, my counseling work was centered around trauma and grief, and I particularly work supporting survivors of violence in my counseling practice. And after this experience, my counseling work shifted to perinatal mental health and wanting to be that advocate, and that supporter that my counselor was to me, and give them a healthy mind and a healthy body and a healthy spirit as they went into this journey.

And then I had the blessing of meeting Justine Leach. And she and I came together to create Resilient Birth, which then mirrored both my passions of trauma and grief and supporting survivors with this new identity of being a mom. And our work centers around how do we support survivors who are in birth, pregnancy, postpartum, or anybody who's experienced a trauma in their past lives, because we all have stories, and they all come out to play in this incredible shift that we experience when we give birth. And this company supports people in finding what they need, learning what they might need and learning how the stories may come up in birth. And we also work with providers, and how do you help people who are coming in with stories and give them the most healing, best ideal birth that you can, by being more trauma-informed, and coming at it from the strength-based model. So that's how I got to this work, was through my own needing of healing.

Sara P.:

I think... I just love the beauty of your story. Because as you tell it, I can just feel your heart just reaching out to all of these survivors and those who have experienced trauma and new parents trying to figure this all out. And I just love the work that you do and what you do with Justine, having been at your session at the conference, at Evidence Based Birth, and then following you on social Media, I know that you both are just like these huge-hearted women that reach out to people that really have a need for that huge heart to just wrap around them. So I'm so grateful for the work that you're doing and that I get to talk with you tonight about it.

Sarah A.:

And thank you for your kind words, it makes my heart feel so full. ...