Paul Kraus Interview on Trauma-Informed Counseling

I am so impressed by Licensed Professional Counselor Paul Krauss, M.A.  He’s a relatively young 37 years old and yet, he has sought out an incredible amount of post-master’s clinical experience and training.  I’m particularly impressed by his creation of the The Trauma-Informed Counseling Center of Grand Rapids.  The concept of having multiple evidence-based approaches to treating trauma under one roof strikes me as timely and brilliant.  In our conversation, Paul emphasized that he insists that any clinicians wishing to join the practice must have advanced training in one or more of the following approaches:

• EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy)
• Somatic Experiencing Therapy
• Trauma-Informed Counseling in General
• Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
• The Neurosequential Model

To this list above, we also need to add the

• The  Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach, even though it is not trauma specific.

I have the impression that the developer of any given therapeutic approach will tend to assume that their treatment will work for all comers.  However, I believe that experience has taught us that there is so much variance among people and their unique life experiences and problems that the one-size-fits-all expectation is unrealistic.

I’m not sure if there is any other trauma treatment clinic in the country that has organized itself in this way or not.  I would not be surprised to see others adopting this model.

Similarly, I’m very impressed by the way Paul is trusting his intuition about the need for a National Hotline for Violence Prevention.   There are plenty of hotlines and other resources for the victims of violence but I’ve never heard to one dedicated to those who are or about to be the perpetrators of violence.  Will these individuals, probably mostly men, make use of such a service?  I don’t know but it’s a great empirical question worthy of testing.  If such a resource were to avoid even one episode of violence it will have proved its value.

The fact that Paul has even conceived of such a hotline to me says volumes about his passionate desire to be an instrument of healing.  I think therapists in general are driven by that motivation but Paul strikes me as someone who feels it particularly acutely.

Another quality that really stands out about Paul is his commitment to intentionality.  In our conversation we heard about the training program he’s developed for other clinicians which is named, the Intentional Clinician Training Program for Counselors and, on top of this, he has a podcast titled, The Intentional Clinician.  So, clearly, he’s all about intentionality.   When I questioned him about his use of the word, “Intention,” his reply was that years ago when he was still very much a novice, he wanted to become a master therapist. As a consequence, he’s dedicated to working on himself continuously, to keeping the needs of his clients constantly in the forefront, to keeping an open mind and seeking training far and wide from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives.  All of this speaks to his passion to be deeply effective.

I expect that we will hear more about Paul Krauss in the future.  And of course I feel both humbled and proud to count him among my longtime Shrink Rap Radio listeners.

Dr. Dave

About The Author:

David Van Nuys

When outside of the pod, “Dr. Dave” is also known as David Van Nuys, Ph.D. He is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Sonoma State University and served as that department’s Chair for seven years. David also runs a market research consulting business www.e-focusgroups.com which has served a distinguished list of clients. He received his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan and has worked as a licensed psychotherapist in both California and New Hampshire.

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