The RISE Program for Trauma Stabilization and Recovery at MHS
By Dr. Lane Pederson
There has been an enormous amount of progress in trauma treatment. We understand more than ever about how trauma can affect emotions, thinking, the nervous system, the body, memory, relationships, development, and our basic sense of safety and identity.
But there is an important problem that can get lost in all of that progress:
Not everyone who has experienced trauma is ready for trauma processing. And not everyone needs to start there.
For some people, the immediate problem isn’t an unprocessed traumatic memory. It’s what trauma is doing to their life right now.
They may feel emotionally overwhelmed or completely shut down. They may dissociate, have difficulty trusting their body, react strongly to situations they don’t fully understand, struggle in relationships, or find themselves repeating behaviors they desperately want to change.
Sometimes people know exactly what happened to them but still don’t know what to do when their nervous system takes over on a Tuesday afternoon.
That’s where the RISE Program for Trauma Stabilization and Recovery at Mental Health Systems (MHS) comes in.
A different way of understanding trauma
RISE is based on the Dialectical Trauma Recovery Model (DTRM), developed by MHS owner and psychologist Dr. Lane Pederson.
The roots of DTRM go back to Dr. Pederson’s work under a federal contract with the Department of Justice, where he developed a stabilization-based DBT trauma program for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Working with significant trauma in a setting where safety and stability were essential helped shape an idea that continued to develop through years of clinical practice:
Having a trauma history doesn’t tell us what treatment you need.
Two people can experience similar events and be affected in very different ways.
One person may primarily experience intense emotions. Another may disconnect or dissociate. Someone else may struggle with body sensations, relationships, avoidance, impulsive behaviors, shame, or a loss of meaning and identity.
So rather than assuming everyone needs the same trauma intervention, we start by asking:
How is trauma affecting this particular person, and what would actually help them now?
DTRM gives our clinicians a way to map that complexity across the different systems affected by trauma. More importantly, it gives clients a way to understand what is happening to them without reducing everything they experience to a diagnosis or a trauma history.
Stabilization is trauma treatment
There can be an assumption that stabilization is something you do before the “real” trauma treatment begins.
We don’t see it that way.
Stabilization is trauma treatment.
Learning to regulate intense emotions is trauma treatment.
Learning how to come back when you dissociate is trauma treatment.
Learning to recognize what your nervous system is doing is trauma treatment.
Reconnecting with your body, changing behaviors that no longer work, developing healthier relationships, and rebuilding a sense of agency are all meaningful parts of trauma recovery.
For some people, building these capacities prepares them to safely move into more intensive trauma processing later.
For others, stabilization and integration may address what they came to treatment to change without needing to move into a separate trauma-processing treatment.
Both are legitimate paths.
Skills first
RISE is a skills-based program.
We use targeted DBT skills and other interventions to help clients understand their patterns and develop practical ways to respond differently.
The goal isn’t simply to know why something happens.
It’s being able to recognize:
This is what is happening to me. This is what triggered it. And this is what I can do next.
We call that process RISE:
Recognize → Identify → Skills-Based Response → Evaluate and Adapt
Over time, clients become better at recognizing their own patterns, understanding what they need, choosing effective responses, and evaluating what works.
The goal is increasing stability, agency, and recovery.
Who might benefit from RISE?
RISE may be a good fit for people whose trauma-related difficulties include emotional dysregulation, dissociation, nervous system reactivity, difficulty with body sensations, avoidance, relationship problems, problematic behaviors, or disruptions in identity and meaning.
It may also be especially useful when previous trauma treatment has felt overwhelming, moved too quickly, or simply hasn’t matched what the person needed.
For therapists and other referral sources, RISE provides a structured option when a client clearly needs trauma-focused care but would benefit from greater stabilization and capacity-building before, or instead of, more intensive trauma processing.
Start with what the person needs now
At MHS, we don’t believe effective trauma treatment means pushing people into their trauma.
It means understanding how trauma is affecting them now and starting there.
That’s the idea behind RISE:
Map the complexity. Target what matters. Build the skills and capacities that support stability, agency, and recovery.
If you are wondering whether the RISE Program for Trauma Stabilization and Recovery might be right for you, a family member, or someone you work with, learn more about RISE or contact MHS to talk with our team.
