The Paradigm- A New Standard of Care: Safety in Healing
The One Planet Healing Paradigm replaces the outdated medical model with a new standard of care: safety in healing.
Through the Trauma Response Syndrome Model, we restore dignity, humanity, and scientific clarity to how trauma is understood, treated, and ultimately resolved—both within systems of care and beyond them.
The OPH team highly values collaborative efforts with like-minded individuals to increase access to alternative trauma resolution modalities, insights, and perspectives.
The Paradigm
The One Planet Healing Paradigm offers a new way of understanding trauma, treatment, and human behavior. We believe trauma is the biggest public health issue of our time, not because it's rare, but because it's rarely recognized and rarely treated correctly. Safety is not a setting; it is a standard, and it belongs at the heart of every approach to healing. Our paradigm establishes this new standard of care, restoring safety and humanity both within traditional systems and beyond them in the alternative world.
- Offers a new worldview that provides an alternative to the medical and diagnostic approach for people impacted by trauma.
- Recognizes that trauma is a public health issue and offers a new perspective that provides solutions.
- Focuses on institutional betrayal and systemic trauma as foundational to the current trauma epidemic.
- Explains how the current medical and diagnostic approach to treatment rarely meets the needs of individuals experiencing trauma or the people who serve them.
- Bridges the gap between conventional medicine and holistic approaches to trauma resolution.
- Lays the groundwork for new possibilities that will allow people to recover.
- Asks the difficult questions related to the ethics, validity, and decisions of the DSM-5 task force
- Offers a new language that ends the pathologizing of human suffering.
- Explains how inner work is a superpower.
Our Philosophy: Redefining Healing
The systems that treat trauma were built within oppressive and patriarchal frameworks—structures that value control, compliance, and hierarchy over safety, collaboration, and consent. These systems have historically pathologized pain, labeling trauma responses as mental illness and silencing the wisdom of lived experience. Although trauma-informed care has begun to shift the way we understand human suffering, it is not enough. There remains a disconnect between recognizing the impact of trauma and the continued reliance on the mental illness construct. Many helping professionals acknowledge that their clients’ symptoms stem from complex trauma, yet still diagnose them with Bipolar Disorder, Psychosis, and Personality Disorders.
Even as awareness grows that most disorders are rooted in trauma, the framework itself remains pathologizing. From the One Planet Healing perspective, trauma does not cause mental illness—trauma responses are what we call mental illness. These are not signs of pathology but expressions of survival—the body and mind’s attempts to adapt to overwhelming experience and attempting to get needs met. We call this Trauma Response Syndrome.
The One Planet Healing Paradigm replaces this outdated model with a new standard of care: safety in healing. Through the Trauma Response Syndrome Model, we restore dignity, humanity, and scientific clarity to how trauma is understood, treated, and ultimately resolved—both within systems of care and beyond them.
Kimberly Rezarch and Savannah Woodard founded One Planet Healing LLC in 2015 and have been building the advocacy-and empowerment-based organization into what it is today. OPH will continue to grow, collaborate, and transform lives. Join the Trauma Revolution.
Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score, stated that trauma is the number one public health issue due to the high utilization of services by people impacted by trauma. Our perspective is that the misdiagnosing and wrongful medicating of people impacted by trauma (thus not receiving the treatment they need) are at the core of this reality. Based on our experiences and the experiences of hundreds of others, we believe people can recover from trauma. Anything is possible when the people who assist trauma survivors are well-trained and educated and implement the Trauma Response Syndrome Model(TRS Model) and other trauma-specific resolution modalities. People deserve options in how they receive trauma resolution.
In addition, the One Planet Healing team strongly emphasizes the necessity for people who are beginning the trauma resolution journey to start with themselves and model recovery before stepping into their roles of assisting others. We also recognize how beneficial the relationship can be when people assist others in trauma resolution from a grounded, integrated, and compassionate place. Lived experience is foundational for understanding the people they serve, and training is necessary to learn how to work with others effectively.
The founders of OPH, Kimberly Rezarch and Savannah Woodard, focus on ending cycles of trauma through intergenerational resolution. We have individually integrated our trauma to find healing within our family system, and now we train others. Our team also offers opportunities for families to heal together. We believe that when families heal, whenever possible, society heals.
The OPH team highly values collaborative efforts with like-minded individuals to increase access to alternative trauma resolution modalities, insights, and perspectives. We want to know what has helped you on your journey. So, let’s come together and assist Trauma Specialists in becoming empowered, impactful, and effective when working with people impacted by trauma.
We also support any decision the people we work with make, including taking medications and seeking services within the mental health system. We do not want to exclude anyone from feeling safe when reaching out for our assistance. We work with people at all stages of the medication continuum and provide whatever they think is beneficial. Our goal is to provide education and empower people when they choose to enter any system.
People Deserve Options
One Planet Healing recognizes there is a time and place for conventional medicine. We understand that it is beneficial for some people to take pharmaceuticals if that is their decision. We don’t believe it is helpful to take an extreme anti-psychiatry stance; instead, we advocate for greater Safety in Healing within these spaces through informed consent, ethical diagnosis, and education and certification in the OPH Safety in Healing Program. We prefer to collaborate with like-minded psychiatrists, doctors, and other helping professionals who share our commitment to providing ethical, trauma-specific care. Our Trauma Specialists are skilled at recognizing when an outside referral is needed to continue working within the One Planet Healing scope of practice.
One Planet Healing also recognizes that conventional medicine practices have harmed people and that these individuals often seek support outside of these systems. They come to OPH because we provide an alternative to the current paradigm and conventional medicine. We believe people deserve access to alternative medicine, including psychedelic medicine, if they choose. OPH also provides specialized support for safe pharmaceutical tapering and is developing expanded tapering services to address a significant gap in care.
One Planet Healing:
- Recognizes when conventional medicine is beneficial for some people and we work to empower clients when they are entering these systems.
- Collaborates with like-minded doctors, psychiatrists, and other helping professionals.
- Provides training, education, and certifications to assist in making these systems safer.
- Also recognizes that these spaces do not feel safe for many people, so we offer support outside of these systems.
- Acknowledges that more people are recognizing that the medical and diagnostic approach to treatment is not meeting the needs of their clients or themselves.
- Provides a new paradigm for trauma resolution and an alternative to the diagnostic and biomedical approach.
- Believes people deserve access to medicinal plant medicine, psychedelic therapies, and any other alternative medicine deemed helpful for their recovery.
- Recognizes the gap in training, understanding, and offering safe and ethical pharmaceutical tapering options, and we are working to shift this reality.
People Deserve Choices in Trauma Resolution
- The Trauma Response Syndrome Model provides an option for those seeking an alternative to diagnoses, labels, and the pathologizing of human suffering.
- The Trauma Response Syndrome Model offers a trauma-specific alternative to working with trauma responses that cause fragmentation, dissociation, extreme aspects of self, and identity states.
- The Trauma Response Syndrome Model perspective offers the paradigm shift needed to begin the transition into self-affirming and recovery-oriented language.
- As trauma becomes more understood and trauma-informed care initiatives are creating more opportunities for people to learn how trauma impacts the people they work with (or themselves), more people are recognizing that the medical and diagnostic approach to treatment is not meeting the needs of their clients (or themselves).
- Millions of people impacted by trauma are no longer accepting the clinical approach to addressing their trauma responses and are leaving the medical systems to search for alternative treatment approaches.
- People are beginning to see themselves differently from what they have been told their entire lives: mentally ill, diseased, or disordered. As a result, they expect the people working with them to be educated from different perspectives.
- People impacted by trauma deserve agency and responsibility for their trauma resolution, including making personal decisions about their life.
- All people deserve access to medicinal plant medicine, psychedelic therapies, and any other alternative medicine deemed helpful for their recovery. Trauma Specialists need to be educated in these areas.
- OPH strongly advocates for a harm-reduction approach to trauma-motivated behaviors. We recognize that people learn to cope in many ways, and truly meeting people “where they are at” includes recognizing the need to assist people as they make decisions about what is right for their lives.
People Deserve Access to Well-Trained Trauma Specialists.
- OPH offers in-depth, multi-tiered training to people with lived experiences who are called to assist in the recovery of individuals, couples, and families.
- People deserve access to well-trained, ethical, and compassionate Trauma Specialists outside the mental health system.
- OPH also offers training to helping professionals who want to add the TRSModel to their theoretical approaches.
People Deserve Access to Trauma-Informed Care.
- It is time for the systemic trauma and institutional betrayal experienced by people impacted by trauma to be recognized and steps to be taken to minimize these experiences. Unfortunately, when we challenge the current status quo, we are called “anti-psychiatry” instead of being supported and validated.
- One Planet Healing’s Badge of Honor Program (BOH), trains organizations, institutions, and any helping professional interested in incorporating trauma-informed practices.
- OPH and BOH empower people impacted by trauma and those who assist in their recovery by advocating for ethical diagnosis and informed consent.
- We advocate for empowering people impacted by trauma if they seek services within the mental/medical systems and provide the tools and support they need to hopefully, avoid further systemic trauma.
- People deserve to know all aspects of taking pharmaceuticals, including potentially dangerous withdrawals and side effects. They need to understand what they are medicating and make informed decisions.
- OPH recognizes the value of peer support. Collaborating with people with shared lived experiences is critical to trauma resolution.
- OPH and BOH provide training to emphasize the importance of acknowledging the traumatic experiences of oppressed populations and the need for diversity. We recognize the cultural and historical trauma experienced by IBPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities and offer resolutions.
Doing Inner Work
- The OPH strongly advocates for truth, transparency, and safety for people impacted by trauma receiving assistance in trauma resolution.
- Due to their experiences and the experiences of those they work with, the OPH team views inner work as the most critical aspect of offering trauma resolution to others.
- OPH sees the need for people impacted by trauma to advocate for themselves in their healing spaces, which includes asking people who assist in their recovery questions about their personal recovery work.
- The OPH team recognizes the assets of the wounded healer, but only when they can model their recovery.
- The OPH team recognizes that some people in power are re-traumatizing their clients, even when they have the best intentions.
- OPH also sheds light on the predatory practices of some people who present themselves as helping professionals, therapists, wellness practitioners, healers, and gurus, and provides ways to find a resolution for these experiences.
- When wounded healers are unresolved, they become reactive to their clients, are triggered by them, try to rescue them, and give advice based on their own needs.
- We recognize that to be a trauma worker or Trauma Specialist in any capacity requires the Trauma Specialist to begin the trauma resolution journey with themselves. So please, do your inner work.
- Let’s come together and hold space for each other to dig deep before holding space for others.
Peer to Peer
- Their lived experiences, trauma resolution, and training give the OPH team the insights to teach others.
- The OPH team works to minimize the power differentiation inherent in healing spaces by emphasizing that they are teachers who assist others.
- The OPH team recognizes the value of lived experiences as the most significant asset in working with others. In addition, their trauma gives them insights to impact trauma resolution significantly.
- The OPH team sees the wisdom in everyone they work with, train, and teach.
- The One Planet Healing Academy, Trauma Response Syndrome Model Institute, and Badge of Honor Program provide opportunities to train with experts to become an expert.
Recovery is Possible
- The current medical and diagnostic perspective on treatment tells people they are diseased, disordered, and mentally ill when they are having understandable reactions to trauma.
- The current language pathologizes human suffering rather than supports the notion that suffering is part of the human experience.
- Medicalizing all aspects of trauma resolution hinders our ability to reach our highest potential by telling us our experiences are permanent and we need to learn to manage our symptoms.
- Recovery looks different for everyone, and meeting people where they are can bring acceptance and healing.
- Recovery is a lifestyle, a long process, and a way of showing up in the world. It doesn’t necessarily have an endpoint.
- When people impacted by trauma receive assistance from well-trained, ethical, and resolved people, anything is possible.
- The OPH team models recovery daily in everything they do and can now share it with others.
- People who have experienced trauma and live with daily trauma responses are Warriors. They deserve unconditional support and encouragement.
- Anyone can recover from Trauma Response Syndrome!
When Families Heal, Society Heals
- The OPH team is passionate about healing intergenerational trauma by sharing their recovery story as multi-generational survivors.
- The OPH team also wants to increase the capacity for families to heal by providing an alternative perspective to family systems.
- The OPH team recognizes the need for more opportunities in training for people who assist in the recovery of families. Our goal is to help people understand the complexities of resolving multi-generational trauma.
- The OPH team realizes that most families are capable of healing. However, the consequences can be devastating when there is no emphasis on the capacity for repair in families. When families heal, society heals.
A Trauma-informed Society is Needed
- According to the National Center for Trauma-Informed Care, it is safe to assume that most people we come in contact with have a history of trauma, which provides insights into why people “do what they do.”
- We become a more compassionate, understanding, and supportive society when we shift to the OPH perspective.
- When people work to resolve their trauma, they show up in the world differently and can be kinder.
- The “don’t ask, don’t tell” and “it’s none of my business” perspectives increase stigma and endanger lives.
- The OPH goal is to collaborate with other like-minded people to increase the potential for trauma resolution.
- Society would benefit from seeing each other through a trauma-informed lens rather than seeing people as good vs. bad people.
- By raising awareness, more people become trained and shift their paradigm to save more lives.
- The OPH team aims to decrease suicides, addictions, domestic violence, crime, hospitalizations, and more by implementing the TRS Model and training in trauma-specific modalities.
We Bridge the Gap
Currently, there is a deep divide between conventional and alternative medicine. This separation creates disconnection, fragmentation, and a lack of continuity of care, making true whole-body healing nearly impossible. Both sides often remain in their own corners, failing to recognize when collaboration could best serve those in need of support. This reality hinders recovery, perpetuates harm, and prevents people impacted by trauma from receiving the comprehensive support they deserve.
In addition, it has been our experience that there is a lack of trauma-specific care, as trauma is rarely recognized as a root cause of sickness and suffering. Our Trauma Specialists have extensive experience working in many capacities, including within mental health and healthcare systems, functional medicine centers, psychiatric hospitals, and alternative medicine spaces. Our lived experience has also exposed us to the critical need for Safety in Healing practices to be implemented and for trauma to be recognized as a foundational aspect of treatment, both within and outside of these systems. One Planet Healing aims to bridge the gap by providing trauma-specific services, education, consultation, collaboration, and connections to conventional and alternative care for people impacted by trauma and the people who serve them.
When you learn the One Planet Healing Paradigm and implement the Trauma Response Syndrome Model™ into your work with others:
Deepen Clinical Insight
- Learn to identify trauma responses rather than labeling them as disorders.
- Gain a framework that clarifies why clients behave as they do and what unmet needs drive those behaviors.
- Move beyond symptom management toward genuine trauma resolution.
Improve Client Outcomes
- Offer treatment that addresses the root cause of suffering instead of perpetuating the cycle of diagnosis and medication.
- Support lasting change by helping clients integrate safety, self-awareness, and connection.
- Reduce treatment resistance by validating survival responses instead of pathologizing them.
Reduce Compassion Fatigue and Burnout
- Understand your own nervous system responses and trauma triggers in clinical work.
- Develop the self-regulation and embodiment skills needed to stay grounded with difficult clients.
- Reconnect with the purpose, empathy, and vitality that brought you into the field.
Practice with Integrity and Safety
- Build trauma-informed relationships that prioritize consent, empowerment, and collaboration.
- Learn how traditional systems and patriarchal frameworks have shaped mental health care—and how to practice differently.
- Gain tools to prevent retraumatization and create truly safe healing spaces.
Expand Professional Competence
- Integrate the Trauma Response Syndrome Model™ into any modality—psychotherapy, social work, bodywork, coaching, or holistic practice.
- Stand out as a trauma-specific practitioner who works at the intersection of science and humanity.
- Earn continuing education or certification that strengthens your professional credibility (optional if you plan to offer CE credits later).
Join a Movement for Systemic Change
- Be part of a growing community redefining how trauma is understood and treated.
- Help transform both the systems inside which we work and the spaces outside them where healing unfolds.
- Contribute to a new standard of care—Safety in Healing—that honors both clients and clinicians.
We train trauma therapists on how trauma motivates human behavior.
