Is your organisation trauma-informed? Possibly an interesting or even an odd question to ask you may think, and I can understand why. Why would being trauma-informed be the responsibility of a company. For me it is about educating and building understanding so that we can develop more compassion in the workplace. This will have a knock on effect to developing psychological safety, authenticity, increased creativity, productivity and fundamentally enjoying the work your employees do and the enjoyment they get from working within their team.
Trauma is widespread
Make no mistake trauma is widespread, with many different types of trauma including; acute, chronic, complex, vicarious, and Adverse Childhood Conditions or ACE as it is known, as the statistics I report below show. Our understanding of what trauma constitutes and the effects of it are thankfully becoming much more widespread, as more and more people understand their health condition can be directly related to trauma. When we think of trauma we often think of what we call big ‘T’ traumas such as war, sexual violence or natural disasters, however there are also smaller traumas, often called little ‘t’ traumas that we may have experienced growing up, perhaps we lived with parents who weren’t emotionally there for us, which is very common or we lived in a dysfunctional family. Often our childhood, even if it is a good one, can leave little trauma ‘scars’, that aren’t visible.
Trauma statistics are high
These scars are kept within our nervous system which can create a level of dysfunction, even in a small or subtle way – think un-related or floating anxiety, so that we develop less authentic ways of being, with many more effects. Trauma can affect anyone regardless of age, race, ethnicity, or class etc and in that sense it is a leveller, we can all be affected by it, and indeed we are whether we have experienced it ourselves or we know someone who has, as we are all affected by our relationships. Research suggest that 50% of people will have experienced one traumatic event in their life, I believe this figure to be higher. With 60% of adults reporting experiencing at least one ACE. That means half your population will be affected by trauma in one shape or another. Yes you read that right, HALF of your population.
What can you do as an organisation?
What we now know of trauma is that experiencing trauma may have long-lasting mental and physical effects. Often those with chronic illness will have some level of trauma within their nervous system. So what can an organisation do to help? A starting point would be to educate your HR team in becoming trauma-informed so that the company’s people strategy, policies and best practice are appropriate. Other measures can come later, and might include educating your mental health advocates and team leaders and managers. Something else you can do is to use a stress management and self/leadership-development model like Sophrology, a unique framework in which to help your employees better manage their nervous systems, to bring about more compassion in the workplace, with many more benefits for all your employees to develop their wellbeing, resilience and their potential.
If you would like an opportunity to discover Sophrology for either yourself or your workforce, then please come along to one of our free Sophrology Discovery Taster sessions on the first Monday of the month, at 7pm to 8pm, more details on the events page.
Alternatively if you would like me to come to your organisation to talk more about being a trauma-informed organisation or using Sophrology, then please let me know.
Trauma affects us all in some way.
With warm wishes,
Carla