Becoming Trauma Aware for NonClinical Staff in Organizations

Becoming Trauma Aware: Strategies and Tools for Nonclinical Staff

Nonclinical staff are often clients’ first point of contact and play a vital role in creating a supportive environment. Trauma awareness is when individuals have knowledge and education about trauma. By understanding the signs of trauma, nonclinical staff can improve recognition and response, decrease the risk of triggering and retraumatization, prioritize care, make more informed decisions about immediate care needs, and reduce stress and job satisfaction for staff.

Understanding the Signs of Trauma

Here are some typical behavioral, emotional, and physical signs of trauma:

Behavioral:

• Avoidance: Reluctance to talk about specific topics, social withdrawal, or isolation.
• Agitation: Irritability, angry outbursts, being on guard, exaggerated startle responses, and difficulty sitting still.
• Concentration Issues: Trouble paying attention, focusing on questions, memory problems, forgetfulness, difficulty absorbing information, and zoning out.
• Risky Behaviors: Engaging in dangerous activities, thrill-seeking behaviors, increased accidents, self-harming behaviors, and substance use to cope with distressing emotions or memories.
• Sleep Pattern Disturbances: Insomnia or difficulty falling asleep, excessive sleep, fatigue, nightmares, terrors, and sleep deprivation.

Emotional:

• Emotional Numbing: A protective mechanism when other coping mechanisms have failed.
• Difficulty Feeling Positive Emotions: Trauma interferes with standard emotional processing.

Physical:

• Chronic Pain and Aches: Trauma activates the body’s stress response system, disrupting mood regulation and leading to physical symptoms.
• Fatigue:
• Lack of Sleep and Appetite:
• Headaches and Stomach Problems:

Trauma-Informed Care Principles

By implementing trauma-informed care principles, organizations can create supportive environments that improve client outcomes. These principles foster healing, resilience, and well-being for clients and staff. The six key principles are:

1. Safety (physical and emotional): Creating a space where clients feel safe and secure is paramount.
2. Trustworthiness and Transparency: Open and honest communication builds trust and makes clients more comfortable.
3. Peer Support: Connecting with others who have shared similar experiences can be incredibly validating and empowering for clients.
4. Collaboration and Mutuality: Rather than dictating treatment plans, working with clients empowers them and ensures their voices are heard.
5. Empowerment, Voice, and Choice: Giving clients choices and control over their care helps them regain a sense of agency and promotes self-determination.
6. Cultural, Historical, and Gender Responsiveness: Recognizing and respecting clients’ diverse backgrounds and experiences is crucial for providing culturally competent care.

Five Guiding Values and Principles for Trauma-Informed Interactions

Harris and Fallot (2001) proposed five guiding values and principles to ensure a trauma-informed approach in any organization. These values can be applied at a worker-to-client level, a worker-to-worker level, and a leadership-to-worker level:

1. Safety: Ensuring emotional safety by being attentive to signs of individual discomfort and recognizing these signs in a trauma-informed way.
2. Trustworthiness: Providing clear information about processes and procedures, maintaining respectful boundaries, and prioritizing privacy and confidentiality.
3. Choice: Providing individuals with choices and a voice throughout their experience in the organization.
4. Collaboration: Creating an environment of “doing with” rather than “doing to” by flattening the organizational power hierarchy and giving all individuals a significant role in planning and evaluating.
5. Empowerment: Recognizing and building on individual strengths and skills, highlighting supportive practices, communicating a realistic sense of hope, and fostering an atmosphere of validation and affirmation.

Trauma-Sensitive Language

Using trauma-sensitive language is essential in creating a supportive atmosphere for clients. It involves using words and phrases that are respectful, validating, and empowering. Here are some examples of trauma-sensitive language:

• Instead of “What happened to you?” ask, “Can you tell me more about your experiences?”
• Instead of “You need to…”, offer choices by saying “It might be helpful to…”
• Instead of “Calm down,” validate the client’s emotions and seek to understand by asking, “What can I do to help you feel more comfortable?”
• Instead of “Are you sure?” validate their perspective with “I hear that you’re saying…is that right?”
• Instead of “You should have…” avoid judgment and blame by saying, “It sounds like that was a difficult situation.”

When interacting with clients, it’s crucial to:

• Stay calm, and speak softly and gently.
• Stay focused on the present.
• Get help if you need it.
• Offer reassurance: “I am here to help.” “It’s okay; take your time; there is no rush.”
• Be sensitive to triggers: “If anything I say brings up difficult feelings, please let me know. It’s ok to take a break if you need it.”
• Acknowledge the client’s resilience: “You’ve overcome so much already,” or “Your strength in facing these difficulties is commendable.”

Strengths-Based Language

Using strengths-based language focuses on the client’s abilities and resilience rather than their deficits. Examples of strengths-based language include:

• “I admire your courage in sharing your story with me.”
• “You have shown great determination in facing your challenges.”
• “Your ability to reflect on your experiences is a powerful tool for growth.”
• “Let’s identify your skills to help you navigate this situation.”
• “You have a unique perspective that can guide us in finding solutions.”

Trauma Champions

Forming an internal Champion Team is one of the most important ways to ensure the overall sustainability of trauma-informed culture change. Champions prioritize the trauma-informed lens in all areas of organizational functioning and assist in developing workforce learning around a trauma-informed approach.

By understanding and implementing these strategies and tools, nonclinical staff can create a more supportive and empowering environment for clients who have experienced trauma.