-CCWB Learning Hub: Talking About Trauma with Co-Workers

This module helps you connect with coworkers who have experienced trauma personally or vicariously. By being a supportive coworker, you can build a trauma-informed culture in your workplace. The materials in this module include a series of daily practices that you and your coworkers can incorporate into your lives.

The Four R’s of Trauma-Informed Care

• Realize: How trauma affects families, groups, individuals, and communities. Trauma can be past, present, or vicarious.

• Recognize: The signs of trauma. ‘Dysfunctional’ behaviors may be a sign of trauma.

• Respond: Individual, organizational, or system-wide responses to trauma are possible. Understand that trauma impacts everyone in an organization.

• Resist Re-Traumatizing: Procedures and policies can trigger post-traumatic responses. Think critically and seek feedback on what works or doesn’t work for clients and coworkers.

Vicarious Trauma

You and your coworkers may be exposed to trauma vicariously through interactions with clients and with each other.

Vicarious trauma is the transformation that occurs in the inner experience of the therapist (or worker) that comes about as a result of empathic engagement with clients’ trauma material.

This can be a more intense experience than burnout (emotional exhaustion, cynicism, reduced feelings of accomplishment) or compassion fatigue (pronounced change in a helper’s ability to feel empathy”).

In a small group (2-3) of coworkers, take a few moments to respond to the following prompts:

1. What challenges or frustrations do you/the team encounter when working with clients and families?

2. What are the issues regularly experienced by clients that might be related to the challenges you listed above?

3. How might these issues and challenges influence day-to-day interactions with coworkers and other clients?

Practicing Mindfulness

By increasing mindfulness and being aware of other people’s experiences, we can build trust and help each other work through exposures to trauma.

Review the six panels to complete this module: