Trauma-Informed Buzzword Requires Understanding

As the details of the Mass Casualty Commission are reported, I have read repeated reference to the term trauma-informed.

What does trauma-informed really mean? How, exactly, are trauma-informed principles influencing this process?

The fact that this term is used repeatedly without description or definition, suggests that it is being treated as a buzzword. If we don’t take time to consider what it means, then we are at risk of making some significant assumptions.

I discovered similar assumptions when I was the Coordinator for our region’s Provincial Sexual Violence Project. This provincially funded initiative was created in response to the public outrage expressed following the death of Rehtaeh Parsons. In addition to coordinating my region’s project, I was also appointed to the Provincial Sexual Violence Public Awareness Committee.

I was considered a suitable candidate for these positions, in part, because of my experience and training in the field of trauma recovery. I have recovered from PTSD myself, and through that personal work I learned about the resources offered in my community. I am a trained Peer Counselor and Trainer, taught by Survivors of Abuse Recovering (SOAR). In addition, I have studied Somatic Experiencing®, the professional trauma recovery method founded by Dr. Peter Levine, an expert and pioneer in the field of trauma.

I am the CEO and Lead Trainer at Priority Kids, a training and advocacy company with a mission to eradicate childhood sexual abuse.

My experiences, training, and the work I do has given me the capacity to identify and assess if something is trauma-informed and if someone is operating with a trauma-informed lens.

I’d like to offer a description of trauma and trauma-informed.

Trauma is not defined by the event or situation. Something that is horrific is not necessarily traumatizing. Trauma refers to the physiological response or reaction that a person has to the event.

I’m talking about the nervous system response. When a person is startled or threatened, the nervous system engages. We hear people say, ‘fight, flight, or freeze (and sometimes negotiate)’. These reactions occur when our body engages the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Anyone remember high school biology?

The sympathetic nervous system does things like, dilate pupils, increase blood pressure, increase heart rate and blood flow, in preparation for responding to danger. The parasympathetic nervous system engages to bring the body back to homeostasis, returning our physiological processes to normal.

When our body can react and then recover, that is resilience.

If our sympathetic nervous system engages at times when we don’t think it is useful, and/or our parasympathetic nervous system doesn’t engage to bring us back to normal…or it is ‘on’ when it isn’t ideal, that is when we know that the person is experiencing trauma.

Trauma is what happens when the body’s natural ability to respond and recover becomes impaired.

It doesn’t matter what caused it. One person could be in a situation that would terrify another person, but they may not experience trauma. Another person could be in a situation that other people think is ‘not a big deal’, but the person might experience trauma.

Understanding that trauma is in a person’s physiological response is part of being trauma-informed.

Another important aspect of trauma-informed is that we must recognize that most people carry trauma. The commissioners, the lawyers, the RCMP, the families impacted, and those of us hearing the details. Most of us are influenced by trauma.

How does understanding trauma, and knowing that it influences most people, help us operate in a trauma-informed manner?

People will have different ways of understanding and explaining trauma-informed. In my experience, it can be understood with one word. Safety.

Humans operate optimally when we are experiencing the felt sense of safety. In other words, our ‘fight, flight, freeze, and negotiate’ systems are not engaged. This is when we thrive. This is when we experience healthy interpersonal connections, health and wellbeing. This is when we have the greatest access to the part of our brain we use for thinking, planning, memory, and judgment.

When a person is triggered, their threat response kicks in and it becomes difficult to access thinking, memory, and problem solving, among many other challenges.

To be trauma-informed, the primary focus must be on creating safety. The other important principles that help create safety are choice, collaboration, trustworthiness, and empowerment. These principles are not trauma-informed when they are used as buzzwords. They must be used meaningfully to create a sense of safety.

If you want to know the details of an event, and the person feels triggered or unsafe, you will never get the best information from that person.

The best way to get the highest quality information, is to make safety the primary goal.

The challenge is that we are all different. What is safe for me, might not be safe for someone else. Some people find that it feels unsafe to even talk about trauma. Some people feel that it is unsafe to avoid talking about trauma.

We are all different. Trauma-informed means that each person’s sense of safety is respected. This requires creativity and ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking.

This is what I am listening for when I hear key players in the Mass Casualty Commission using the terms trauma and trauma-informed.

I am listening for evidence that choice, collaboration, trustworthiness, and empowerment are being utilized to create a sense of safety for those who have information to contribute.

When safety is the priority, the Commission can collect the highest quality information, and the process can contribute to healing and recovery for those involved.

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