As human beings we do not like to feel things are out of our control. We like to feel prepared and make plans for the future. When we can’t do this, due to living and working through a crisis such as Covid-19, we may start to feel out of control, stressed, anxious or depressed. At FD Consultants we facilitate our trademark ‘Stress Management and Resilience Building’ half day workshop, where we refer to the ‘Locus of Control’ model; exploring ‘what do we have control over, and what do we not have control over’? We are forced to reduce our expectations and focus on the smaller achievements when living and working through a crisis. We need to learn ways to accept the things that we cannot control and invest our energy in the things that we can control. The three main characteristics of remaining resilient are; adaptability, finding meaning in adversity, and an acceptance of reality. The human race has shown how adaptable and creative it can be throughout this global pandemic; we have found ways to stay connected and create community remotely, we have improvised and adapted to new ways of working, and we have deeply appreciated our ‘key workers’ and all those that have shown ‘audacity’ and ‘kindness’ through these unprecedented times.
At FD Consultants we psychologically protect our ‘key workers’ and all the organisations that are on the frontline, often having to put themselves in harm’s way to support others. We have supported staff in the NHS, the humanitarian sector, emergency first responders, and mental health charities, who are at risk of experiencing burnout or trauma. We also support the staff that can be overlooked during a crisis, such as journalists, artificial intelligence and film industry personnel, researchers and data analysts reviewing traumatic material online, and fundraisers, who are all equally at risk of experiencing secondary trauma, often referred to as vicarious trauma. Our ‘Trauma and Vicarious Trauma Awareness’ workshop is currently in great demand, as organisations are becoming much more aware of this psychological health risk to staff. This was highlighted recently by a case made against Facebook, where staff sued the organisation for suffering Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) for being exposed to traumatic material via social media. At FD Consultants we support organisations managing critical incidents such as, pandemics, natural disasters, civil unrest, bullying & harassment, sexual violence, mental health crises, terrorist attacks and kidnapping & hostage taking. We have offered consultancy to organisations, when managing organisational change, with policy and procedure reviews, improving equal access to psychological services for all staff, researching mental health crisis pathways and investigating critical incident response. When FD Consultants are informed of a critical incident, information is presented to us in anxiety-fuelled chaotic chunks. We need to place all the pieces of the puzzle together to enable us to see the bigger picture. Depending on the nature of the incident this process can take hours, or even days, before we receive all the relevant information needed. We are skilled at transforming chaos into productive and supportive measures to protect individuals and the organisation. We are specialist in trauma care and understand the importance of the initial first stages of support and how crucial this is in someone’s recovery process. We advise and guide organisations in best practice psychological care for staff. Having worked in trauma for over 15 years, I believe that everyone can recover from traumatic events. I hold onto the light of hope when the individual may feel they are lost in the darkness. There is a wealth of research about ‘Post traumatic Growth’. I have seen this occur over and over again, working alongside individuals that have come through the most horrendous and painful experiences, whom become more resilient and use their experiences to help others. My own story is one of post traumatic growth, having come from experiencing developmental trauma in my childhood and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in my early twenties, to one of setting up FD Consultants a network of trauma specialist therapists wanting to support and help individuals and organisations that are impacted by traumatic events. I wanted to end by sharing some of the achievements FD Consultants has experienced over the last year. Our own story of Post Traumatic Growth and how we have grown and developed through this pandemic.
During a crisis we need to work even harder at building and maintaining the resources that keep us resilient. Most of us have had to reassess what these resources are as our options have become more limited due to lockdown and the guidelines to remain Covid safe. Every time I facilitate one of our workshops it reminds me to take care of myself, as this does not come naturally to us. Many neuroscientists believe we have a negative brain bias, and when we are stressed berating thoughts, such as ‘I am not good enough’, ‘I am not coping’, ‘I am a failure’ make a great deal of ‘noise’ in our heads. As with Post-Traumatic Growth the current challenges will enable us to grow and develop. Spend some time creating positive mantras or counterarguments for the negative statements that become a repetitive ‘noise’ in our heads, and remember to offer yourself many acts of kindness during this challenging time. Wishing you a gentle end to a very difficult year. Best wishes, Fiona For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly.
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Back in 2016 an article was published (101 Fundraising) regarding the mental wellbeing of professional fundraisers and how they can be exposed to vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue and burnout and yet even today very little support is given to staff in these roles.
It is widely recognised that those on the frontline of caring for others e.g. firefighters, aid workers, paramedics etc are at risk of developing mental health issues, potentially leading to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). There are also so many other roles that could be categorised as high risk due to the level of exposure to traumatic material, such as fundraisers, researchers, and front-of-office staff. While these roles are not on the frontline, pulling bodies from collapsed buildings, medically caring for someone who is severely injured, or supporting a survivor of sexual violence, their role is indeed to help. They are often exposed to listing to traumatic stories of supporters and donors. There is a great deal of research now to show the risk of being effected by traumatic material indirectly, known as vicarious trauma. At FD Consultants we make sure organisations do not overlook the corrosive impact of vicarious trauma, sometimes known as secondary trauma. Research states that by listening to stories of trauma, we can start to be impacted by trauma symptoms, especially if we are empathic or intuitive, as our mirror neurones start to fire in the same way as the person telling us the story. Listening to the media or reading traumatic material can impact us vicariously. We also offer a half-day ‘Trauma and Vicarious Trauma Workshop’. Staff that are identified in ‘high risk’ roles, possibly through the location or intensity of their work, or the risk of being exposed to traumatic material, whether directly or indirectly, would benefit from this workshop. There are many myths and misunderstanding about how to best treat individuals who are traumatised. There is also a great risk of re-traumatising someone, who is suffering from trauma symptoms, without the knowledge from this workshop. Therefore, this workshop is also helpful for managers supporting staff who may be suffering from PTSD or vicarious trauma. Peer support programmes train peers to offer early and good quality support which can prevent an individual’s vicarious trauma developing into post-traumatic stress disorder, or stress developing into burnout. If someone goes off work with stress-related issues they may be off work for a few days, if someone goes off work with burnout, they may be off work for weeks or even months and may never return to the workplace. Additionally, research shows that when an individual receives support early, they will recover quicker, therefore preventing long-term health problems. Please do contact us at [email protected] if you require our psychological support services. For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly. With the recent news that Facebook has agreed to pay £42m to content moderators as compensation for mental health issues developed on the job, it highlights the significant increase in staff being exposed to traumatic material via social media. In 2018, a group of US moderators hired by third-party companies to review content sued Facebook for failing to create a safe work environment. The moderators alleged that reviewing violent and graphic images - sometimes of rape and suicide - for the social network had led to them developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Untreated PTSD can cause permanent damage to the brain due to the person living in a hyper-aroused state. The effects of PTSD can cause someone to put him/herself in danger or even endanger others including his/her family members. Misdiagnosed or untreated PTSD is commonly associated with substance abuse. Drugs or alcohol can act as a coping mechanism, provide a temporary escape or chance to get away or relieve physical and psychological pain. The misuse of alcohol or drugs can lead to a number of other complications in a life already complicated by PTSD. Alcohol and drug use only serve as a temporary solution. Once the substance wears off, a person will be in the same position or a worse one than before. One of the most popular workshops we offer at FD Consultants is our trademark Trauma and Vicarious Trauma awareness workshop for individuals and organisations. The training enables individuals to identify trauma symptoms, triggers, and have resources to process traumatic material. As a preventative training it helps to build a healthy organisational culture, with wellbeing at its heart, ensuring staff are working in a psychologically safe and compassionate work environment. Managers also feel confident to recognise the risk of trauma and help or signpost staff to the most appropriate support. We have seen an increase in demand for these workshops from Journalists, IT Companies, Artificial Intelligence Organisations, Mental Health charities and the Humanitarian Sector where teams are identified as in ‘high risk roles’ likely to be exposed to traumatic material directly or indirectly. FD Consultants are trained in the recommended (WHO, APA and NICE) treatments of trauma and PTSD which are Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT). Please do contact us at [email protected] if you require our psychological support services. For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly. A recent study published by PLOS ONE and carried out by a number of esteemed psychologists has found that Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) appeared to be the most cost effective intervention for adults with PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe and disabling condition that may lead to functional impairment and reduced productivity. A considerable proportion of people exposed to trauma, around 5.6%, will develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [1]. For staff in the Humanitarian sector and emergency first responders research has suggested PTSD is as high as 30%. EMDR: how does it work? Francine Shapiro, PhD, Senior Research Fellow at the Mental Research Institute, Palo Alto, California and Executive Director of the EMDR Institute, California, is the ‘originator and developer’ of EMDR. Since then, EMDR has been adapted and reworked based on the research and contributions of therapists and researchers the world over. Initially used as a treatment with Vietnam veterans who weren’t recovering, it has since proven successful in treating various other presentations, including anxiety, phobias, addictions, depression, complicated grief, abuse and performance anxiety. The unique feature in EMDR therapy is that it uses bilateral stimulation (BLS) whilst processing the distressing memory. BLS can be conducted by following the therapist’s hand as it moves from left to right, watching a light bar, or tapping. The same can also be achieved through listening to alternating bilateral tones or holding buzzers. The BLS alleviates negative cognitions, negative emotion and unpleasant physical sensations associated with a traumatic or distressing memory. An important concept of EMDR is the ‘Adaptive Information Processing (AIP)’ theory. This means the client begins to reformulate and update dysfunctional self-beliefs and replaces them with positive self-reflecting beliefs. Therefore, EMDR promotes our innate healing process and reformats dysfunctional information to functional, so that it becomes adaptive information processing. ‘Just as the river flows to the sea and the body heals the wound, EMDR clears the trauma and brings integration and wholeness’ (Parnell, 2007, p. 6). In discussing EMDR, Professor Gordon Turnbull states: ‘Therapists and patients were reporting that problems that had been resistant to years of psychotherapy were being resolved in a very short amount of time – sometimes within a few sessions’ (Turnbull, 2011). In my experience of working within the field of trauma for over 15 years I have never witnessed such a powerful and successful way of working with traumatised and anxious clients: ‘EMDR works effectively and helps the client return to work quickly and safely after a traumatic event’ (Dunkley & Claridge, 2012). FD Consultants are trained in the recommended (WHO, APA and NICE) treatments of trauma and PTSD which are Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT). We have worked extensively with emergency first responders and aid workers globally to combat PTSD and vicarious trauma. All associates have over 10 years’ experience in the profession, are highly skilled, and qualified to meet the requirements to work for FD Consultants. We can offer appointments and training in various languages. Associates have experience of working with the humanitarian sector, emergency first responders and mental health charities. They have worked or lived internationally, facilitate training, and have trauma expertise; making them perfectly placed to support a broad cross-section of society and organisations. Please do contact us at [email protected] if you require our psychological support services. For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly. References 1. Koenen KC, Ratanatharathorn A, Ng L, McLaughlin KA, Bromet EJ, Stein DJ, et al. Posttraumatic stress disorder in the World Mental Health Surveys. Psychol Med. 2017; 47(13):2260–74. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291717000708 PMID: 28385165 Throughout July and August FD Consultants want to highlight the diverse expertise and professionalism amongst its associates. This week, the founder of FD Consultants, Fiona Dunkley, shares some of her background and expertise. FIONA DUNKLEY MBACP (Snr. Accred) UKRCP ESTSS EMDR is passionate about caring for the carers of our world and therefore founded FD Consultants which is a global psychological health consultancy. Fiona is a senior accredited BACP psychotherapist, trauma specialist, trainer, supervisor and mediator. Fiona has presented on television and radio as a trauma expert, has published several articles and has been asked to speak at various international conferences. Fiona is a published author, ‘Psychosocial Support for Humanitarian Aid Workers: A Roadmap of Trauma and Critical Incident Care’, published by Routledge (Dunkley, 2018). Fiona shares her experience of how FD Consultants originated. I began to see a thread of similar characteristics in the types of people that signed up for caring roles. These characteristics included being passionate, caring, and resilient, but also sacrificial and overlooking of their own self-care, over-working, and holding unhealthy boundaries. Although the tapestry created by weaving together these threads created a dynamic, vibrant, compassionate picture of humanity and hope, the underside showed a much darker, chaotic and disturbing picture with many loose ends ready to unravel from one crisis to the next. This underside resulted in staff experiencing burnout, anxiety, stress, and suffering from vicarious trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I started my counselling career in the National Health Service (NHS) working in a Forensic Sexual Assault unit, often supporting individuals subjected to human trafficking. At times, I worked night shifts, and once I received a call out, I had to arrive at the hospital within one hour. I witnessed dedicated medical staff suffering from burnout and worked alongside Police Officers experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It was also evident that people in these caring roles had not received sufficient training in the psychological impact of trauma. I witnessed this lack of training impacting not only the quality of treatment offered to survivors, but also the detrimental effect on the member of staff’s own mental health and wellbeing. This reminded me of the time, in my early twenties, when I was knocked unconscious whilst I had gone to the aid of someone else being attacked. I gained consciousness in the ambulance and as I was asked my name by the paramedics, I realised I had no idea who I was. How strange not to be able to answer that question. As I arrived in the hospital the suspected diagnosis was concussion and a fractured skull. As I was rushed through the Emergency and Accident unit, in hindsight, I can identify that the medical staff taking care of me at the time could also have benefited from further training in the impact of psychological trauma. The medical model mainly being focused on recovery from the physical impact of trauma. The nurse preparing me for x-ray became annoyed with me as I couldn’t stop shaking, stating, “you need to keep still for the x-ray to work”. Other members of staff came to hunt me out and whispered behind their hands, “she is the one who went to help someone else being attacked”. No one explained I would be projectile vomiting throughout the night, have lights shone in my eyes every hour, and not be able to move my jaw up and down. On discharge from the hospital, I received no signposting to psychological services or explanation of the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. As a psychotherapist specialising in trauma, I now know how crucial it is for someone’s recovery that they are supported during those first few days after a traumatic event. At FD Consultants we advise and train staff in how to offer psychological first aid to colleagues directly after a critical incident. We offer guidance to managers to reduce the risk of re-traumatising their staff and how to support someone back into the workplace. We offer training to leadership teams in crisis management and implementing best practice evidence-based trauma management and wellbeing programmes into an organisation. After working four years in the NHS, I joined Transport for London (TfL) as the lead counsellor of an inhouse trauma and counselling service. I had arrived soon after the 7/7 London bombings. The counselling team had been successful in supporting staff back to work, but who had taken care of the counselling team? Over the next year, the majority of the counselling team left; suffering symptoms of compassion fatigue, burnout or vicarious trauma. Several years later, I joined InterHealth Worldwide supporting numerous International NGOs. Having worked in the public and private sector, I was shocked to find that when I joined the charity sector, the lowest value was placed on staffs’ wellbeing. Organisations can involuntarily take advantage of the good nature of staff, who often describe their jobs as more than a job, a calling, or a way of life, by dictating unmanageable workloads or exposure to deployments without appropriate risk assessments. I setup InterHealth Worldwide’s trauma service supporting organisations through a crisis response. I noticed the ripple effect of trauma, from those directly impacted in the field, to those indirectly impacted in the office such as staff taking the call. I created support procedures and policies to provide safety and containment for all staff impacted, whether directly or indirectly. I collated data from each incident we supported and found that the risk of traumatic exposure to aid workers was increasing, including sexual violence and kidnapping and hostage taking. Only a couple of days ago, I posted an article entitled “Jidadists in northeast Nigeria execute five abducted humanitarian workers”. I have supported individuals who were impacted by the 7/7 bombings, Earthquake in Nepal, Ebola response, Syrian civil war, Search and Rescue refugee crisis, Westminster terrorist attack, London Bridge terrorist attack, Brussel bombings, anti-government protests in Istanbul, Juba attacks on aid workers, the Grenfell Tower fire, and Covid-19, to name a few. At FD Consultants we also offer support to organisations going through restructuring, bullying and harassment cases, death of staff, and conflicts within teams. Having worked in large organisations witnessing staffs’ mental health deteriorating due to the nature of their work, I wanted to create a high-quality specialist trauma service to support individuals to recover quickly. I became more and more frustrated with the quality of care offered and the lack of understanding in what is good quality trauma care. FD Consultants help guide organisations in how to support their staffs’ mental health, reducing risk of further damage, resulting in longer-term health issues and long-term sick leave. From my personal experience of suffering with PTSD, to working with thousands of individuals impacted by trauma, I am passionate about making sure people get access to high quality evidence-based trauma care. I strongly believe everyone can recover from stress, anxiety, burnout, vicarious trauma and PTSD with the appropriate help and support. Please do contact us at [email protected] if you require our psychological support services. For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly. |
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