At FD Consultants we specialise in supporting anyone who has been impacted by trauma through work or personal circumstances, whether directly or indirectly. If you work as an emergency first responder, for a mental health charity, or in the humanitarian sector then becoming trauma informed is crucial. To become trauma informed is also vital for lawyers, teachers, medical personnel, therapists, and anyone who works in a caring role and is supporting individuals who may be traumatised. Whether you have personally been impacted by a traumatic event or you are supporting a loved one through trauma, we need to increase our knowledge of the impact of trauma. We need to be able to recognise the signs of trauma, identify distressing triggers, understand the physiology and neuroscience of trauma, and be confident in having tools to support someone who is traumatised. We need to understand the ‘Many Faces of Trauma’, such as, developmental trauma, vicarious trauma, delayed trauma, inter-generational trauma, traumatic grief, PTSD and C-PTSD. At FD Consultants we have had many tech companies reaching out to us for support over the last year. The high-profile case where staff sued Facebook for suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), after viewing traumatic material online, has thrown into the limelight the impact of Vicarious trauma. Vicarious trauma, also sometimes referred to as secondary trauma, is the indirect impact of trauma, such as researching traumatic material, listening to stories, interviewing those who have been impacted by trauma, or exposure to traumatic material online. Does you work expose you to traumatic material? Are you experiencing trauma symptoms? Have you been personally impacted by a traumatic event? Do you want to help others who have been injured by the psychological impact of trauma? Do you want to become trauma informed? If you answer ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then sign up for our half day ‘Many Faces of Trauma’ workshops. We are offering three more dates this year: Thursday 7th October, Friday 19th Nov, Tuesday 14th Dec 2021 To book your place on one of the courses please click here: https://rebrand.ly/TraumaWorkshop “I have suffered from PTSD and this course has provided me with the tools and knowledge that I have been desperately in need of to support myself better.” We can also organise half day ‘Trauma Awareness’ workshops for organisation. If you feel your team or organisation would benefit from this workshop, then email us directly on: [email protected]. “This course is so interesting, and I now understand trauma so much more and feel confident in supporting traumatised individuals.”
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Training is an important factor in preparing and protecting staff and individuals when working in high stress environments. FD Consultants offers many training programmes, as shown below, and we can create bespoke training programmes as required.
Trauma Information Sheets
FD Consultants Individual support At FD Consultants we can help individuals recover from PTSD, vicarious trauma, stress, anxiety, depression and burnout. We are a network of accredited therapists. Organisational support For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the 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. Throughout July FD Consultants want to highlight the diverse expertise and professionalism amongst its associates. Claire Pooley is a senior BACP accredited psychotherapist with 30 years’ experience. She is a trained Traumatologist, Accredited EMDR practitioner, Supervisor and Trainer. Below Claire writes about her recent work, and her experience as an associate for FD Consultants. My training in the 80’s as a Mental Health Nurse lacked any consideration for a Psychologically Informed Environment. The structure of the day was centred on the needs of the multi-disciplinary team – ‘we know best’. We were the ‘well’ and the patients were the ‘unwell’. The separateness was enshrouded in keeping our professional boundaries. Our own personal welfare was also a non-concern of the hospital and I didn’t meet an Occupational Health team even at the beginning of my nursing, at the early and naïve age of just 17. We gave little attention to the patient’s possible experiences of trauma and yet, on reflection, I have little doubt that most of the patients I cared for would have experienced, or were experiencing, some form of trauma. We also didn’t spend any time on how the impact of the patient’s lives would have on our own. We used a “sic” sense of humour to laugh off any difficulties and would not dare to share any personal vulnerabilities. I currently facilitate workshops within a large Homeless/Housing project who have not only embraced the Psychologically Informed Environment (PIE) approach but they have rolled out compulsory courses to ensure Trauma Informed Care (TIC), Reflective Practise and staff welfare are a high priority in the workplace. I find this organisation a breath of fresh air. At the beginning of each training day, I ask the attendees about their understanding of PIE and TIC and sit back and watch the energy and enthusiasm emanate in the room. It is not just a whim or a paper exercise, they believe in it and, at its best, it truly works for them. At worst, particularly for some of the lone workers, it would appear that more needs to be done to provide appropriate staff support. This is a work in progress. So what do we understand by these two concepts? Psychologically Informed Environment (PIE) recognises the gaps in services, particularly for those with complex and interrelated issues and provide the non-clinically trained staff responses for an appropriate and improved support provision. The approach ensures a service develops:
Trauma Informed Care (TIC) is an approach which can be adopted by organisations to improve awareness of trauma and its impact and ensure their service provision offers effective support and prevents the possibility of re-traumatisation of those using or providing the services. Those using the approach:
Researchers have found that those using the TIC approach within organisations have better informed staff on Trauma awareness, they provide more of an emphasis on emotional and physical safety, they promote opportunities to rebuild control and provide a ‘strengths-based approach – helping to support and identify strengths and coping mechanisms. A superb example was shared by a trainee recently on one of the courses where she was struggling to remain client-centred whilst working with someone who “poisoned every act of kindness”. She was left feeling angry and was struggling to cut off at the end of her working day and felt a strong resistance to returning to work the following day. She was able to approach her team manager who called a ‘Reflections Meeting’, where staff were encouraged to talk about the feelings of “when things get tough at work”. She was able to share her experience and realise she was not alone and between them, found each other’s strengths and abilities to address the situation. She spoke of moving from “anger to compassion to healing” through the process and describes a collective sense of supportiveness and holding. During my work with FD Consultants, I have witnessed these approaches within some of the Humanitarian teams whilst providing preventative and trauma-focussed therapies to their staff. I have heard individuals who have felt held and supported through some very isolating and stressful traumas and have witnessed a non-judgemental and holding within their team, HR and management. Thus strengthening the resourcefulness of the individual and the team. They know they can speak out and raise difficult issues and believe they can be supported to carry out their goals. A safer place to work. Recognising the Covid-19 Crisis as another traumatic event in so many ways, I have been working with Fiona to roll-out a programme of trainings to help staff and managers work through their issues, from stress management through to a Crisis Management approach. I have also returned to the NHS to provide my local hospital staff with a programme of group therapies (GTEP RISC), which helps the staff to process some of their experiences and the effects that Covid-19 has had on them. Both are forms of Trauma Informed Care. For those who have not adopted this approach, I highly recommend it. Fiona Dunkley’s book, recently re-launched in a paperback form, “Psychosocial Support for Humanitarian Aid Workers: A Roadmap of Trauma and Critical Incident Care” (Dunkley, 2018) highlights the TIC approach and the need for proactive prevention and staff resilience. 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:
The image of an elephant, in its original habitat, roaming through the Kruger Park, South Africa, is imprinted on my mind today; watching the magnificent stillness, at sunset and sunrise, as the red blanket radiates over the landscape. I have also witnessed elephants in India during festival times, although equally magnificent creatures, this was a harder observation, as the elephants had large chains around their ankles and had become subdued to the loud bangs of celebration all around them. In Hinduism, Ganesha, one of the most worshipped Gods, is easily recognised by his elephant’s head. Ganesha is characterised as the remover of obstacles. The large elephant headed deity, removing that which is negative in its path.
When we are impacted by trauma, we may feel chained, restricted, fragmented, subdued, and penned in by unmoveable obstacles. There is a great deal of research now that shows when we recover from trauma, we can experience post traumatic growth. My book “Psychosocial Support for Humanitarian Aid Workers: A Roadmap of Trauma and Critical Incident Care” (Dunkley, 2018), is full of case studies of aid workers who have suffered acute stress, burnout or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The last chapter focuses on each and every one of these stories and describes a process of ‘post traumatic growth’, where many of these individuals have gone on to use their experiences to help others. My own story of post traumatic growth is described in my book, and perhaps is the main reason my work specialises in trauma care. I am able to sit in the most uncomfortable places and hold hope that each individual will recover. I strongly believe everyone can recover from trauma with specialist support. Unfortunately, there are many therapists that state they work with trauma, but are not specialists. Someone’s recovery of maybe six sessions, develops into years of talking therapy. Many of our associates at FD Consultants offer EMDR and TF-CBT trauma therapy (as recommended by WHO, APA and NICE). At FD Consultants we 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. It is a more in-depth look at the neuroscience of trauma, physiology, symptoms and building resources, than our stress management 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 trauma or vicarious trauma, and staff who have been impacted by a critical incident. Over the last few years at FD Consultants we have supported staff who have experienced sexual violence, hostage and kidnapping, civil unrest, assault, bullying and harassment, road traffic accidents, natural disasters, death of colleagues through accident or suicide, and the impact of organisational restructuring. We have supported organisations’ whose staff have been impacted by the Ethiopian plane crash, conflict in Yemen and Syria, earthquakes in Indonesia, Australian bush fires, floods in India, the Persian Gulf crisis, further Ebola outbreaks, and the Myanmar Rohingya refugee crisis. But not only do we, as FD Consultants, recognise the direct impact of trauma, we also 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. Organisations do not necessarily know what lies in someone’s past and whether they may have a deep-rooted trauma that can be triggered by the work they do. We have carried out psychological debriefings for staff who completed research on human rights issues, such as torture, false imprisonment, sexual violence or suicide. We support researchers, journalists, and legal staff. We have also helped frontline staff, such as reception staff, who may experience direct threat in the office, or indirect threat through social media or email. For one large international NGO (non-governmental organisation), we have started facilitating ‘threat communication’ workshops alongside security consultants, as we are finding this type of issue increasing. If you want to find out more about our workshops, please email [email protected]. If you are working in an environment where there is risk of being exposed to traumatic material, or you are managing staff that are at risk, please become trauma informed. Fiona Dunkley (Founder of FD Consultants) 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. We’ve come a long way in our understanding of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). From the early designation of “shell shock” for military veterans to transforming the label of “hysteria” to PTSD for survivors of rape, we know that trauma can have lasting physical and emotional effects on those who experience it. However, often we default to discussing only soldiers and victims of sexual violence when we talk about PTSD. These experiences are certainly among the leading causes, yet they aren’t the only type of trauma that result in PTSD. Let’s expand on how trauma of any kind changes us and how that impacts the way we think about PTSD. Looking at Big ‘T’ Trauma Trauma is generally categorised by what experts call big ‘T’ trauma or little ‘t’ trauma. Officially, PTSD diagnoses result after big ‘T’ trauma, events that anyone would consider extremely distressing. Combat and sexual violence certainly qualify, but so do major car accidents, plane crashes, and living through natural disasters. Following Hurricane Sandy in 2012, for example, a study that screened residents along the New Jersey coast found that 14.5 percent of adults were likely suffering from PTSD six months after the hurricane hit. Add to the list school shootings, terrorist attacks, residing in war zones; relational violence like domestic abuse, physical abuse, and emotional abuse; to the violence of incarceration and crime — PTSD-causing big ‘T’ trauma casts a wide net. Witnessing Trauma PTSD can also be caused by witnessing trauma happening to others or learning a loved one has experienced a traumatic event. According to a World Health Organisation survey of citizens in 21 countries, 10 percent of respondents reported witnessing violence (21.8 percent; the largest response in the survey) and trauma to a loved one (12.5 percent). Big ‘T’ Versus Little ‘t’ Trauma The causes above cover what the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders specifies in diagnosing PTSD: “Exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence” and witnessing “the event(s) as it occurred to others.” As researchers delve deeper into PTSD, they are finding that these qualifications may be limiting. We talked about big ‘T’ trauma, but there’s also that little ‘t’ trauma. Little ‘t’ traumas are classified as stressful events that happen to all of us at one point or another. Think more “personal” stressors, like job changes, messy breakups, unplanned major expenses, and the loss of a loved one. These instances, which seriously challenge our ability to cope, have traditionally been left out of the conversation about PTSD. “One of the most overlooked aspects of small ‘t’ traumas is their accumulated effect,” writes psychologist Elyssa Barbash in Psychology Today. “While one small ‘t’ trauma is unlikely to lead to significant distress, multiple compounded small ‘t’ traumas, particularly in a short span of time, are more likely to lead to an increase in distress and trouble with emotional functioning.” Expanding How We Approach PTSD Barbash stops short of saying that a collection of small ‘t’ traumas can cause PTSD but admits “it is possible that a person can develop some trauma response symptoms.” Psychotherapist Sara Staggs offers a similar perspective in her blog for Psych Central, pointing out that PTSD and stress reactions following trauma are tied not so much to the event itself but to the way our brain processes the information. “Then there is any other type of event which exceeds our capacity to cope, and can be stored as trauma,” Staggs said. “To some degree, it doesn’t matter what propels us into fight-flight-freeze mode, but only that the event was experienced and then stored that way.” How the Brain Stores Traumatic Memories We know that the brain stores traumatic memories differently than regular ones. These memories are so overwhelming our brain doesn’t process them completely the first time around. It can be described as the difference between putting your canned goods neatly away on the shelf versus shoving everything in a cabinet and slamming the door shut in a hurry. The latter is how the brain might handle traumatic information, which can lead to the tell-tale symptoms of PTSD: flashbacks and nightmares, isolation, dissociation, emotional detachment, heightened anxiety, and avoidance of trauma reminders, among other symptoms. What We Know About PTSD’s Development Additional research suggests there are many factors at play that determine who develops PTSD, since only an estimated 3.6 percent of the global population lives with PTSD in any given year. Not all of us who experience trauma will develop PTSD, even if we’ve lived through or witnessed the same exact experience. For example, we’re more susceptible when we’ve had a major trauma in the past. There may be a genetic predisposition to PTSD. Having limited social support following a stressful event also increases our risk for PTSD, as does experiencing multiple traumas at the same time. In time, how trauma is defined when diagnosing PTSD may change to incorporate a growing understanding of how we’re impacted by traumas large and small. Seeking Help for PTSD By expanding how we look at PTSD beyond just veterans and rape survivors, we can raise awareness that there are many traumatic experiences that can lead to PTSD. And when we do that, we reduce the stigma of reaching out for help when we need it. If you, or you know someone, who is struggling with PTSD of the after affects of a traumatic experience please do get in touch with us today. We are here to support you. |
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