I mentioned the possible effects of trauma on teams briefly in the Sub-Chapter on Trauma and I will expand on it here.
A lot of research shows (and I know from my own experience) that groups of workers who have a lot of exposure to people who experience trauma are also likely to experience trauma. Sometimes this is called secondary trauma; or secondary traumatic stress, or vicarious trauma, or it may have other labels. I thought for a while what to call it in this website.
To make it simple I will call it secondary trauma, the primary trauma being that which the person in distress feels as described above, and vicarious trauma being that what is experienced by someone who, for example, comes across a tragic accident. I stress that these terms can be interchangeable and I am just using the term secondary trauma because it fits pretty well with my intuitive understanding of it.
If trauma seeps into individuals we can conclude from different studies that it will also seep into the team as a whole. Now this is nothing to be surprised about – it is a perfectly normal systemic process.
Just like the norms and practices of an extended family seep, (usually unnoticed – more high impact–low noticeability stuff) into different members of the families so the traits of people with whom we journey with will find their way into our team.
Of course, we could avoid this by choosing to work in an organisation that is very good at putting up emotional (or physical) barriers so that our work will not involve journeying. But if we have ambition to be present to people’s distress, and accompany them on their path to recovery this will not be the way we will want to work.
So, inevitably, we will expose ourselves to trauma.
For the purposes of our discussion secondary trauma can be described as the discomfort, distress or anxiety which we experience when, in our life or work, we are in continual contact with people who have experienced deep distress and suffering, and are seemingly helpless, isolated or excluded.
(It is important to note that what I am describing here is slightly different to compassion fatigue which is more about us becoming exhausted from reaching out again and again to help vulnerable, helpless and powerless people. After some time recovering, our tiredness or fatigue will abate and our natural compassion will emerge again and we can get back to work).
Secondary trauma however actually causes changes in both our physiological (body) and psychological (mind) make up as we listen to the stories of, and maybe even share the suffering of others. It can affect us both personally and professionally as we allow others’ suffering penetrate a little through our protective layer that I already described.
Modern research, both reductionist (neuroscience) and holistic (experiential) suggest that trauma is stored in the body, and the body tells the story which is not as yet in conscious awareness.
There is an analogy here with sports. All sports coaches are aware of the importance of listening to the body in respect of healing minor injuries or illnesses when training or playing competitively. Even though sportspeople’s own ambition will always tempt them to do further training, coaches will instruct them to reduce the training intensity until the minor injury or illness passes – to maintain freshness and/or avoid more serious injury or illness. That is, not let the head (their thinking) fool the body.
In trauma it is similar, the reasons for the destructive behaviour, addiction etc. are contained in the body and healing involves listening to the body attentively.
As practitioners who chose to work in this way, we are willing to allow the suffering impact on us because we care, we have empathy, and we take on the responsibility to bring about positive changes in people’s lives. We are part of the process – see Secondly – middle of this post..
And we may be carrying trauma in our bodies too!
We can (and often do) experience re-triggering of this trauma, which can have the same effect as primary trauma, e.g. difficulties in identifying essentials in situations, alterations to memory, or reduction in our level of self-regard, esteem or confidence. This can, in turn, spark a range of other reactions, e.g. suspicion of others’ motivations, change in our assumptions about safety of ourselves or our loved ones in the world, whether human nature is good or evil and even the meaning of life.
Sometimes we may actually have come into this work by working through our own trauma, and our old patterns re-emerge in our work – the fractals we will be describing in a later Chapter.
These patterns may include thoughts on what we do or do not deserve, whether we attend to or neglect our own needs, or defaulting to macho type values when under pressure etc. etc.
Perhaps we have come into this work to find meaning or purpose to our lives, but when we encounter the realities of the lives of families in our Focus Group the purpose and meaning does not seem that important anymore. In addition to (healthy) empathy we may identify too much with loss or pain, and we may not be accustomed to self-care.
Or perhaps the trauma bond may be influential in attracting us to a job journeying with angry, fearful and traumatised people in the first place.
But, with good training and supervision, the wisdom and strengths that we have accumulated on our journey can be powerful starting points in healing and ensuring that our work is enriching, bringing positive changes to those with whom we have the privilege to share our journey.