Traumatic Experiences Community Check-In Wednesday-Thursday 26-27 August 2020

Good morning everyone! The topic for this check-in is processing trauma and the part resiliency plays in doing so. Before we get into the central topic we will first understand both types of trauma and each one's effects. The first type we will discuss is t trauma. This would be an event such as being dumped in a relationship/divorced, losing one's job. The second type we will discuss briefly is T trauma. T trauma results from an event, a series of events, or a set of circumstances experienced by a person which were physically and emotionally threatening. These will ultimately overcome the person's coping mechanisms. For trauma to be classified as T trauma the person would have to have experienced a threat and be unable to cope with said threat. Since we perceive threats subjectively based upon a combination of our personality traits, genetics, social environment, and previous experiences the causes of trauma tend to vary drastically.

Many people will experience trauma within their lifetime. Most will develop resilient behaviors naturally to help them overcome the t traumas on their own. Sometimes we forget the importance of processing trauma as it might become second nature in cases of small t trauma. The issues here is the majority of T trauma victims will show a combination of behavioral, cognitive, developmental, emotional, physical, and social reactions which will hinder their overall wellbeing and future development.

One of the most important traits to develop and improve which will help us work through any experienced trauma is resiliency. Resiliency is the capacity to cope, adapt, and maintain psychological and physical performance following a traumatic event. When it comes to exposure to significant adversity, resilience is both the capacity of individuals to navigate their way to the psychological, social, cultural, and physical resources that sustain their well-being, and their capacity individually and collectively to negotiate for these resources to be provided in culturally meaningful ways.

Challenge – Resilient people view a difficulty as a challenge, not as a paralyzing event. They look at their failures and mistakes as lessons to be learned from, and as opportunities for growth. They don't view them as a negative reflection on their abilities or self-worth.

Commitment – Resilient people are committed to their lives and their goals, and they have a compelling reason to get out of bed in the morning. Commitment isn't just restricted to their work – they commit to their relationships, their friendships, the causes they care about, and their religious or spiritual beliefs.

Personal Control – Resilient people spend their time and energy focusing on situations and events that they have control over. Because they put their efforts where they can have the most impact, they feel empowered and confident. Those who spend time worrying about uncontrollable events can often feel lost, helpless, and powerless to take action.

Permanence – People who are optimistic (and therefore have more resilience) see the effects of bad events as temporary rather than permanent. For instance, they might say "My boss didn't like the work I did on that project" rather than "My boss never likes my work."

Pervasiveness – Resilient people don't let setbacks or bad events affect other unrelated areas of their lives. For instance, they would say "I'm not very good at this" rather than "I'm no good at anything."

Personalization – People who have resilience don't blame themselves when bad events occur. Instead, they see other people, or the circumstances, as the cause. For instance, they might say "I didn't get the support I needed to finish that project successfully," rather than "I messed that project up because I can't do my job."

Below are various ways to improve ones resiliency:

1. Work on getting enough sleep and exercise, and learn to manage stress. When we take care of our mind and body, we are better able to cope effectively with challenges in your life.

2. Practice thought awareness. Resilient people don't let negative thoughts derail their efforts. Instead, they consistently practice positive thinking. Listening to how we talk to ourselves when something goes wrong like if we find ourselves making statements which are permanent, pervasive or personalized, we should try to correct these thoughts in our mind.

3. Practice Cognitive Restructuring to change the way that you think about negative situations and bad events.

4. Learn from our mistakes and failures. Every mistake has the power to teach us something important; so we must not stop searching until we have found the lesson in every situation. Also, making sure that we understand the idea of post-traumatic growth.

5. Choose your response. Remember, we all experience bad days and we all go through our share of crises. But we have a choice in how we respond; we can choose to react negatively or in a panic, or we can choose to remain calm and logical to find a solution. Our reaction is always up to us.

6. Maintain perspective. Resilient people understand that, although a situation or crisis may seem overwhelming in the moment, it may not make that much of an impact over the long-term. Try to avoid blowing events out of proportion.

7. If we don't already, we should learn to set smart, effective personal goals. It's incredibly important to set and achieve goals that match our values, and to learn from our experiences.

8. Build our self confidence. Remember, resilient people are confident that they are going to succeed eventually despite the setbacks or stresses that they might be facing. This belief in themselves also enables them to take risks. When we develop confidence and a strong sense of self, we have the strength to keep moving forward, and to take the risks we need to get ahead.

9. Focus on being flexible. Resilient people understand that things change, and that carefully-made plans may, occasionally, need to be amended or scrapped.

Now resiliency is something we can all work to improve but ultimately there are professionals who specialize in providing therapy to help us process and overcome our trauma. Below are a few forms of treatment which are available. Each one is structured differently as causes and effects of trauma can vary so drastically. One treatment may be ideal for one individual proving to be detrimental to another. So it could be beneficial to look further into each of these forms of treatment and see if any of them seem appealing.

Trauma Informed Care (TIC) is an organizational structure and treatment framework that involves understanding, recognizing, and responding to the effects of all types of trauma. TIC emphasizes physical, psychological and emotional safety for both consumers and providers, and helps survivors rebuild a sense of control and empowerment. By laying a foundation of safety and support, a therapist can then use a combination of widely accepted, effective therapy techniques that are commonly used to help in processing trauma, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, EMDR Therapy, and Seeking Safety group therapy. By focusing on prevention strategies to avoid retraumatization in treatment, to promote resilience, and to prevent the development of trauma-related disorders, the extensive research into the most effective TIC techniques stems from the importance of processing trauma.

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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a talk therapy that revolves around teaching individuals to become more aware of their thoughts and beliefs. Trauma-focused CBT (TFCBT) is specifically formulated to address thoughts associated with a traumatic experience and works to give trauma survivors the skills to help them react to emotional triggers in a healthier way. TFCBT has been consistently proven effective at meeting the needs of people who have faced trauma.

EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy, is an integrative psychotherapy approach that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma, anxiety, panic disorders, disturbing memories, post traumatic stress, and many other emotional problems. ​It assumes that the mind is constantly moving toward mental health unless something blocks that flow. The goal of EMDR is to remove blockages, (often caused by traumatic experiences) allowing the individual to resume healthy development.

Before I end this check in I will be asking three optional questions.

1. How are you feeling?

2. On a scale of 1-10, how resilient would you consider yourself to be currently?

3. What is one self care activity you have done or plan to do today?

As always I do hope you all have a greater today than yesterday, in hopes of a better and brighter tomorrow!!!

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