How to tell stories without harming others (or yourself)
This week, I ran my first workshops for journalists and communications professionals on trauma-informed practice. Here’s why.
In a world where the frequency and intensity of emergency and disaster events seems to be increasing, driven through climate change as well as other influences, it’s likely that we will come into contact with trauma stories more often. Trauma-informed practice for individuals professionals and the organisations they work in is more important than ever.
Throughout my career as a psychologist - which I ended in April after 35 years - I was drawn towards public mental health. In a disaster context, this isn't working with the 10-15% of people who may need interventions like therapy or medication-focused support after going through a crisis or disaster. Rather, I focused on supporting the majority of people who will get through okay, so long as their basis needs are met. That’s not to say they won’t have periods of distress, sometimes extreme. But after a few days or weeks, things tend to settle down for most people. Things may not go back to normal, but they are manageable.
And I've encouraged people to look beyond the initial impact of any disaster, and to look more at the secondary impacts, such as the insurance quagmire that many who went through the Canterbury Earthquakes got stuck in. And it looks like something similar may play out after the flooding events earlier this year in New Zealand. This lens is the “problems of living” lens. This means that we don't necessarily pour resources solely into mental health supports, but also focus on fixing this problems of living, like having enough money, solving insurance red-tape, and infrastructure and business support that addresses problems of living, and helps to reduce downstream mental health impacts.
But there's no doubt that for many, going through a crisis or disaster is disturbing, especially in the acute phase. But what has become clear is that some of these effects are lingering, and perhaps even get worse as the impacts start to accumulate and spread into what life might look like in the future.
This is why I think it's important to recognise the types of disturbance and trauma reaction you might come across if you are supporting those affected by disaster, or in a role where you hear and craft stories about them.
As journalists and communication professionals, how do you leave people in a better space when trying to document what happened, to craft stories about the lives of your interviewees, their community, and the places they live in?
This is where my interest lies now.
It's this process of communication I have focused on in more recent years. That's why I worked with the COVID-19 campaign, right from the very beginning, helping them to understand that the twin poles of structure and empathy contained scaffolding and solid direction when people were finding life filled with uncertainty, but also recognised that this was an extremely difficult time: people were being asked to do difficult and new things, and signposting them to get further information and help when needed became a key task.
So, in these workshops in Queenstown yesterday, we talked more about:
What you need to consider when working alongside or communicating with someone who has experienced trauma.
How you can use this knowledge to help you craft stories for your communities in a way that's supportive, informative and provides hope, particularly when they're tired, angry and ‘over it’.
Understanding the importance of responding appropriately when supporting someone who is experiencing psychological trauma, and articulate when it may be appropriate to signpost to other people / services for further support.
And finally, understanding how interacting with traumatised people can impact vou and think about some strategies to help protect yourself and others.
This was the first time I had run these workshops, and the initial feedback was very encouraging. I’d like to thank Te Hau Toka For supporting these workshops, and in particular Jen Andrews for her support and encouragement too.
I’m looking forward to receiving more formal feedback soon, and hopefully running these later this year in Wellington too.