Moving through trauma at work
5 March 2024
Last weekend at my Energy Therapy course we focused on trauma, and I was reminded of times at work when I experienced trauma. Sometimes this can simply be the way a leader spoke to me, triggering an emotional response because of their aggressive tone or approach they took that was grounded in blame. In those moments I felt unsupported and unable to respond without feeling unsafe. Trauma can happen collectively when organisations implement large scale change that includes restructuring with impact to people such as redundancies. The group as a whole can experience the change as being ‘done to them’ rather than choosing it, and it feels even more impactful when it involves job loss. In simple terms, trauma is caused when you feel isolated and disempowered. Individual responses to trauma are complex, which is not the focus of this article. The reason I wanted to post about this topic is to share some simple techniques to mitigate a trauma response if it happens to you.
In an acute situation, the most important thing you can do is to get up and move your body. Moving maintains bodily autonomy and signals to your mind and spirit that you are still alive, and moving helps create a connection to that fact in the present moment. Right here, right now I have agency over my body and am choosing to move in a way that I am able. If you are not able to get up and physically move, then tense and relax your muscles which serves the same purpose. Our instinct to get up and leave or to take a walk when we experience trauma is often a healthy response, especially when our focus is on being present in our bodies.
While working through the trauma, practice exquisite self-care. Eat well. Be deliberate about going to the gym or exercising if this is your practice. Keep doing any other wellness practices like meditation. Get out into nature. Make sure you get enough sleep however you can manage it. Stop reading the news. Get a manicure. Do what YOU know to do to really take care of yourself.
Make sure you stay connected to friends, family, colleagues, support groups, your therapist, or anyone else who can help you feel connected and supported. Trauma can often make us want to isolate for many different reasons, but connection is really important to move through any trauma experience. Talk about it and sit with the emotion with support to help it move through and out of you. Connect with people who can help remind you of who you really are – an amazing human being – and will help you to own the narrative of what is happening or has happened.
If we don’t address trauma effectively, then the effects of the trauma can negatively impact how our body functions, our ability to perform at work and how we feel about ourselves and the world. The techniques above are some basics, but you can imagine others that can help move you from a place of isolation and disempowerment to one of connection and agency. The importance of doing this work is so the impact of the trauma does not stay with you, impacting your mind, body and spirit, but you become stronger and more resilient.
