This introductory workshop focuses on what it means to be trauma-informed and trauma-responsive and to make the paradigm shift in our encounters with people from: “What is wrong with you?” to “What has happened to you?”
Being solution-focused we go on to ask: “And what will you notice when your life is becoming more how you want it to be?”
Drawing on the growing trauma-related and neuroscientific research we cover key insights about the nature, impact, role and prevalence of unresolved traumatic and adverse experiences in the lives of people and communities across the life span.
We also pay attention to structural factors and the influence and dynamics of broader systemic and psycho-social contexts such as adverse community environments, poverty and inequality which can impact on the individual.
We look at how services and organisations who are not trauma-aware can inadvertently lead to the further traumatisation of individuals and indeed of staff (vicarious trauma); and we reflect on the implications for organisational change of working with the trauma lens.
We consider what trauma-informed best practice looks like, including well-established trauma-informed principles to create safe and empowering environments. We explore how the solution-focused approach lends strong support to this way of collaborative working by facilitating people to build on how they have coped thus far and move beyond past trauma towards their preferred future.
Learning Outcomes
By attending this workshop you will: