Addressing Triggers and Fostering Safety in Trauma-Informed Workplaces

This podcast episode, hosted by Dr. Donnelly Snipes, delves into the critical importance of creating a trauma-informed workplace by identifying and addressing various triggers that can impact both employees and clients. It begins by highlighting the pervasive nature of trauma, citing statistics on sexual abuse, physical abuse, domestic violence, foster care, stalking, and childhood abandonment, and extends the definition of trauma to include experiences like layoffs, identity theft, involuntary commitment, and even therapist abandonment. A core tenet emphasized is that "behavior is communication," suggesting that actions often signal feelings of safety, trust, empowerment, or threat, which are crucial for understanding trauma responses.

The discussion meticulously outlines how unaddressed or triggered trauma manifests in staff and clients across multiple domains: physically (health issues, aggression, withdrawal), affectively (depression, anxiety, anger, fear of mistakes), cognitively (negativity, difficulty problem-solving, reduced productivity), and relationally (reduced commitment, suspicion, competition). Dr. Snipes further extends this framework to organizations themselves, detailing how they can exhibit trauma reactions such as reduced productivity, rapidly changing policies, inflexible management, and relational breakdowns like layoffs and internal splitting, often in response to external threats or internal crises.

The episode then categorizes specific trauma triggers common to individuals and organizations, including abandonment (e.g., staff turnover, loss of funding), neglect or abuse (e.g., staff failing duties, disempowering policies, frivolous lawsuits), and other losses (e.g., loss of freedom, job, license, or revenue due to natural disasters or fraudulent actions). These examples underscore how past traumas can be re-triggered by current environmental cues, policies, or interpersonal dynamics within the workplace, necessitating a proactive and empathetic approach.

Finally, Dr. Snipes provides practical interventions across physical, environmental, affective, cognitive, and relational dimensions. Key recommendations include ensuring physically safe and welcoming spaces (considering sensory issues, ergonomics, and diverse needs), promoting emotional intelligence and fact-based reasoning, fostering empowerment through clear policies and informed consent, and inspiring caring and commitment through dialogue, respect, clear communication, and accountability. The overarching message is to "seek first to understand" the experiences of staff, clients, and the community, recognizing that feelings of unsafety or abandonment will inevitably lead to protective behaviors that can perpetuate a cycle of trauma within the organization.

Behavior is communication.

When people act a certain way they're either saying I feel safe I trust you I feel empowered or they're saying I feel threatened.

Even if the current situation is not objectively unsafe if it reminds them of a prior trauma then they may feel unsafe.

When people are in a state of fight or flee they are more prone to notice the threats in the environment which promotes an attitude of negativity and pessimism.

When we start seeing a lack of harmony and a lack of unified work towards the organizational vision we need to explore why that is.

When somebody comes into your organization and they're already feeling stressed out or they're in threat mode then it can be difficult for them to make decisions.

A lot of times when you walk into an organization that is in crisis you can feel it it's palpable.

The best way to find out what makes a physically safe and welcoming environment for people is to ask interview assess question whatever word you want to use the staff and the clients in the organization.

We want to ensure policies and procedures promote empowerment and choice.

When the staff clients and organization feel unsafe or abandoned they will react in ways to protect themselves often resulting in behaviors that trigger a sense of disempowerment and unsafeness in the others and results in a widespread trauma response.