Healthy Healers Course

Sadly, trauma experiences are not limited to childhood. Many of us have had traumatic experiences as adults. Some of us may have selected the helping professions because we have had traumatic experiences and we want to help others avoid them. Perhaps our personal traumatic experiences have made us more compassionate providers.

There may be times when our personal experiences get in the way of helping our clients.  For example, perhaps we may have experienced domestic violence ourselves and as a provider we have a patient or client who has been battered.  In last week’s class, Meda spoke about the importance of boundaries, of keeping our journey and our client’s journey separate. 

When our client’s issues and experiences seem to mirror our own, the boundaries may become blurred and our own emotions stirred.  This is when we are “triggered”.

Take a minute and try to remember a time when something a patient, client, or colleague said that reminded you of a bad experience of your own.   Do you remember your feelings and the physical sensations you experienced? Did you recall how you were breathing? (Faster, slower, shallow, etc.)    How did your stomach feel? Or other parts of your body?  (flushing, sweating, slight twitch, etc.)

In Week 2 Linda Chamberlain talked about the brain-body response to stress. When people experience a high level of stress in response to something said or something happening, they often forget to breathe, or breathe too fast. They often feel a tightness in the stomach. Some break out in a sweat, or even tremble. It becomes hard to stay focused and in the present.

Dealing with Triggers and Stressors

In week 3 we learned several ways to deal with stress: through breath, body-scans, and mindful movements. The sensations of getting triggered are similar to being stressed. An effective way to become calm and refocused is to pay attention to your breath. Here are a few suggestions for when you start to feel triggered:

• Take a few seconds, breathe deeply and slowly several times.
• Refocus on what needs to be done.
• If you need to pause in your communication with clients, to regain your focus you can say something like:

“Let's take a moment to calm ourselves so we can communicate better . . .”
“Let's both take a moment to get ready to work on this . . .”
“This is really important but I need to excuse myself for a moment . . .”
“This is really important and I need just a moment to think about this. . ."

There are several apps for your “smart phone” that can guide you to take slow calming breaths during times of stress or being triggered. See the resource section.

Identify 2-3 positive role models that you have observed. These role models should be people who have demonstrated they can handle stressful situations in a positive way. These are individuals you look up to and would like to behave like, in a crisis situation. (If you can’t think of a real role model, imagine a person you would like to have as one.) Think about how one of these role models would respond to a situation in which he or she was triggered. On the Discussion Board, write down a phrase your role model might say, or a positive message that you can repeat to yourself when you are triggered that will give you a chance to pause, breathe, and refocus. Click here for your Discussion Board. Group 1 Group 2

When you are triggered, pretend these wise and loving role models (or your best, centered self) are present, coaching you to do your best.