Coaching, Training and Trauma

This article is useful reading for any trainer or coach to know some of the signs and symptoms of trauma and the effects it can have on learning. Trauma is incredibly common – eg, 80% lifetime prevalence in the UK, and 1 in 4 women and 6 men has been sexually abused in the USA. Trauma symptoms if not recognised are potentially undermining to any learning situation so are well worth knowing about.

A little personal background – As well as being a business trainer and coach I am a trauma educator. I train therapists, humanitarian aid workers and business people in the bodily aspects or trauma and psychological resilience generally – see http://www.resiliencetraining.eu/ I have worked everywhere from with the Military in Sierra Leone, to The House of Lords to The Metropolitan Police and in a number of war zones. Strangely though I have seen little offered to life coaches facilitators on the subject so I thought I’d write this. I have also been through a personal trauma journey from PTSD to recovery.

“Trauma” is a wide, now banded around term for almost anything so I want to be clear I refer to the clinical use as an experience of overwhelm involving threat to life or the integrity of self. Sadly abuse, rapes, car accidents, assaults, etc are part of many people’s life experience and while many people recover from the acute psychological symptoms a proportion develop longer term symptoms. These are sometimes grouped as disorders such as generalised anxiety disorder or post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Here are some of the more common groupings of symptoms that can be trauma related generally and how they relate to facilitation:

Hyper arousal

Being stuck in fight or flight mode is a core trauma symptom which expresses in different ways including anxiety (loss of a sense of safety is key to much trauma), anger and irritability, concentration issues, difficulty listening, hyper-vigilance (being always on the lookout), emotional sensitivity and sleeplessness. For a trainee with such issues sitting still to learn may be difficult, as may mindfulness or being asked to access emotions (though these can be healing if done right) and they may seem either overly fearful to participate due to perceived emotional threat. A lack of ability in regulating emotions is a common trauma symptom and this can show up in any learning process easily especially when there is insufficient trust (eg, when HR have forced them to be in a training or their manager is there). Traumatised participants could also be “difficult”, aggressive or confrontational. That awkward delegate you always seem to get, he could have had a traumatic background.

Physical and emotional numbing

Trauma can make people numb, as this is a way to cope with overwhelming physical or emotional pain. This can lead to all sorts of health issues and also emotional issues which can show up in training. A lack of empathy or insensitivity to other’s emotions may be trauma related. Critically trauma often damages attachment, boundaries trust and relationships generally. Trauma is toxic to intimacy and relationships, including leaning relationships such as the coaching alliance. Think of a trainee who can’t say no or always wants to please you, or one who doesn’t trust the trainer or one wants to get too close immediately, or one who can’t let go of a group after a sessions ends, or one who doesn’t respect other boundaries in exercises – such issues may be trauma related.

Avoidance

If a person has been traumatised by something they were likely want to avoid it. This can be generalised to anything similar, for example from bomb explosions to any bangs, or from a rapist to all people of the same ethnicity for example. In a training if someone has a very strong reaction to not doing something that is hard to understand this may be avoidance and it is best to reselect this. Paradoxically, people can also develop “repetition compulsion” where in an unconscious attempt to heal they re-expose themselves to something similar to that which traumatised them. If you do “extreme”, very intense personal development like fire walking etc, you may well encounter such people.

Intrusive symptoms

Intrusive symptoms include someone constantly thinking about a traumatic event against their will which can be very distracting to learning, or less commonly the famous dissociative “flashbacks” when a person is unaware of the present and thinks they are back in the traumatic situation. Traumatic memories are different form regular ones and are very “alive” in a person, even when deliberately remembered. Intrusive symptoms can be triggered by seemingly innocuous stimuli – for example the smell of someone’s cigarette reminding a survivor of a house fire.

What a trainer or coach can do?

What is damaged in trauma is the ability to easily meet core emotional/relational needs. Building trust, belonging and safety are part of any good facilitators skills and this is the key to working with people with trauma backgrounds. This may be something as simple as introducing a new delegate who arrives late or asking how people are and what they need to learn in their own way for example. Some other specifics might include:

Being aware of, on the look-out for and compassionate towards trauma symptoms
Know competent therapists and refer when in doubt. People often come to coaching as it is less stigmatised than therapy when they have trauma but if someone presents to you with serious untreated trauma and you are not a trauma therapist refer them to a trauma treatment professional!
Trainings that are both active but that also teach some kind of self-regulatory technique like centring can be easier for people with hyper-arousal symptoms
Be careful with touch, boundaries and consent. I see a lot of trainers doing techniques or touching people without explicit permission- don’t! And if in doubt a maybe is a no.
Many coaches and trainers get into the work after difficult circumstances, however it is essential a facilitator works on their own trauma if they have it so as not to damage others acting out unhealthy patterns
Be careful of potential triggers and respect avoidance
Know that long term trauma can heal (most acute trauma symptoms heals on it’s own actually) and can even lead to growth.

Effective treatment methods

While you shouldn’t attempt to apply them as an untrained non-specialist is is good to know effective trauma treatments exist. Personally I see trauma as physical, social, psychological, and spiritual so healing best includes all elements. Effective treatments include:

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (UK NICE guideline approved)

EMDR – an eye movement technique (UK NICE guideline approved)

Trauma Releasing Exercises http://traumaprevention.com/

Mindfulness-based methods

Emotional Freedom Technique (controversial but I know experts who swear by it)

Somatic Experiencing, Hakomi, and other bodily approaches

Self-help books such as this one. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Keys-Safe-Trauma-Recovery-Take-charge/dp/0393706052/ref=pd_sim_b_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=1J0SYPHGFZ1YMSZNNKR6

Conclusion: Trauma exists, it’s common, it’s effecting your training/coaching already, I hope this little bit of information has helped

Video Resources:

Trauma resilience: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hee5eIYC8rw