As soft-skinned human beings – vulnerable-while-resilient product of millions of years of evolution – we can get hurt by trauma. Indeed, to be touched, affected, changed by tragedy, violence and distress is an essential part of what it means to be human.
Acknowledging and dealing with the impact can be something of an uphill struggle – although when done well with the right kind of support, the signposting is usually better than I found it entering Poland a couple of years ago on my bicycle on the rather roughly-surfaced road to the right….
When people are exposed to trauma as part of their professional responsibilities, it’s essential (and an increasingly clear duty-of-care legal requirement) that their organisation prepares and supports them beforehand, during and after. Which is where support from a professional who knows both the business and its psychology can make a great difference.
Whether preparing you or your team for assignments in the field, or helping keep you on the road when you’re out there, or coming alongside to help heal the wounds that you might bring back with you, I’ll talk through with you a tailored approach that works for you.
That might be in the form of team training, conversation on the telephone, or if you can make it to or live in London, we’ll do the work face to face - for a few sessions, on demand when you need it, or over a longer period. Confidentiality precludes customer satisfaction statements, on the whole, but it’s often very rewarding work – as some of you out there reading this can privately testify.
For news organisations, I deliver a stepped training approach drawing especially on the experience of Britain’s Royal Marines, where I’m particularly indebted to the team under Dr Neil Greenberg and Cameron March who developed the Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) approach now being widely introduced across the British military.
Whether with media organisations or other teams who deal professionally with trauma and extreme human distress, the aim is to build trauma-awareness skills among managers and senior editors, and equip teams to brief and support themselves before, during and after assignments. Individual support and coaching, and where appropriate counselling, is then available in the background for those who might benefit.