Trauma is, simply put, an experience which overwhelms an individual’s capacity to cope. Trauma ranges from the obvious, like car accidents or deaths, and more subtle or unspoken circumstances such as abuse, psychological control, and multi-generational trauma.
Statistics make it clear that trauma impacts millions of people in the United States. The impact of trauma shows through stress related illnesses, rising rates of teen suicide, employee turnover, and family unit dysfunction. One indicator of increased trauma is the projected divorce rate – over 50% in our lifetime.
Understanding the inconvenient truth, that trauma runs deep in our society, makes it vital to foster training to assist individuals to learn how to acquire and maintain mental peace. This will, in turn, lead to increased competence and better performance in their social, professional, and personal lives. It’s also critical that the workplace do more to understand trauma in order to support adults who spend most of their waking hours in the workplace. As your employee tries to navigate the intense pressure of performance to earn a paycheck, the struggles of hidden wounds can often sabotage that effort and create dissatisfaction, or potentially discipline/termination paths that are counterproductive for both the employee and the employer.
Today, more than ever, it is vital for individuals in higher positions (managers, senior representatives of firms, and CEOs), to understand the possible impacts of trauma to better support their talented employees. When you hired for a position, you obviously chose your employee for skill sets, communication abilities and other tangible reasons. What you cannot know is how past traumas may shape their responses to your requests, rejections of their work or discipline techniques for substandard work product.
Understanding more about trauma, basic psychology, and physiological stress reactions or behavioral changes enables team leaders to lead employees in a much better way, achieving positive results.
Trauma Is The Greatest Untold Story Of Our Time
Narratives are powerful. For far too long, trauma was narrowly defined to soldiers under the diagnosis of PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder, which has invalidated the suffering of millions of civilians who’ve dealt with trauma before this narrative was corrected. When we break down the symptoms of PTSD, we see that the aftermath of a traumatic event typically leads to anxiety, panic, intrusive thoughts of the event, depression, various medications to cope, and a range of behavioral challenges. While some people may be diagnosed with PTSD, others may be diagnosed with anxiety. No matter the diagnosis, at the root is this thing called trauma, which makes it hard for people to live the life they deserve, and to contribute at their highest potential.
Statistics worth knowing:
- One in four women and one in seven men experience physical violence by their intimate partner at some time of their life.
- In the past year, one in seven children has endured child abuse, which can alter their brain, causing issues years later.
- In America about 2 million individuals experience workplace harassment. Moreover, 25 percent of cases of workplace violence go unreported.
- The Workplace Bullying Institute reports that 20 percent of U.S. workers face bullying in the office, and only 19 percent of the cases have witnesses.
These statistics are not just numbers, they are the people right in front of you at work, in the grocery line, on the airplane, and in your community. Perhaps they are even a family member.
What If The Workplace Became A Healing Center?
The modern work environment can often be a fearful place. Say this, do that, be a team player, supervise difficult employees – on it goes. Eventually it can result in a consultation with HR, or even a lawyer if issues get complicated enough. While it can go this way, it does not have to stay this way for the long-term. We can be aware of this path and learn to understand how we can make work less transactional and more transformational for the human experience.
Think for a moment just how much money is spent on recruiting people. And when things fall apart, how much is lost when we lose great people. The cost can be astronomical. What if it didn’t have to be that way? What if managers and HR teams had more than a 1-800 number for the EAP hotline – you know, that number that connects your top talent to someone who you know nothing about. That number which offers advice or information that may be misguided without additional critical input. What if you could create an in-house employee care team to check-in on employees when they are on leave to let them know they’re truly valued and that someone has their back?
Fortunately, there is a solution called Trauma Informed Management ® to address these challenges. This holistic training program was founded by former firefighter/paramedic turned business coach/author/speaker Drew Aversa after his own injury. He began a courageous journey to heal from multiple traumas in a time when trauma was not recognized as something that impacted first responders. Taking the lessons gleaned on his journey, doing extensive research, discovering evidenced based solutions learned during workshops with top leaders in trauma recovery, Aversa founded his Trauma Informed Management ® training program. The program is designed to bring healing, tools, and practical knowledge into the workplace so that managers, senior leaders, and HR teams are better equipped to support employees experiencing the symptoms of trauma. And to ensure that solutions are put in place to keep people in their jobs when they are vulnerable enough to admit they need help.
By addressing the elephant in the room and putting the human back into Human Resources, the Trauma Informed Management ® training program can help leaders improve their understanding of the human condition when trauma presents or resurfaces, and equip them with better communication skills, support resources, and a knowledge of the healing process.
Employers today spend billions of dollars on sick days, turnover, lawsuits, and rising healthcare premiums tied to stress-related illnesses, injury, and diseases. By participating in the Trauma Informed Management® course, employers, leaders, and managers can grow a healthy, effective, and safe working environment. Moreover, bosses will understand when one of their employees may be facing trauma and will be able to create an environment where these individuals feel safe and supported.
Trauma Informed Management®: The Best Workshop and e-Course For Workplace Mental Health
The Trauma Informed Management® course enables participants to better recognize and understand people experiencing different forms of trauma. The course aims to enhance personal and professional development of supervisors, and senior leaders to be better equipped to support employees experiencing symptoms of trauma and to build a holistic human resources program which takes into account the interconnected impacts of trauma on the whole person.
Participants, during the course, are given tools to understand how to make people feel safe and supported at a professional and personal level. They also learn how to empathize with them.
Apart from understanding trauma, Trauma Informed Management® will assist managers in the use of various tools, skills, resources, research, and methods for dealing with a crisis. Managers will be shown actions that can often diffuse people. They will also be given information that can help them in understanding behaviors that indicate signs of being triggered. Participants will be assisted in learning to use active listening techniques to transform thinking patterns.
Trauma Informed Management® is a registered trademark, and offered exclusively by Drew Aversa online and in-person. Participants will receive a certificate of completion when they complete the online version of the course. To learn more visit www.drewaversa.com today.