Trauma-Informed Peer Support Training by Rachel Rochon

I want to share some of what I learned at the Trauma Informed Peer Support (TIPS) training. The first thing that comes to mind is that everyone has a story to tell.  Behind every behavior we find annoying, frightening, or exasperating is a story about an event that forever changed the way this person looked at their world.

The second thing that comes to mind is a diagram of concentric circles Beth shared which begins with the trauma. From that trauma comes overwhelming feelings, then ways to cope with those feelings (call them behaviors or defense mechanisms). Eventually, ways are found to make meaning out of what has happened – and that perspective is the one from which we decide to participate in our world. The mental health system traditionally only acknowledges the behaviors/ways we cope and the way we participate in society, ignoring the trauma, the resulting feelings, and how we have made sense of what happened. Being trauma-informed requires us to look at and assume trauma in our peers’ lives. It was eye-opening to go step by step through the process of how the mental health system traumatizes and re-traumatizes us. Instead of exploring why someone abuses drugs, creates drama, or self-injures in other ways, clinicians demand the person give up what may be the only thing keeping them alive. Oh, they may offer substitutes, but like giving up your blankie or binkie as a child, it is best to allow the child to decide when to give it up; usually, this occurs in stages and in its own time. Just snatching the comfort-giver away creates another trauma.

I was reminded again that it is not our job as peers to “help” or “empower” others, but to develop relationships that allow others to heal themselves. This is why connection is the first and most vital component/task of IPS. In creating and maintaining a trauma-informed environment, we need to focus on making our center a place where peers feel safe and comfortable enough to share their stories. Everyone has their own inner wisdom and the innate ability to heal themselves; we simply provide a setting/relationship that allows nature to take its course.

It is important to focus more on the impact the trauma has had on our lives than on the event itself. When starting a TIPS activity, it is vital to talk about the comfort agreement before beginning. That is when peers can discuss how others’ getting too graphic or bogged down in telling about their trauma can affect others. Just being factual about it – when I was 6 yrs old my mother began prostituting me out to make rent money – is enough; it is important to make it to figuring out the impact of the trauma. By impact, we consider the behaviors and coping/defense mechanisms (leaving my body, playing possum, sleeping under the bed, becoming a “tease”) that developed as a result of the trauma and the associated, overwhelming feelings. We also want to look at how we made sense of what was happening to us. In this scenario, the person might tell him/her self that they were “helping” Mom pay the bills or that “that woman” was not their real mom; they might also hold the belief that all men are jerks or all women are users. Some tell themselves that nothing happens without a reason or that whatever happened was their own fault. One of the questions Beth had us answer was regarding behaviors we would like to change (esp those that others have asked us to change). Often these are behaviors directly related to trauma. It is enough to ask the question - the peer can take it from there; of course, let them know a supportive, listening heart is available if needed. Often, the very idea of thinking or speaking about the trauma is enough to paralyze someone; that is why we create an environment of safety and comfort and do not push peers to speak of what they have been through. Sometimes it is helpful to remind ourselves and our peers that we have already survived the event.

One of the final steps in healing trauma is finding a way to share our experience to bring hope to other survivors. There are many mediums and ways to do this, and it may take some experimentation before we discover the most fitting way to tell our story. That is one good reason to offer different creativity activities.

One of the final assignments Beth Filson, our facilitator, gave was for each person to find an object of transformation, something that symbolized for us what we needed to make it through our trauma. Everyone shared their object of transformation when they received their certificate, and these objects were varied and the stories moving, a wonderful way to end the training. We did receive many resources to explore and to expand our understanding of the impact that trauma has in all our lives. I highly recommend this training to all CPS’s and wish they offered it more often.

Further reading: Engaging Women in Trauma-Informed Peer Support: A Guidebook