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Trauma Explored Through the Lens of Toxic Stress....
These days have been referred to using terms like ‘unprecedented ’, ‘the new normal ’, ‘extraordinary ’. These are all perhaps true but I would like to talk for a moment about another term that I’ve been hearing frequently. Trauma. Being trauma informed or trauma sensitive is front of mind for many educators and others working in the human services field. I feel that to be trauma informed or trauma sensitive we first must come to a common understanding of what this means. Language can be a fickle thing and when we use a term such as trauma we run the risk of everyone having a different interpretation or understanding of what this means.
I am not an expert in being trauma informed or trauma sensitive but it is something that I have thought about over the past years. When I think about traumatic events that cause lasting impact, I think about the fact that two people can experience the exact same event but have two completely different reactions. I find it useful to think about toxic stress in understanding the difference. Events in life can be positive, tolerable or toxic. Positive stress is good for us and children should experience this stress as it prepares their systems to handle bigger stresses that will inevitably come. Some big stresses can be tolerable or toxic depending on the supportive buffering networks an individual has in their life. Death of a loved one or experiencing a natural disaster are big stresses. If there are caring adults available to help mitigate the stress, the stress will be hard but will not likely have long lasting negative outcomes. When the same events happen in the absence of caring supportive adults the child has no way to process the event and will feel that they are in danger because of the lack of buffering. In this instance the event is a traumatic event.
In the past number of months, we have all been experiencing the stress of COVID 19. For the majority of our students and colleagues the stress has been tolerable. It is scary and uncertain but we have faith that we will be okay. A small percentage of students and colleagues are dealing with life circumstances that makes the additional stress of COVID a toxic stress. They were dealing with big stress before the pandemic. The isolation and uncertainty that has come as a result of the pandemic has exacerbated the impact of this toxic stress.
We don’t know for certain what our students, their families, our colleagues have dealt with or are dealing with as we learn to live with COVID 19 nor do we have to. What we need to do is to assume that people we interact with from day to day may be struggling. We need to be gracious. We need to see the person and understand that what we may perceive as an overblown reaction may be coming from prior experiences that make a seemingly innocuous event scary for them. We need to step back, take a deep breath and be willing to accompany others on their journey without judgement or blame. We also need to know when we don’t have enough in our own tank to provide the support that is needed. Being able to recognize when we are spent and need to tap out puts us in a stronger position when we re enter. Some of our students are having a hard time understanding what is going on in their bodies and when big stresses occur they don’t have the skills to navigate the world. These children need us to be the calming influence that they can rely on. As caring adults, the most effective buffering that we can provide children and youth is a supportive healthy relationship.
Michelle MacKinnon,
Director Support Services
Holy Spirit Catholic School Division
Alberta Family Wellness
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If you’ve paid attention to the media recently, you might now believe that any stress is bad for a child’s physical and mental health, that stress has reached epidemic proportions, that you need to do everything you can to reduce the amount of stress in your life and that various products from supplements to special water to squeeze balls will decrease your child’s stress and make them healthy.
Breathe- An Emotional Regulation Program Built for Holy Spirit Catholic Schools
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Holy Spirit Catholic Schools - Support Services
Website: http://www.holyspirit.ab.ca
Location: 620 12B Street North, Lethbridge, AB, Canada
Phone: (403) 327-9555
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HolySpiritCSD/
Twitter: @HolySpiritCSD