Trauma-Informed Care for Educators

Trauma-Informed Schools​

As a society, we are becoming more aware of trauma, and are beginning to realise how common it is among children and youth today.

As educators, we may not always know the difficult situations our students may be exposed to outside the school environment, or the challenges they come to school with. Therefore, responding in a trauma-informed way to all students can help create a safe environment for them to learn and thrive in, and may be especially necessary for those affected by crisis and traumatic events.

This section contains information related to helping schools become more trauma sensitive. It is organised into three broad categories (Thomas, Crosby, & Vanderhaar, 2019):

• Building knowledge – Understanding the nature and impact of trauma
• Shifting perspectives and building emotionally healthy school cultures
• Self-care for educators

Building Knowledge – Understanding the Nature and Impact of Trauma

Being trauma-informed means understanding childhood trauma, and how it can impact on learning and development.

When a person feels intensely threatened by an event he or she is involved in or witnesses, we call that event a trauma (National Child Traumatic Stress Network). The importance of the personal experience in determining whether or not an event is traumatic to a person, is an important first principle in understanding trauma. The role of this subjective personal experience explains why we often see differences in individual reactions when several people are exposed to a similar event. Experiences like abuse, death or loss of a loved one, accidents, and bullying are events that children (and even adults!) may find traumatic. For more examples of traumatic events, navigate to the About Trauma section.

Another important principle in understanding trauma, is that trauma reactions, are the body’s adaptive response to situations of danger and threat. However, when a person continues to feel a lack of sense of safety even after the threatening event is long gone, or consistently experiences worries about their sense of safety due to exposure to danger/threat on a regular basis, their trauma reactions start to take a toll on their physical health and emotional and mental well-being, and impacts the way they think, feel, behave, and interact with others.

When there is a continued sense of lack of safety, the body’s resources become allocated for survival and the monitoring of safety and danger, and there is reduced capacity for the brain to engage in activities of curiosity and exploration that lead to learning and growth. For a student, this means having less resources to engage in classroom learning and class participation.

For more information about this, please refer to this video.

Other resources on how trauma can affect the brain can be found here and here as well!

Shifting Perspectives and Building Emotionally Healthy School Cultures

Shifting perspectives – Moving from "What is wrong with you?" to "What happened to you?"

Language shapes thought. When we start to change the language we use to understand traumatised children, we also start to approach our students from a different place and relate to them in a different way. When we begin our approach from curiosity and empathy (e.g. “What happened to you?”), it opens up the space for dialogue and understanding, so we can determine the next steps of action in terms of identifying needs and relevant school supports.

Supporting affected students after a crisis or traumatic event

We already know that trauma-related difficulties result from experiencing something that is intensely threatening. This means that the experience of safety for traumatised children is compromised, especially for children who have experienced a lack of safety in relationships (such as in the context of abuse). That is why a major resource (and priority) in the journey of healing for any child is to enhance their sense of safety in the present.

The best thing you can do as an educator, is to continue what you have already been doing in your role as an educator. Routine and predictability in familiar environments with familiar adults can help encourage a sense safety for students who experience chaos and a lack of a sense of control as a result of a crisis or traumatic event. Find out more on how you can do so for preschoolers and children and teens.  

However, do keep a look out for possible trauma reactions, and how they may affect your student and classroom learning and behaviours, and be prepared to refer students for further assistance if required. 

Some things you can do as an educator after your student experiences a traumatic event include:

Monitor symptoms over time

• Familiarise yourself with red flags, so that you know what to look out for when monitoring for change in behaviours among affected students
• Be concerned if observed changes last for an extended period of time, or if these changes start to impact on the student's functioning (learning, participation in school activities, peer relationships, etc.)
• Refer on to professional help if difficulties persist beyond a month from the incident, or if the student is significantly distressed regardless of time period from the incident

Maintain a safe environment

Routines and structure

• Keep usual school routines where possible as familiarity and predictability help with the adjustment after a trauma event. Nonetheless, it is best to check in with students on what would best support them during this period. Some students would need temporary supports such as having a familiar and comfortable person (e.g. teachers, school staff or classmates) around them at school. Others might need flexible arrangements or interim adjustments to their school routines (e.g. time out from class). 
• Visual reminders of the day, for the whole class and individuals, can help students keep track and stay on tasks

Set clear limits/expectations of behavior

• Continue developmental tasks of learning (e.g. completion of school work) and similar expectations towards classroom behaviours
• Adjust the way you deliver classroom activities to stimulate concentration (e.g. more frequent breaks if necessary)
• Have conversations with the child when concerning behaviours arise, keeping in mind a trauma-informed perspective of behaviours as being a symptom of a problem, instead of the problem itself. Discuss ways to support the child to manage the behavior, including when to implement consequences for the behavior
  

Create opportunities to make choices where appropriate.

• Where possible, help students practice identifying preferences and interests, particularly for those who do not otherwise have this opportunity outside of the school environment
  

Managing environmental triggers or transitions

• Prepare children for situations that may trigger reactions e.g. fire drills, storms, rain, loud noises
  
• Classroom lessons can sometimes be triggering for students, especially if the content is related to a past or current trauma (e.g. sex education class if there is exposure to sexual abuse/assault)
  

Encourage connections

• Let students know they can talk to you about their feelings
• Check in with students if you notice changes. Talking about the event can be helpful. It is how you talk to them that makes the difference. 
  • Understand that talking is different from therapy or treatment. Basic active listening skills and knowledge about common trauma reactions can go a long way in validating and normalising your students’ experiences
  • Focus on support, and avoid going into too much detail about the event, or asking about details of the event. This means asking your student what they need right now, in the current moment
  • Contain conversations that encourage fear; remind them that the threat is over and they are safe now
  • Be a supportive witness to their experience – focus on validating their experience (i.e. that their feelings and concerns make sense in light of what happened), and refrain from giving advise unless it is specifically asked of you
    
    
• Encourage a ‘Buddy’ or ’Support’ system. Help students build support systems among themselves, especially if the crisis or trauma experience was a shared experience among several students. However, do exercise caution if students start coming together to “share” their trauma experience, as this is not helpful
   

Support self-regulation and coping in the classroom

• Focus on strengths and what students can do
• Provide time and space for self-regulation
  • Introduce calming activities like deep breathing, especially when kids are heightened
  • Provide sensory input opportunities like therabands wrapped around a chair's base, glitter jars, blue tack or other fiddle toys, these can be helpful for some students
    
    
• Help them identify sources of social support across different contexts (e.g. school, home, student care, extended relatives, etc.), if appropriate. This also gives you some insight into whether there is a need to direct the student to more formal sources of support (e.g. school counsellor).
  

Familiarise yourself with the school's risk workflows and protocols
 

• This is important so as to know who to contact should there be disclosures of risk (e.g. risk of harm to self or others, and safety risks such as child abuse or domestic violence), as trauma can escalate distress and emotional dsysregulation

Self-Care for Educators

Teachers are human too, and it is only natural that teachers become affected (and sometimes very distressed!) by the stories they hear from their students. 

A teacher’s reactions may be complicated by some of the following as well:

• Their own direct/indirect experiences with the trauma
• Their own pre-existing stressors
• Having to care for students and others 

It can also be especially hard for teachers if the crisis or trauma happens in school, and they need to juggle between managing their own trauma reactions, whilst tending to the needs of students under their care. Compassion fatigue can sometimes come in, when the cost of caring for others becomes overwhelming.

Sometimes, the impact on teachers can be significant, affecting the ability for teachers to engage in their daily routine and tasks at work and at home, and in their relationships with significant others. The red flags that we look out for in students, would also be relevant to teachers.

There are many good resources available on self-care for persons responding to traumatised children. You may start here at our Self-Care for Professionals section.

Teacher distress and reactions are not a sign of weakness. They are a cost of caring for others. When things become too much for one to bear, it is natural to seek additional support. You are not alone. It is human to have needs, worries, and fears, and it is ok to take time to address them. 

References

Thomas, M. S., Crosby, S., & Vanderhaar, J. (2019). Trauma-informed Practices in Schools Across Two Decades: An Interdiscplinary Review of Research. Review of Research in Education, 43, 422-452. DOI: 10.3102/0091732X18821123

NCTSN. https://www.nctsn.org/resources/child-trauma-toolkit-educators