Listen to “Trauma Informed Mediation – Creating Safe and Supporting Environments” on Spreaker.
[00:00:00] Joanne Law: Hello and welcome. I’m Joanne Law director of mediation Institute and this podcast episode is from a recording. Made on a recent webinar about trauma informed Mediation.
[00:00:13] What I’ve got as an agenda for today is a little bit about what is trauma informed mediation
[00:00:22] just make sure we’re all on the same page as far as some of the potential impacts of trauma And Trauma informed practice.
[00:00:30] What is Trauma Informed Mediations? It’s an approach that integrates an understanding of the impacts of trauma into the mediation process to create a safe and supportive environment for all of our participants.
[00:00:44] Part of doing that is recognizing the signs of trauma and understanding its impact on individuals, physical, emotional, and cognitive wellbeing.
[00:00:52] Creating a safe and empowering environment where we’re seeking to avoid re traumatisation, promoting healing and [00:01:00] resilience by acknowledging and addressing trauma. So not addressing in a therapeutic way
[00:01:06] but also recognising some of the strategies that are needed at times for people to be able to manage in this sort of situation. Looking at how we may need to adapt our techniques and processes to be sensitive to the needs of trauma survivors and also looking to our ethics about considering appropriateness and how we can support clients without causing further harm.
[00:01:30] : I think it’s important that we are on the same page in terms of what is trauma and what causes people to have a trauma response. So, The next part of this recording. We’ll go into that.
[00:01:46] : Firstly, what is trauma? It’s a response to a distressing or disturbing experience that overwhelms an individual’s ability to cope.
[00:01:55] So trauma isn’t the injury or the incident or [00:02:00] the series of incidents. It’s the effect on the body and it’s not a uniform thing. It depends on the individual’s ability to cope, which can be either supported or undermined by a whole lot of different factors. It’s never a uniform response a group of people that have the same or similar experiences will have their own unique trauma response. But it may include emotional distress. Intense feelings of fear, helplessness, anger, and a whole range of other emotions. It may include physical symptoms. Often the responses to trauma are ongoing physical issues, headaches, nausea, fatigue including and up to chronic health conditions, behavior changes, irritability, withdrawal, and other interpersonal difficulties, so difficulties with relationships, and mental health deterioration, anxiety, depression, and post traumatic stress disorder are [00:03:00] really common consequences.
[00:03:02] And the long term effects if the impacts of trauma aren’t addressed they can lead to, really quite long term mental health issues like anxiety, depression or, as I said, post traumatic stress disorder. It also has the potential to become intergenerational trauma with some evidence that the physiological effects of trauma can affect our DNA and be transmitted generationally in that way as well as through parental behavior.
[00:03:32] So there’s more work that needs to be done, but it appears that it’s not just the impact on parenting styles, but it’s actually more profound than that.
[00:03:42] I’m going to just briefly look at types of trauma. Developmental trauma, that’s trauma that occurs during childhood developmental stages.
[00:03:52] Acute trauma so a single distressing event or a series of events, so a peak incident. [00:04:00] Chronic trauma, which is repeated and prolonged exposure to not necessarily high impact, although there could be a bit of both but on ongoing trauma to someone complex trauma is often referred to as exposure of multiple varied traumatic events.
[00:04:18] So there might be developmental trauma and then some acute traumas, and then they may be involved in a a family violence relationship. So there’s ongoing chronic trauma there. So it can lead to very complex experiences and then we have internet intergenerational trauma, which is transmitted from one generation to another.
[00:04:39] As I mentioned, it’s very very common in indigenous communities, but also Holocaust survivors and survivors of war and other really high impact complex trauma to whole communities. We’re seeing examples of that as well. And then secondary or [00:05:00] vicarious trauma, which is something that anyone can deal with ongoing close exposure to trauma in others.
[00:05:07] The developmental trauma for those of us that are family dispute resolution practitioners or family group conference facilitators, those working with families this is a form of trauma that we see and we’re trying to help prevent.
[00:05:21] And it can result from neglect, abuse, or other adverse childhood experiences. Some of the really common symptoms from this type of trauma are attachment issues.
[00:05:31] We know that ambivalent and disorganized attachment often result from trauma experiences for babies and children difficulties forming relationships. We know that exposure to family violence affects children’s developmental and their stages and their capacity to form healthy relationships, potentially.
[00:05:54] It can lead to behavior problems and impulsivity, emotional regulations issues, so [00:06:00] anger, out of control emotions, and chronic health problems. We, need to remember that the impact of trauma isn’t just on the mind, it’s on the body and The hormones and chemicals that are released as people are reacting to their recollections of trauma or their experiences of trauma continue to cause, or can continue to cause harm.
[00:06:28] Acute trauma, so it can be natural disasters. The big fires before the the pandemic they came with a lot of trauma for a number of communities and then the normal support and rebuilding of resilience didn’t happen because then the pandemic came, but even fires, floods, Australia, we’re very prone to natural disasters of one form or another car accidents, but also intense family violence or other issues, or it can [00:07:00] be related to a loss A sudden loss of some someone or actually something.
[00:07:06] So sometimes in family dispute resolution, we can see people that are experiencing trauma because of the loss of the life that they had when when there’s a unilateral decision to end a relationship. And some of the symptoms we might see include intense fear, anxiety, panic, shock, and denial.
[00:07:25] Difficulty concentrating, physical symptoms like headaches, nausea, fatigue. And intrusive thoughts and flashbacks. As you can see this is really relating to that post traumatic stress disorder as well.
[00:07:39] Chronic trauma. Again, this can result from repeated and prolonged exposure to highly stressful events. Ongoing family violence in the, those that are working in the workplace environment bullying and scapegoating, targeting, all of those sorts of behaviours can result in chronic trauma.
[00:07:59] [00:08:00] And of course, long term illness is another factor that can affect people.
[00:08:04] With chronic trauma particularly if people have been experiencing gaslighting and psychological abuse, none of the individual incidents may be high or extreme.
[00:08:18] They may even say to us, Oh, there wasn’t family violence, it never hit me, it was never that. One of the key elements is there’s a lack of lack of certainty. they can’t trust their senses. They can’t trust their environment. And so it’s, heavily traumatic for people to be living in that sort of an environment.
[00:08:39] Complex trauma, as I mentioned sometimes we come across people and their lives have just been so much pain, so many incidents that it’s so interrelated and complex, so some of the things you might see, severe emotional distress, mood springs, [00:09:00] disassociation or disconnection from reality.
[00:09:04] If people have very high complex trauma we’re really needing to get down into our ethics and think about is mediation the right approach, do they need something more therapeutic, or do they need a therapeutic style with someone who’s a mental health professional as well Difficulty in forming healthy relationships, so there’s usually going to be a whole string of fractured complex relationship.
[00:09:26] Sometimes low self esteem and feelings of worthlessness maybe presenting and often chronic physical health issues as well. Lots of challenges. Intergenerational trauma, so as I said before, it results from the transition of trauma effects from one generation to the next. It may result from the behavior, emotions, and mental health of one generation affecting the next, but there’s also some significant evidence that there’s actually DNA transmission occurring as well, so changes that [00:10:00] occur anxiety, depression, hypervigilance again even though they may not personally have experienced the trauma events but often, there’s compounding complex trauma as well. Maybe difficulties forming healthy relationships, emotional deregulations, and patterns of avoidance and aggression and chronic physical health issues like heart disease and diabetes. We know that the rates of those for our Indigenous families are often, people are often higher than the norm and there seems to be a correlation between intergenerational trauma and those physical, issues as well. It’s something we’re seeing in some of our migrant and particularly refugee communities particularly those that have had a very difficult path to get out of their war zone or whatever reason that they’ve had to flee their homes.
[00:10:58] As we know, It’s not an easy [00:11:00] process as well. Vicarious trauma. So this is something that we need to be mindful of but also in our clients who work in those sorts of occupations where it’s common. So police defense force, healthcare therapists, mediators, lawyers. We’re all at risk if we don’t take precautions to try and protect ourselves.
[00:11:24] So emotional exhaustion and burnout are quite common people, the solution may be to quit their job and do something else. It may be using substances and other props to get through and get to sleep. Increased irritability, anger difficulty sleeping, nightmares feeling overwhelmed and helpless.
[00:11:46] When you hear your colleagues talking in, really overwhelmed, helpless sort of language, what’s the point, it’s the, it’s hopeless, there’s nothing really we can do that might be an opportunity to remind them to get [00:12:00] some help to be brief and and get a little bit more emotional support for themselves.
[00:12:05] Everyone I talk to who’s working with people are saying they’re harder, they’re more difficult, what’s going on yeah, something is going on. The global pandemic was a significant trauma event that we’ve all experienced, whether directly through the illnesses, watching some of the things on TV that we saw happening around the world, all of those things have resulted in Trauma whether it’s vicarious or any of the other types so there’s been an increase in anxiety, depression, psychological distress, especially for young people.
[00:12:40] So there’s a, major issues like school refusal, what’s the point that sort of mindset it’s been particularly difficult for people with pre existing mental health conditions, refugees and those who are financially disadvantaged.
[00:12:55] I was looking at, what research is there that backs what we’ve been [00:13:00] experiencing?
[00:13:00] And there’s not huge amounts out as yet. There was one study I found from Monash that was looking at people that had a critical illness from COVID. And after six months after they recovered 20 percent were dead. There was a a big increase in the number that had were defined as having a disability there’s an increase in mild disability, moderate, and percent who had no disability before now had severe disabilities.
[00:13:30] And then again, the percentage of patients who had no problems reduced right across the the board as well.
[00:13:37] The study I’m referring to is called the impact of COVID 19 critical illness on new disability, functional outcomes, and return to work at six months. The perspective. Cohort study.
[00:13:50] We’re not a large number of people involved in the study, but, Hodgson. Cl Higgins am Bailey [00:14:00] MJ, a towel. , if you’re looking for those.
[00:14:02] So there’s a whole lot more impacts. I think it’s pretty difficult that you’re going to have people in your mediation room that aren’t carrying some form of of trauma. So let’s get into the nuts and bolts of what can we do to try and assist with that. Trauma in phone practice.
[00:14:19] includes, recognising the widespread prevalence of trauma and also the potential paths for recovery. As mediators, we need to have a growth mindset. We can’t see people that have experienced trauma as broken or damaged beyond repair or any of those things. They’re people who’ve experienced trauma.
[00:14:38] The trauma should not and must not define them in our thinking and in the way we treat them. But what we need to do in trauma informed practice is create a safe environment. We need to foster trust and be trustworthy. And we need to work to empower individuals who’ve experienced trauma. Even aware that, all of those [00:15:00] issues that I talked about some of them will probably be present. And, I jumped ahead on my third point because it’s so important. We need to recognise that trauma doesn’t define individuals and it shouldn’t undermine their rights or autonomy. Sometimes and it happens in for disability as well, sometimes people that are meaning to help people actually do undermine their rights and autonomy seeking to help too much rather than work with the the person.
[00:15:28] So we need to work with our clients who’ve Got it. Trauma experience.
[00:15:32] I played a short video from Phoenix Australia, which is a organization that. He’s working on post-traumatic mental health. You may be interested in going and exploring that on YouTube or other resources, but I won’t replay that here in this podcast.
[00:15:54] I went through six principles that are really important for us to keep in mind.
[00:15:59] When we’re [00:16:00] doing trauma informed work.
[00:16:02] Safety for everyone involved, both physical and emotional, trustworthiness and transparency. We need to be very clear, particularly clear about explaining our processes with someone who’s manifesting with trauma because that anxiety is generally underlaying and anxiety is fear about what might happen in the future.
[00:16:23] So if we can explain this is what’s going to happen in our pre mediation session, this is what’s going to happen in the mediation. These are the steps. This is how we’ll do it. And then of course doing what you say you do. If the trauma is related to the relationship between the people, so if there’s been family violence, if it’s a workplace return to work case where there’s been a psychological injury, Those are situations where you’re going to need to be very careful about the interactions and not allowing disrespectful behavior, for example, because it’s going to [00:17:00] have a probably more profound effect than it would otherwise have.
[00:17:06] Support. Talking about normalizing the fact that people may need or want support, whether that’s having a support person, personal support there for themselves. I’ve termed it collaboration So working with the clients rather than treating them as lesser or broken. They’re a full human who’s happened to have experienced trauma in an empowerment.
[00:17:30] So really inviting people to voice their needs, offering choice, giving control where you can. We may need to be a little bit more flexible in our process than we otherwise would. But we negotiate that. We talk with them about their needs because everyone’s response and reaction to trauma is individual.
[00:17:51] And they’re A response and reaction on one day may be completely different to another day. If you know anyone with trauma, they [00:18:00] have good days and bad days. They’re all sorts of things to consider as well. And also understanding the context of their trauma.
[00:18:09] So are they cultural, historic, gender specific? Are there aspects of the trauma that are relevant to the work that we’re going to be doing with them? And again, that may be a conversation that you’re having with them during the pre mediation. It may be that we’re not going to be the right mediator or we might need to bring in another mediator.
[00:18:29] To me, a lot of those principles are built into our mediation process. So we’re very lucky. We really already have quite a trauma informed process.
[00:18:39] If we are, really applying the principles of mediation and our purpose in empowering parties to solve their problems rather than thinking we need to do it for them.
[00:18:51] During the pre mediation in a physical space, so whether it’s online or in person, is it welcoming, is it safe? Is it [00:19:00] culturally safe?
[00:19:00] And particularly if there’s a cultural element of trauma that they may be experiencing. So if you have First Nations people, how can you make sure that the space feels appropriate? I don’t really have room, but I’ve got my Indigenous map on the corner of my room there. But probably if you were an Indigenous person checking to see if it’s a safe place, it may be reassuring that here’s someone that acknowledges the history.
[00:19:28] Is it comfortable and calming? So is, the environment and also your approach? Are you using empathy? Not sympathy. We don’t want to be using sympathy. We’re not feeling sorry for them, but we’re empathizing with the emotions that they may be feeling or expressing.
[00:19:47] We’re inviting their input, mostly people will identify the trauma that they have. Sometimes people with chronic trauma, when they first come to us in mediation, may not actually [00:20:00] have much awareness of their Their situation often, when they’re coming out of a coercive controlling relationship, it takes them some time for them to realize that, actually, I’m not the one, it wasn’t me, I was in a situation where my reality was being deliberately distorted But other people certainly people that have been working with a mental health professional may have some exercises, they may have some grounding strategies or other approaches.
[00:20:29] So ask them about them, what are they going to need? Will they need more breaks? Will they will they need more flexibility? Does it need to be a shorter session? If someone’s got significant trauma I would suggest that a full day mediation is, completely inappropriate.
[00:20:44] Just, wear on them in that sort of situation is unlikely to, to be helpful. And I’ve certainly spoken with people who’ve said that sort of experience was re traumatising. Particularly if there wasn’t [00:21:00] much flexibility shown by the mediator.
[00:21:02] Having a conversation. So we want to communicate openly and transparently about their trauma and about your process and how they can work together. Collaborative decision making. We want to involve individuals in the decisions that we’re making. And focusing on their strengths.
[00:21:20] Sometimes we can assume that people who’ve got trauma histories with the person there’ll be mediating with it. They wouldn’t want to speak with them. They want shuttle. That’s not always the case.
[00:21:32] He’s an example of an opposite situation where the person, really wanted to speak directly.
[00:21:39] So a client. There’s quite a lot of trauma story there and They would like to do a face to face mediation with the other person.
[00:21:48] The other person has said no, I wouldn’t be able to do that. And it’s not a situation where one party has the trauma and the other one doesn’t. Usually there’s different experiences [00:22:00] and effects that have maybe contributed. So in that case I had a conversation I understand for you it would be important for you to be able to speak directly with them.
[00:22:11] However, within my process I can’t force the other person to do that if it becomes possible , through the mediation for, a face to face conversation to happen I’ll invite it, but I can’t promise it. So we need to be honest with people have a conversation. That’s, an important element.
[00:22:31] I didn’t word it properly because I said something like, often people when there’s been trauma, they welcome shuttle mediation style and it was like, so we can make mistakes, we can misspeak or we can say something that triggers.
[00:22:46] And then I had to have a conversation about in no way is intended to imply that your trauma and your experience isn’t real. There’s a whole branch of mediation called restorative practice where [00:23:00] that’s the main focus of having that conversation and discussion.
[00:23:03] My experience is that often there are misunderstandings or flare ups or things like that we need to talk through.
[00:23:10] We really want to try and avoid re traumatizing, mindful of potential triggers I ask. Is there anything that I need to know that, what may be triggering for you? How can I help you if you are triggered? And that sort of conversation. You may find that your pre mediation session is longer or broken up into more than one session.
[00:23:34] Particularly if there’s complex trauma. And I’d always be really inviting them, are they willing to proceed to mediation and, what modifications do we need to make?
[00:23:46] Within the mediation itself shuttle or direct communication, as I mentioned before particularly family violence, some want to communicate directly and are frustrated when they’re not allowed to. We’ve got to balance [00:24:00] that, but not make assumptions. Like we never should be making assumptions as mediators, even more so here.
[00:24:06] There isn’t the right way to live with trauma. And if we make assumptions we’re likely to treat people in that way which minimizes their experience and their healing journey. And we need to think about our ethical considerations. Seeking to avoid causing any more harm.
[00:24:22] And So how are you going to handle sensitive situations?
[00:24:26] We’ve looked at some of the behaviour and interpersonal effects of trauma. Part of our role, we’re trying to get people to, actively listen, to be empathetic. Sometimes that can be very difficult when people they’re focused in on their own trauma and their own experience. Again, mediation may not be appropriate or we may need to be really working up that therapeutic, restorative end of the process.
[00:24:54] I do transformative mediation. That is one of the things that we do train and that’s [00:25:00] very much looking at the it’s taking people through a process of talking about what they need from each other and whatever people need is, that’s right and they’re right.
[00:25:10] It’s not up for negotiation. What is how that’s going to, how those various needs are going to be met within that situation. So there’s a number of different ways that people can work using mediation. Some of the the techniques that we might be looking at.
[00:25:26] If you are working with a lot of people with trauma it’s perfectly appropriate to use, breathing techniques and they hopefully would have already had some work with their therapist on this. it may be something that you do openly or even just using rapport or getting rapport and be really focused on your own breathing, particularly if you’re in person.
[00:25:49] You can certainly lead people with your own physiology. Mindfulness focusing on physical sensation. Some of these sorts of exercises. If you [00:26:00] don’t know what I’m talking about then it’s a good opportunity for you to now and go do some more research on some of these things but just you know just come back into your body.
[00:26:09] Feel the chair under you. Feel the ground under your feet. Maybe feel the the earth under the ground under your feet. there’s lots of very simple little techniques that we can bring people back into the moment, into their body, out of the anxiety and that sort of thing.
[00:26:23] Psychoeducational information. So particularly that group of people that haven’t done Much work on their trauma, giving them some information about what’s going on, why it’s so hard for them to make decisions, why they may be feeling like their emotions are out of control.
[00:26:41] That can help them normalise,
[00:26:44] we can use our reframes in this context. We’re not reframing during party’s opening statements, but we may be helping them to reframe negative thoughts and beliefs particularly in private sessions or, if you are using [00:27:00] shuttle if, they’re really coming from a
[00:27:02] Very negative or catastrophizing mindset.
[00:27:05] Often the language might be I don’t want this I don’t want that I don’t want okay thank you for being so clear about that. What do you want? What would it look like if things were better, what would better look like just those sorts of reframes, taking their attention from that negativity towards something that can be created potentially
[00:27:25] self regulation techniques as well.
[00:27:27] So asking people, Breaks, do they have fidgeting things or something to calm them?
[00:27:34] Support people, of course, they can often provide emotional support maybe ask for the breaks if they’re not able to, and just the comfort of that familiarity.
[00:27:44] And, just mentioning around restorative practice as well. Sometimes it’s really important for people to talk about their trauma narrative, which can be a bit of a conflict if we’re looking at classic facilitative mediation where we’re [00:28:00] trying to direct people away from the past into the future. It’s really tricky, and you probably want to have a little bit more foundation than just the facility of mediation, if you’re wanting to go down that path, but helping people to tell their traumas, sorrows in a really safe, structured way can be really helpful in facilitating understanding in that mediation context and really shift the dynamic.
[00:28:27] But it’s quite complex work because sometimes when you open the lid all sorts of things can pour out. We definitely don’t want or need to take people back into their trauma.
[00:28:41] There’s no reason for us to require them to tell us in detailed way about what’s happened to them. It’s really morbid curiosity more than anything. So when we’re talking about trauma narratives, we’re really talking about them voluntarily wanting to have [00:29:00] something understood yeah it’s more around them being in control of that, but us providing that safe and structured way for that to happen.
[00:29:09] Really trauma informed, it means being trauma aware. So we need to screen not just for the existence of harm in the past, but discuss the effects with the client. Trauma can be used to talk about the incident or incidents, but We’re really talking about the effect of that whatever it is that’s happened to them, so we might ask them, so what are the ongoing effects of that?
[00:29:32] How are you coping? What are you doing to get past that? Do you need referrals? So always, do you need referrals? Oh, no one can help me with this. Oh, look, Actually, I beg to differ. You’d be surprised at what can be done now because you’ve suffered an injury and, we have ways of helping people to heal. That’s not what I do. But I can refer you to some excellent people who might be able to assist. Empowerment, not [00:30:00] sympathy. So we want to collaborate with the client to help them to achieve their goal of resolving their dispute. We’re not going pity them or treat them as lesser.
[00:30:07] We really need to use that strength based approach. And provide them with the support that they want, not the support we think they need, or that they should have, or they should need. There’s no shooting on, on our clients. We really need to work out what it is that they want.
[00:30:24] We want to develop a safety plan not the safety plan around violence, but the safety plan around how can I make the mediation more safe, appropriate for you? How will I know if you’re triggered? Some people will say, oh, you’ll know. And others might say, oh, look, I just shut down, I freeze.
[00:30:42] So I didn’t go into it but really the trauma response if someone’s triggered is they’re going into their fight, flight, freeze system.
[00:30:52] So yeah, we want to talk with clients because we may not know. Some people get triggered very quietly. And they may not feel [00:31:00] like they can Ask for a break or they might feel shamed or whatever so we might have a signal or some way of them letting us know that they need a break the same way we might do with a safety plan with a client we can do the same thing with a normal safety plan if you want to call it that.
[00:31:18] And we need to remain vigilant and modify as needed because they can be highly reactive and unpredictable. The way they present during the pre mediation is not necessarily going to be the way they present during the mediation.
[00:31:32] Sometimes with the trauma they can get very proactive and aggressive in their response because, if they’re getting into a trauma response they’re fighting for their life, basically, and we all know that we do all sorts of things if we feel like we’re fighting for our life.
[00:31:48] If at your understanding of trauma and what happens in our brains and bodies when we’re exposed to trauma is it’s a little bit shaky. There’s plenty of resources available to [00:32:00] help you, build your knowledge. Phoenix Australia appears to have quite a few useful videos.
[00:32:07] A lot of the focus is on post-traumatic stress disorder, but really that’s just an extreme matter of fact, the station of the trauma response. Blue knocked foundation is also something to look up. Another organization is mediators beyond borders international that has some resources around that as well.
[00:32:26] I really encourage you. To build your understanding.
[00:32:31] People who have a heavy load of trauma that hasn’t been dealt with they behavior is often impacted and it’s easy for us as mediators to become judgemental about The difficulty of working with them. With a better understanding. You’re more likely to be more compassionate and able to be of more assistance. So I encourage you to keep building [00:33:00] your, trauma awareness and, ability to work with clients in a trauma informed way.
[00:33:06] It is complex work that we do. And we do need to draw the line and get people to others for that.
[00:33:12] Therapy work, but what we do can be very therapeutic. The distinction can be quite fine.
[00:33:18] Thank you for listening. I hope you found this helpful and it’s inspired you to think a little bit more deeply about the trauma load that your clients might be having. And encourage you to speak more openly with them about. What their needs are, what the effects of the trauma. Uh, currently on them. And always working with them in a collaborative way, rather than treating them as literal damaged.
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