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Welcome! We’re glad you’re here. Welcome! We’re glad you’re here. • Your audio is muted on arrival. • Please tech check yourself: • turn audio on and off. check volume levels. • use video sparingly to help with bandwidth levels • Type in chat: say hi, share your role, institution, subject area • If you are here for another reason, please let us know in the chat! Note: These sessions are recorded and shared on the BCcampus COVID Note: These sessions are recorded and shared on the BCcampus COVID - 19 website 19 website

A Few Guidelines for Webinars A Few Guidelines for Webinars Please refrain from identifying individuals and institutions • Be mindful that everyone comes to this space with their own experience • and needs Be respectful of everyone’s emotional and mental boundaries at all times • Use this time to practice respectful dialogue • The BCcampus Code of Conduct includes webinars • Be Calm. Be Kind. Be Safe. Be Calm. Be Kind. Be Safe. – Dr. Bonnie Henry Dr. Bonnie Henry

Trauma-Informed Practice and Building Resilience during COVID-19 June 10, 2020 Facilitators name(s): Nancy Poole, Justice Institute of BC Lenora Marcellus, University of Victoria Elizabeth Poag, Camosun College

Territorial Acknowledgement We gratefully acknowledge and honour the territory and the lands on which we are gathered: In Victoria, the Lekwungen people (Songhees and Esquimalt Nations), and WSÁNEĆ (Saanich). And other numerous nations across British Columbia - type yours in the chat!

• Trauma informed approaches are relational ones that take into account how common the experience and enduring effects of trauma can be • TIP is not a counselling technique, instead it is a paradigm for providing support, structuring TRAUMA learning environments, and creating INFORMED organizational culture change PRACTICE • TIP is not based on disclosing trauma. Instead it can be seen as a “universal precaution” that is offered when working with everyone • TIP is based on principles that include creating safety, promoting choice and building skills

http://bccewh.bc.ca/wp- https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/hea content/uploads/2012/05/2013_ lth/child-teen-mental-health/trauma- TIP-Guide.pdf informed_practice_guide.pdf Trauma informed approaches are being adopted by many agencies and systems - addictions, child welfare, homelessness, justice, health, education . . . .

BEING INFORMED ABOUT TRAUMA

TIP CONNECTS UP KNOWLEDGE FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS ▪ Decades of work about violence against women and women’s health ▪ Wisdom from Indigenous scholars and community-based knowledge keepers ▪ Research from public health on Adverse Childhood Experiences ▪ Understanding of neurobiology

DEFINING TRAUMA Trauma is a response to experience(s) that are overwhelming; significantly compromising our sense of safety. The experience of trauma is unexpected, and beyond our ability to stop Disrupts our world view/understanding of the world as safe, and/or predictable, and disrupts cognitive and emotional regulation and/or functioning; forces changes in the ways in which we cope Therefore – it is not necessarily the event itself that is traumatic, but rather the impact of the event on our sense of safety, and of ourselves.

WHY DO WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND TRAUMA? It is important to understand the effects of trauma and the links to other challenges that students and faculty face, so that we can work in a way that: • honours what has happened in people’s lives • does not add to people’s burdens, by retraumatizing • notices how people are coping, their strength and resilience • helps people build further positive skills for coping or healing

TYPES OF TRAUMA Complex trauma: the effects of Single incident trauma – the effects trauma experiences that happen of a trauma experience such as a multiple times; over time (eg/ ongoing natural disaster, an accident, or a abuse, domestic violence, war) sudden unexpected loss Developmental trauma: the effects Intergenerational trauma: effects of exposure to trauma as infants, that can be experienced by people children or youth. Includes neglect, who live with trauma survivors. abandonment, abuse, witnessing Coping patterns developed in violence or death, and/or coercion or response to trauma can be passed on betrayal. This interferes with healthy from one generation to the next attachment and development.

GROUP AND HISTORICAL TRAUMA A trauma informed practice needs inclusion of how colonization worked cumulatively to create complex trauma. Renee Linklater

WE CAN MAKE A Exposure to cumulative Traumatic traumatic events creates a DIFFERENCE Event cycle of effects Experience of the event (Survival response: Fight/Flight/Freeze) A trauma informed Medium term effects –able to response Medium term effects –not able stabilize, self regulate, make system can to stabilize or self regulate meaning of the event mean that long negative effects Long term effects – continued are avoided. Long term effects – physical and physical and mental health concerns, mental health, resilience, positive adverse effects on relationships, connections to family, community and community connections and spirituality spirituality Long term effects may be large or small, may lessen or worsen over time, and will vary for different individuals Adapted from https://trauma- informed.ca/

RESPONSES TO TRAUMA Biological responses Psychological responses • Release of stress hormone cortisol • When the limbic system (emotional centre of • In the moment, biological responses might the brain) is engaged, the “thinking brain” is look like crying, tight muscles, shallow less accessible, leading to difficulties with breathing, heart pounding, feeling numb, learning, memory, and reasoning feeling agitated . . . • Impacts can include intrusive memories, • Long-term activation of the nervous system nightmares, flashbacks can lead to poor health outcomes Social responses Spiritual responses • Difficulty navigating relationships with others • Compromised sense of self – low self- • Isolation and avoiding people, conversations, esteem/concept of self-worth situations, places, objects and feelings, • Loss of sense of purpose, loss of hope thoughts and bodily sensations • Loss of connection to self and others • Reactivity, heightened emotional responses • Loss of faith/beliefs; changes in core values • Persistent guilt, anger, and/or fear

IMMEDIATE EFFECTS OF FEELING THREATENED OR OVERWHELMED • When we are threatened, our “fight or flight” system is activated • We cannot control the “fight or flight” response, it arises from our autonomic nervous system • For many trauma survivors, this system is activated when interactions or environments mimic trauma experiences. This response can be triggered by actual threats as well as perceived threats, or things that remind us of past harm • When our fight or flight system is activated, we cannot “calm down” until we feel safe again

Davidson, S. (2017). Trauma informed practices for post-secondary education: A guide. Education Northwest.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/Covid-19-Has-Worsened- the/248753 https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11- 627-m/11-627-m2020032-eng.htm

IS THIS VIEW OF TRAUMA AND TRAUMA INFORMED ALIGNED WITH YOUR PREVIOUS UNDERSTANDING? HAS ANYTHING NEW EMERGED FOR YOU?

WORKING FROM PRINCIPLES

THESE 4 PRINCIPLES HELP US APPLY TRAUMA INFORMED APPROACHES Safety and Awareness Trustworthiness 1. Awareness of the prevalence and impacts of trauma, and the adaptations that people make to cope 2. Creating safety and fostering trust Choice, Strength, Skills Control, and 3. Offering choice and control, fostering Collaboration Empowerment collaboration 4. Supporting the development of specific skills

AWARE We can bring into our work awareness: 1. Of the effects of trauma – the wide range of responses survivors have 2. Of the implications for learning (e.g. survivors possibly expressing feelings of anger, mistrust, fear, refusal of help) 3. Of resilience – we are not case-seeking for trauma, but instead we are seeking for (and enhancing) resilience 4. Of the implications for educators as well (vicarious trauma)

What are we doing to bring awareness of trauma and coping responses into our work? Am I paying attention to signs of distress? Do I know where resources and supports are located and the process of accessing these?

SAFETY AND TRUSTWORTHINESS Central to trauma informed approaches are: 1. Creating safety to discuss the challenges facing individuals, families and communities 2. Safety that is physical , emotional, spiritual and cultural. 3. Consideration of how to move from confrontational and directive approaches to ones that build relationship and trust .

What are we doing to bring safety and trustworthiness into our work Is the learning environment calm and inviting? Have I created rules for engagement in the classroom?

CHOICE, COLLABORATION AND CONNECTION 1. TIP is a relational practice 2. Reparative of overwhelming and power-over experiences 3. Supportive of people having agency, self determination and ‘power within’

What are we doing to promote choice, collaboration and connection? Have I created a classroom where we view one another as allies How do we address accountability concerns?