TRAUMA INFORMED GROUPWORK

WHAT IS A TRAUMAINFORMED APPROACH?

LETS COMPARE.
What help looks like (not
trauma informed)

What help looks like

(trauma informed)

The facilitator decides what

help looks like

Facilitator defines needs

Relationships based on problem

solving/resource coordination
Safety=risk management
Experience defined by setting
and generalized based on
diagnoses
Whats wrong with you?

Trust and safety is mutually

defined, created, sustained in all
relationships-mutual aid
Shared decision
making/collaboration
Crisis =opportunity for growth
,meaningful connection
Promotion of strengths, enhanced
protective factors
Clients experiences are different
and have different meaning
What happened to you?

KEY PRINCIPLES
PHYSICAL & EMOTIONAL
SAFETY-TRAUMA AWARENESS
-triggersrecognizing and responding
in the moment
-no re-traumatization
-protecting against
facilitator vicarious trauma
-clear roles/boundaries

TRANSPARENCY

Building trust
No hidden agendas
Open communication

VOICE & CHOICE

Individualized approaches
Options
Empowerment
Connection

MUTUAL AID

KEY PRINCIPLES of MUTUAL AID

1.

Draws upon the strengths in group

2.

Everyones contribution has equal value

3. Problem solving happens as a result of worker skill and group

member expertise
4. Group members help themselves and each other concurrently
5.

Meets the needs of the group + individual member needs

4. Group can deal with taboos

5. Group negotiates conflict effectively

RESILENCE &
STRENGTHS BASED

FOR THE COFACILITATORS.

BE PREPARED TO BE
SAD, ANGRY, HELPLESS
BE PREPARED TO BE TRIGGEREDPREPARE
1. Identify and discuss your personal triggers,
how you can best support each other, your
worst fear(how bad is it really?), use of self?
2. Plan activities that involve combinations of
talking, doing, reflecting
3. Be clear about your goals-what is realistic
4. Be clear about your timeframe

YOUR ROLE IS
To listen, reassure, support, interpret,
translate, advocate
To facilitate posttraumatic growth
Help group members find their voice

YOUR ROLE IS NOT

To cheer up group members and

make them feel better

POSTTRAUMATIC GROWTH

Finds meaning in the trauma

Increases self-awareness
Finds opportunities to apply new self-knowledge and
skills to make healthier life choices.
Includes changes in self-perception
Improvement and deepening of relationships
Heighted compassion
Increased ability to express emotions

GRIEF AND TRAUMA

GROUPS INCORPORATE

Developmentally specific
interventions

Ecological approach

Culturally relevant methods

DEVELOPMENTALLY
SPECIFIC
INTERVENTIONS

Combine drawing, crafts, drama,

play, storytelling
Purpose: -to educate about grief
and trauma reactions
-to help members
express thoughts and
feelings about what
has happened

ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Identifying risk, protective and

strength factors
Individual, family, school/community
interventions
Case management, advocacy,
community collaboration
what does the child/youth/family
need?

BEING CULTURALLY
RELEVANT

Respecting/incorporating intervention strategies

based on cultural and spiritual beliefs and
practices/death rituals
Being mindful of own assumptions about impacts
of trauma
Understanding the cultural/historical/political
context where the group is implemented
Understand that self-disclosure, help seeking
and being able to describe experience in another
language varies widely from culture to culture

GROUP GOALS

Increase practical knowledge about

trauma and trauma impacts
Increase sense of safety
Promote utilization of adult support
Encourage engagement in interests
Foster hopefulness about the present and
future
Create a sense of mastery and control
Develop capacity to self-soothe
Tolerate the trauma narrative
Reminisce about comforting memories

Tri-Phasic Model of a
TRAUMA GROUP Judith Herman

1. Resilience and safety: forming,

storming and norming

2. Restorative retelling:
performing

3. Reconnecting: adjourning

1. RESILIENCE AND SAFETY:

regaining internal and external
control

Orientation- Where am I?
Anxiety reduction/stabilization
Belonging
Structure-Schedule, purpose, goals, rules
Identify supportive people (parents/teachers) to
help cope
Create supportive group environment
Identify and highlight hope, bravery, coping

2. RESTORATIVE
RETELLING-remembrance
and mourning

Grounded in CBT and Narrative practices

Explore the meaning of trauma/loss to the youth
Create a space in which group members can
reconstruct and make sense of a devastating
experience
Promote skill building ie. Anger management ,
relaxation, stress management
Connect thoughts, feelings, behaviour
Correct cognitive distortions ie guilt/blame
Externalize the problem
Active participant vs. external observer
Group bears witness to the traumatic experience

3. RECONNECTING

Redefine oneself in the context of

meaningful relationships with others and
themselves
Recognize that what happened to them has
shaped them but doesnt define them.they
are more than.
Positive things about the current situation
Hopes for the future
Termination and separation from the group

BEREAVEMENT GROUPS

YOUR GROUP MEMBERS

NEED

to be able to cry, rage, vent, remain silent

help to find commonalities in experiences/feeling

to ask questions about death and dying

What happens to your body when you die?
Why do caskets have satin in them?
Where does the blood go?
What happens at a funeral?
Do you believe in heaven?, God?, Allah? h

Information: understanding grief as a

transition through stages/what to expect/whats
normal
Guidance: Ideas for how to commemorateculturally significant/relationship context
Activities/forums that let them share with each
other
Activities that promote growth through the
stages towards healing
Activities that encourage letting go and
moving on

IMMEDIATE ACTIVITIES
MAY INCLUDEDoing
- attending visitation, funeral, memorial,
ceremony
-on-line memorials ie Gone Too Soon,
Soul 11 Soul, MySpace, Facebook
-writing a letter, making/sending a
sympathy card, filming a message to
family
-sending flowers, dolls, keepsakes
-visiting a cemetery

LATER ACTIVITIES
Remembering
-memory box/scrapbook
-drawing a picture >>> me and
doing our favourite thing? Best memory?
-telling the relationship story
-bringing in pictures, keepsakes
-playing a song
-reading a poem

Coping.
-grief box tracking the feelings
-what helps?- Pain relief
-who helps? Mutual aid
Support networks-RESOURCES
Key people
-whats the hardest part?
-what makes it worse?
-how to deal?

Processing/understanding
-loss history timeline drawing
-feeling identification specifically
LOSS, REGRET, REMORSE,

GUILT

FORGIVENESS
Writing a story, making a film- Soul 11 Soul
- Identifying the impact-personal
-social
-spiritual
-accepting the changes
-

Saying Goodbye and Moving

On
-

goodbye letter to the deceased

Release ritual- balloons, candles, birds, wishes,
keepsakes
Something to hold on to
Anniversaries/future rituals
Re-channeling/redirecting energy
into living