6.2 The teacher must survive: self-care and managing secondary trauma
6.2 The teacher must survive: self-care and managing secondary trauma
Anyone who lives and works with traumatised children may be affected by secondary traumatic stress. As we’ve seen in earlier sections, we are all, at all times, both vulnerable and resilient. Educators and educational systems have an ethical duty to build resilience and reduce vulnerability in themselves and their colleagues as secondary traumatic stress is a health and safety issue. In this section we will look at two broad domains of self-care: strategies for the prevention of secondary traumatic stress and strategies for the management of secondary traumatic stress.
Prevention
Prevention is better than cure, but the disorders cannot always be prevented. Training, support and coaching can all reduce the risk of teachers developing secondary traumatic stress disorder in the first place. When stress disorders do develop, various methods – in addition to training, support and supervision – can be used to treat the condition.
Prevention strategies: training and professional development
Understanding what secondary trauma is and what causes it reduces a person’s vulnerability and increases resilience. Training which increases understanding in the network of support around for teachers and groups of educational staff, increase their resilience. Training in managing stress will increase a teacher’s ability to respond to stress in ways that are less damaging. Enhancing the teacher’s professional knowledge and skills in trauma informed practice, increases their sense of professional identity, while also improving their capacity for teamwork and communication. Similarly, training aimed at personal development also increases the teacher’s sense of having an identity outside of work. Improving skill in sport, or some other pursuit such as music or dance increases the sense of joy in living which helps to protect us from the effects of stress. Educators and support staff in roles or location where no training has traditionally been offered or who would find it difficult to attend courses can utilise techniques such as online learning and distance learning or combinations of different learning methods.
Prevention strategies: support
An audit of one’s social support network, and methods to increase the quality of the support one is receiving, is possibly the most useful exercise in self-care. Informal support may come from people within the individual’s network who are familiar with the concept of secondary traumatic stress disorder and who recognise the signs. Teachers benefit from including at least one ‘trusted challenger’-someone who understands the dynamics of trauma and will point out changes in an individual and ensure that they get treatment.
Formal support may come from structures set up by the school or education department, such as peer support groups, who understand the dynamics of trauma; experienced mentors or people who know a particular traumatised child; or telephone or onl