The Life We Choose
Join the Trauma At Work community, a place where we build the life we choose after trauma, together.
The NHS Education for Scotland defines recovery from trauma as living the life you choose. It’s the best description of recovery I’ve come across so far.
In my own long, muddled journey after trauma, I’ve learnt that recovery needn’t be another isolating endurance test.
We can certainly make it that, but it’s an unnecessarily lonely and painful choice.
Much like the original trauma, our environment (physical, emotional, relational) plays a big role.
Harm can be prevented and minimised when we’re surrounded by safe and supportive others. Recovery and post-traumatic growth can also be helped along by the right resources and support.
We didn’t have the power to control our environment when the harm took place, but we can choose the environment we place ourselves in today.
Isolation may feel safe, but beyond a certain point, it no longer serves us. Knowledge is not enough. Willpower and IQ are not everything. Books and blogs are not sufficient. As with most things in life, recovery becomes quicker and easier when done with people who get it and commit to protecting and helping each other.
Writing about trauma is rewarding, but limiting. It is time to open up a community where we can take things further through:
Deeper, two-way conversations: the type you simply cannot have through public articles
Balancing insights with action: because life happens in the real world, not on a page.
So today I invite you to join the Trauma At Work private community by becoming a paid subscriber, and walk into a space designed for anyone who’s been through adversity, is making peace with the past, and finds themselves turning more often towards the future, wondering: what now?
What is the Trauma At Work private community?
The Trauma At Work private community is a place for trauma survivors to connect, learn, reflect, experiment, offer and receive peer support.
What you get when you join:
One theme we’re working with each month. We’ll pick things that trauma survivors usually struggle with. For example, the topic of June is relationships. The topic of July will be self-care.
Live community call each month - usually at 2pm UTC on the 1st or 2nd Thursday of each month. I share each month one brief insight, framework or personal story. We then spend most of the time discussing what that topic means for each community member, and how each of us can take positive action.
First community call: Thursday, 11 June, 2 pm UTC
(7 am PDT / 10 am EDT / 3 pm BST / 11 pm JST)
Private Substack chat: for ongoing check-ins, inspiration, and encouragement.
I specialise in how trauma plays out in work settings, so expect regular nudges to consider how each topic unfolds in your everyday work life and career. Take June’s theme, relationships: in our call next week and subsequent chat conversations, we’ll discuss the power of wide social circles and some simple steps we can take to broaden ours, in general but also at work.
Important Disclaimer
The Trauma At Work community is not a suitable space for people who are still being harmed, who are experiencing intense distress, dissociation or dysregulation on a regular basis, or who are primarily focused on processing past traumatic experiences. If you’re not safe, please contact law enforcement or emergency services. If you’re dealing with intense distress, dissociation or dysregulation, please speak to a trauma-focused specialist (doctor, mental health nurse, clinical psychologist, social worker) — they’re best placed to support you at this stage.
The people who will gain the most from joining the Trauma At Work community are those looking at crises in their rearview mirror as they drive to a place they’ve never been before. They’re out of danger, they’ve had first aid, their wounds have healed, although they’re still achy and pink. It is a future-oriented space for adversity survivors who are now safe enough to focus primarily forward and are willing to take small steps outside their comfort zone while keeping an eye on the embers of past trauma.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is this different from other online communities?
We’ll do three things differently here:
Monthly themes: By visiting different topics each month, we’re keeping the content varied and valuable for everyone.
Focus on action: Many communities limit themselves to sharing, reflection, and validation. There will be a lot of that on here as well, but we will always attempt to take it one step further towards small, safe experiments and practice.
Connection to work and careers: Work is where we spend most of our time, and often our only ticket to a life we choose. Making work work for us is something I’m committed to embedding in all our conversations (albeit not in a suffocating manner).
Will it be the right fit for you? Each community is different - in terms of content, moderation style, personalities and engagement rules. Like most things available to survivors, you won’t know until you try — but now, at least, you know what you’d be trying.
How much does it cost?
The community is for both monthly subscribers (£12/month) and annual subscribers (£125/year). During this inaugural month of June, annual subscribers get 20% off 🎊. To claim the discount: https://traumaatwork.substack.com/f46aa62e.
Can I still join if I’m not on Substack?
Of course you can. The monthly calls will be on Google Meet, so you don’t need a Substack account for them. The chat function, however, is on Substack and requires you to be here.
Who is going to lead all the calls?
I’m nowhere near as rich or famous as to sell you the idea and then drop you off with a Community Manager you’ve never met before. I (Adina) will organise and facilitate all the community calls. If you’ve been reading my newsletter for a while, you probably have a sense of who I am and how I approach things, but if you’re new to Trauma At Work, here are a few articles to get to know me better:
What happens if I’m a free subscriber and want to stay that way?
Nothing changes for my free subscribers. I hope you continue to enjoy my bi-weekly free articles, and I look forward to your feedback, comments, and messages, as we’ve done so far.
I hope this leaves you inspired, and I can’t wait to meet as many of you as possible next week.
But more than anything, I can’t wait to start building the life we choose, together.
Warmly,
Adina
I'm so glad you're creating this space for people!
Love what you're doing here. So much of my work as a workplace investigator is sitting with people in the worst part of it, and the what comes after question is one I rarely get to ask out loud. Naming that you get to choose what comes after is powerful.