Where Trauma Awareness Falls Short
What does recovery from trauma look like?
Recovery from trauma is possible. Trauma awareness risks focusing too much on the problem and not enough on the solution.
We can’t fix what we don’t see or grasp. To reduce the negative impact of adversity, we must first be able to name the harm, understand what promotes or hinders healing, and what effective help looks like.
Slowly but surely, trauma is becoming a popular topic. There’s lots of content out there about events that may lead to trauma and what post-traumatic stress looks like. (I recommend reading first the World Health Organisation’s criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder and complex post-traumatic stress disorder. To my North American friends: I’m afraid the DSM criteria isn’t as readily available online.) Therapeutic modalities that work well in the treatment of trauma are also frequently discussed.
But trauma awareness is incomplete unless it speaks of recovery. It helps to recognise the signs of traumatic stress and know what to do. But the more experience I gain in this field, the more I feel that what we’re not doing well enough is giving people a view of what’s possible and energising them for a journey that will be long, expensive, and inevitably full of detours and disappointments.
What does recovery look like?
For many people, recovery after trauma emerges organically, as a byproduct of internal and external resources, time, safe environments and supportive relationships. This is why the majority of people exposed to adverse events will not develop chronic health conditions.
Recovery involves returning to a baseline of felt safety, a sense of agency and positive emotional experiences. The path back can be slow and the signs subtle, which is perhaps one of the reasons they don’t make the headlines. Signs of recovery can include less muscular tension, fewer nightmares, significantly different dream themes, greater ease in relationships, and increased self-compassion.
But the biggest indicator of recovery from trauma may be in the way we talk - or don’t - about what happened. The ability to look back, shrug and think “none of this is unique or my fault; bad sh*t just happens” seems to be the clearest sign of someone who has truly moved on. Judith Herman ends her seminal book Trauma and Recovery with this:
“The survivor who has achieved commonality with others can rest from her labors. Her recovery is accomplished; all that remains before her is her life.”
Recovery is possible, but not always in reach
No one chooses to be unwell. In the absence of the right skills and support, distress turns chronic and destructive. Recovery becomes more difficult and often requires trained professionals.
Which makes recovery, for many survivors, a question of access (something I touch on in this conversation as well). Getting help is not a simple matter of gathering information or making decisions. Solutions such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR), peer support or trauma-informed yoga look like a wealth of choices at one’s fingertips, until you try to get some. In reality, many are unavailable (as I’ve learned from my own unsuccessful attempt at neurofeedback), prohibitively expensive, or both. A survivor I spoke with recently had been on an NHS waiting list for three years before accessing one course of treatment - a lucky outcome considering that access to free, high-quality healthcare is not a default.
Recovery from trauma takes more than motivation and individual effort.
Why this matters for leaders and workplaces
Most people carry a legacy of trauma, whether they are aware of it or not. We spend most of our adult lives at work, which makes the workplace a powerful factor in our recoveries. Our work environment will either help or hinder our progress and then shape work outputs, whether leaders acknowledge it or not. It is each leader’s responsibility to reflect on the quality of their team’s environment and focus on what they can control, even when they may be struggling themselves and lack support.
How far are you in your recovery, and how can you tell? Which activities, people and places carry you forward, and which pull you back?
Until next time,
Adina
I'm doing EMDR and parts work with my therapist. I feel compassion and love for myself. I even feel compassion for my late uncle who sexually abused me. Someone abused him. I still have work to do but in six years, I have come a long way.