Trauma-Informed Townhall
Trauma-informed care holds profound importance but is currently facing significant challenges. At its core, trauma-informed care is meant to be inclusive, compassionate, and universally applicable, addressing the needs of all individuals without exclusion. However, recent shifts in federal policies, funding priorities, and organizational practices have raised concerns about the erosion of this approach. In today's episode of A Trauma-Informed Future Podcast, host Katie Kurtz discusses how efforts to dilute or limit trauma-informed care, including discriminatory exclusions and censorship, undermine its fundamental principles. She shares a recap from a recent Trauma-Informed Town Hall and highlights important discussions and resources to protect this vital framework and to remain steadfast, collaborative, and adaptive.
Resources mentioned:
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Show Transcript:
Katie Kurtz (she/her):
Hi everyone, and welcome to a Trauma Informed Future podcast. I'm your host, Katie Kurtz, subject matter expert in trauma informed care and specializing in its application into self leadership and leadership of cultures and brands. [00:01:00] I am here today to give you a bit of a recap from our Trauma Informed Town Hall held on March 4th.
This was a call to convene trauma informed folks especially in the United States but from people from all over the world to come together to talk about the state of trauma informed care, where we're at and where we're going. And so I wanted to give a bit of a recap. We had about 130 folks join us from all over the U. S. We did have some friends from Canada and UK and Australia and even Turkey.
And so we Came together to first and foremost co regulate our nervous systems, right? To come together in a time that's so dysregulating all over the world. We exist in social structures and systems that are actively dysregulating us to the point where it's becoming We're just in a constant state of dysregulation, whether it's a functional freeze or just, gripping to feel it, that feeling of like, when's the next you going to drop [00:02:00] and some of us may ebb and flow in and out of that, but it is pretty palpable.
We came together to co regulate our nervous systems a bit, to find ways to, if we're feeling hyper aroused, how do we come to neutral by grounding? And if we're feeling that functional freeze, that hypo arousal, how do we come up to neutral through release? And it was a beautiful way because we know our nervous systems are mirrors.
We know that our nervous systems impact our actions and interactions. So it was a beautiful way to come together and co regulate. We then discussed just the state of the approach, trauma informed care, specifically in the U. S. But it's impacted because we know what happens here happened, has an effect everywhere.
And so we heard from the Campaign for Trauma Informed Practice and Policy, which is a non profit, non nonpartisan advocacy group in Washington, D. C. that really advocates and elevates trauma informed legislation and [00:03:00] policy and also helps activate state, people at the state level and local levels for trauma informed funding and trauma informed practice for the sustainability of this approach.
We got some great updates from them. And calls to action on ways that we can support what is already in existence. People who are doing the advocacy and engaging with policymakers. You may remember Jesse Kohler from the podcast. I will link it in the show notes. He is the executive director of CTIPP and he joined us on our call.
And that is a great episode to revisit and to check out CTIPP. list in the show notes. They have monthly CAN calls, which are advocacy calls that you can get involved with. If you want to get involved in your state collaborative efforts, trauma informed collaborative efforts, that is a great way to also get get a hold of them and find ways to connect within your state.
I shared a lot of updates just from the field. I work across industries, and so I shared a lot of updates regarding what I'm [00:04:00] seeing the shifts regarding language and since that Trauma Informed Town Hall, we saw a publication from the New York Times sharing the updated list of words that are being flagged and.
What we emphasize in the Trump Hall is whether the administration moves forward with all the executive orders, banning these words, flagging these words, punishing people for utilizing these words, and more importantly, the actions, whether that succeeds or fails, the fact that it's happening is troublesome, and we should be paying attention, and we need to be being mindful.
And really, another call to action we had was Encouraging people to continue to use those words. Business as usual for trauma informed leaders is continuing to show up and emphasize our trauma informed principles of autonomy and accessibility, inclusion, of curiosity and discernment, and making sure that we are [00:05:00] amplifying trust and safety.
Continuing business as usual for us is exactly what it is, and that's how we, really help folks reconnect to safety, which is the antidote of collective trauma. We talked about naming a thing, which I've done a lot here is just naming what we're experiencing, which is collective trauma.
The compounded layers of cumulative stress that we've been experiencing since the dawn of this country, but especially in the in the last four years, which we have saw with the catalyst of the pandemic beginning and how that has just accumulated again, both indirectly, directly every single person in the world.
So discussing that and how we're seeing that manifest on a personal and professional levels. A reminder that naming a thing doesn't give it more power. If we say we're experiencing collective trauma, it doesn't mean that collective trauma now has complete power over us. It gives us the power, the people naming it, [00:06:00] to understand what's happening. To have a word for it. And to then have the power to do something about it.
We know that trauma and trauma informed care Historically, and continues to be, words and concepts that people tend to cringe, or they think or assume is a bad word, or they don't like us using. I get asked all the time, can we use a no more positive word?
And the reality is, again, business as usual for us is, no, we're going to continue to use this word because we need to name a thing. We need to create meaning making. And the more we use it, the more we destigmatize. And the more we destigmatize, The more normal it is, because the goal of a trauma informed future, as we've heard from every guest on this podcast, the hope is that we just, it's just the future. It's just leadership. We don't have to use the disclaimer that it's trauma informed because it's just the intuitive, natural way of being.
We did discuss some shifts happening and taking notice at the Centers for Disease Control, or CDC, and SAMHSA, the [00:07:00] Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration, with some fluctuations in accessibility to trauma informed information and publications.
We're keeping an eye on that. It ebbs and flows, and all these other things happening at the administration. We want to keep a close eye on that. We also discussed how trauma healing modalities, trauma informed care, trauma informed anything are, have and will continue to be misinterpreted, misconstrued, and even weaponized.
So this isn't something new. However, it is being more common people are being more emboldened to share nervous system care practices, somatics, which is, becoming more and more of a quote unquote misused buzzword. And even trauma informed care, trauma informed trainings, et cetera, saying this is what it is, but then their actions go directly against the fidelity and the origins the model or their actions are not aligned with the principles. And so that is [00:08:00] where potential harm comes.
And these things that we're seeing often are from folks who have influencer level followings, who have costly programs. And so we really want to be mindful of just being extra discerning and encouraging people to discern.
Anyone who is in trauma focused services or trauma informed care will be able to answer questions, gladly welcome those questions, and if they can't answer it, that should be a yellow flag to pause or a red flag to walk away. This is something I've talked about for forever. It's not new. We're just seeing it enhance and increase. The other thing to consider is how trauma and trauma informed care is being weaponized.
We know at the United States federal level, we're seeing mass layoffs and firings of departments and even eradications of departments. That is a specific mechanism to purposely cause people to feel trauma. that is a tactic. And so again, [00:09:00] a reminder, we cannot. Say, we are preventing, healing, or mitigating trauma, or that we are trauma informed and utilize the same tools that cause stress, trauma, and harm, right? Multiple things can be true at the same time. Trauma informed care is the practice of building capacity for nuance.
But that doesn't mean that trauma informed care is neutral. Trauma informed care is not tolerance. It doesn't mean we agree with everyone. It's not perfection because we know perfection is not real and it's harm towards ourselves most, most of the time. And we know that trauma informed care doesn't mean we don't have boundaries or that we're cuddling or agreeing.
That is not it. Trauma informed care is not conditional or neutral. Many things are true. We build our critical thinking skills, our discerning skills, and our ability to hold nuance. However, Trauma informed care and the support of policies, people, and structures that actively cause harm and [00:10:00] trauma, both individually and collectively, those two things cannot be true at the same time.
They are not. And so we need to remember that when people are saying they're trauma informed or their programs or their organizations, but then their actions deliberately support people or policies that are holding up structures and systems that actively harm and traumatize, or are contributing to the collective trauma, then that is not trauma informed.
And we're seeing, and again, this is not new, trauma informed care be weaponized, meaning this is trauma informed care except not for those people. Maybe it excludes trans people, or it excludes other people of culture, or it's, this is for some people and not all. There's no exclusions in this. Remember, inclusion, even though that is a word we're having a hard time accepting because it's flagged, inclusion means there is a [00:11:00] barrier that of participation that is lifted to engage and value people.
it is a fundamental principle of trauma informed care, and if we are saying I'm trauma informed , but non inclusion, or accessibility, or cultural responsiveness, or cultural competence, except those things, then that is good to know, because what you're telling me is that is not trauma informed, that you are not trauma informed.
And This is really important things to clarify and clear up so that we can be discerning and more importantly, as trauma informed leaders, we can be more empowered. I hate that word, but we're using it here because what's happening is we're feeling a little bit of a friction. And what I'm noticing is that some people are then swinging to extremes and they're freezing.
And this is common. It happens. And an approach like this that is countercultural to What we exist [00:12:00] in, systems of harm, capitalism, oligarchies, supremacy, all of these things is that trauma informed care feels counter cultural because it is. It's human centered. It's empathy focused. And so what happens is we then swing to extremes and then we freeze and we don't do anything because we're afraid of getting it wrong.
We're afraid that we need to make it perfect. And I want to honor that it's that is you that's been me many times. to pause. Take a pause here. Get curious rather than judgmental. And then when you're ready after tending to your nervous system, ask yourself, why is that? What is happening? I train and work with thousands of global leaders every year.
And this comes up constantly. Of course, how human of us. That is going to happen. Remember, there is no arrival. It's an evolution and it's a practice. So just like anything, we're going to have moments of questioning. We're going to moments [00:13:00] of not feeling confident. We're going to have moments where we're unsure.
That is absolutely normal. It's absolutely human. But what that invites us into is getting curious of noticing what is the underlying root cause of that. And I would it. I can confidently say that 99. 9 percent of the time is there's an area that we're lacking some confidence, and we know that competence fuels confidence.
So that is an invitation that maybe we need to re examine our strengths and areas that need strengthening when it comes to the practice. Maybe we need to tune up, maybe we need to revisit, maybe we need to be a little more diligent about our practices, right? Trauma informed care typically is what we think of those six principles, but principles alone do not generate behavior and action.
Principles are guiding compasses that help inform our [00:14:00] actions and decisions and behaviors. But we need to actually act. And so trauma informed leadership is the actions. And that's where we focus on principles. The mindset with those principles in mind of autonomy, accessibility, inclusion, curiosity, collaboration, trust, and transparency to build that mindset to guide and inform our decisions, actions, and behaviors, but we need strategies and skills. to have those things be felt, right? If we want people to trust us, we can't just have good thoughts and say, I believe in trust. Trust is not felt just by saying it. They need to feel it, right? We need to have actions. And this is where we need to tune into our skills and strategies. What strategies are we using to generate trust points?
How are we really, honing in on our communication skills, our relationship building skills, our critical thinking skills, those things that are really essential to a trauma informed framework and [00:15:00] practice.
So many of us are feeling the impact and it's really easy to feel overwhelmed and hopeless and shut down and this trauma informed town hall was really about instilling hope and solidarity and we're going to have to get crafty because we always have been right.
We might have to Trojan horse our way into specific areas when we may have a hard time for people understanding what our work is or this approach. We always have right. And once we're in people develop shared language understanding and then they get it. This is where we also have to remember. that many people before us have fought this fight.
A reminder that trauma informed care is rooted in social justice frameworks and that people who were intentionally and marginally, who were intentionally and historically marginalized were at the helm of this approach. So we need to remember to pause, listen, learn, and follow their lead. We need to keep showing up and [00:16:00] using these words, leading this approach out loud.
When you're feeling that hesitancy to identify as trauma-informed, out of that fear, I want to encourage you to address that fear. Have that be a call to action, a call to courage. We need more people actually leading this approach out loud if, and that is whatever you gotta do to really feel confident to say, I am trauma-informed.
I'm, my work is, especially as a signal in your field. And remember, trauma informed care doesn't just exist here in the U. S. in a vacuum. This approach is utilized all over the world. We're part of a global community. The Trauma Informed Leadership Studio, our membership, has people from six different continents on this planet.
Leading and prioritizing this approach. We are not alone. Now is the time to find solidarity and true community of practice so that we can again, strengthen, [00:17:00] use and lead this approach out loud.
I am going to share our recap and list of which includes a list of resource links that we discussed in the town hall and our calls to action and hope we will be having more town halls.
Stay tuned. I wanted to be sure I gave you a recap in case you couldn't join us because we did not record it in order to build trust and in our space. But stay tuned. We will definitely have more where we'll focus on more shifts and stay connected because trauma informed care, as we know, like I just said, is rooted in social justice frameworks, which we know social justice is a long game.
Trauma informed care is a long game. We know that. We, among most people, are a community. far more prepared to hang out in the long game than most. So we need to utilize this practice, honor it, celebrate it, and make sure we're practicing trauma informed self care. We know how to pace ourselves. We know that it's [00:18:00] essential so that we're not furthering that too much, too fast, too soon nature of this collective trauma.
We know how to resource ourselves, and so we really need. to focus on how we move forward. How do we continue to commit to a trauma informed future by resourcing ourselves and showing up in this work? If you are feeling in that freeze, if you're unsure, if you really are saying, Okay, yeah, I need to strengthen some of my skills.
I need some more strategies and tools in place. There are plenty of resources in the resource guide that I'll be sharing, but also join us. We have workshops, we have the Trauma Informed Leadership Studio inside. There are tons of resources, toolkits, continuing education workshops, and peer support community practice circles where we do just that.
It's invitation is always open to you. That is exactly what it's there for. Community practice. for the long game. I'm in this with you. I will continue to share updates. I will continue [00:19:00] to be a convener of trauma informed leaders to come together and to share training and education and resources and know that I am in it too, right?
Remember, small shifts make big impact, and we together are globally creating a groundswell and it's happening and we're feeling it. So whatever you need to do to stay reconnected to your purpose, your principles, and then to align those actions so we can yield that impact. As always, I'm in this with you and until next time, take good care.
