Developing a Trauma Informed Organisation
"The expectation that we can be immersed in suffering and loss daily and not be touched by it is as unrealistic as expecting to be able to walk through water without getting wet." Rachel Remen
The aim of this package is to:
- Enable organisations to focus on developing a “trauma informed” trusting organisational culture.
- Encourage the development of a "learning organisational approach" embedding the principles of good reflective practice, psychological thinking and the development of a nurturing organisational culture.
- Support and guide Executive and Board level Directors and Senior Leadership Teams to implement the delivery of a “trauma informed” organisational approach.
- Contribute to and develop important strategic priorities such as successful staff development, staff support and well being practices and staff retention.
- Ensure services develop robust governance practices that enable them to safeguard their staff and the vulnerable people they support by ensuring good evidence based reflective practice.
- Recognise and value the importance of supporting staff’s emotional well being, continued professional development, promoting a nurturing and learning culture.
- Develop good Organisational congruence vital to helping staff teams to feel safe and trusting in their relationships with the organisation leading to safe and effective practice.
This Trauma Informed Organisational training programme is designed to support organisations who care for children and young people including: public sector services such as Social Services and Local Authority groups as well as Schools and Education provisions, charities and residential care services, adoption and foster care services:
- Senior Management/Leadership Teams are encouraged to understand, recognise and identify secondary/vicarious trauma in their staff, promoting staff well-being. Identifying and recgnising compassion fatigue and adopting systems to ensure staff are supported in their work to embrace self care and reflective practice
- Developing a “no blame” culture and recognising that frontline work with traumatised families can lead to organisations becoming traumatised through secondary and vicarious trauma.
An experienced, creative Clinician and Organisational Consultant and Trainer, Dr Wendy Coetzee, Consultant Clinical Psychologist has developed a training package to support organisations wanting to develop a "Trauma Informed" Organisational Approach based on the inspirational work of authors Dr Karen Treisman (MBE) and Sandra Bloom.
This work can re-invigorate an organisation’s vision and values and enable them to consider how to influence a psychologically informed culture.
What do we mean by being a Trauma Informed organisation?
- "Organisations like a person are alive with thoughts, feelings, and values. Organisations are emotional and relational places. Organisations are alive and can have a collective brain. Like people they grow, change and develop" (Treisman, 2021)
- An organisation's values, culture and ethos can influence their ability to reflect on and identify their strengths, weaknesses and their identity.
- Organisations and services that support vulnerable groups, work with traumatised individuals eg staff working with complex children, young people, families are at risk of being impacted emotionally by their work and vulnerable to the effects of secondary trauma, compassion, fatigue leading and parallel mirroring processes.
- to high rates of staff turnover, staff sickness and work related stress.
- Working with trauma and complex emotional, social and mental health needs can be emotionally and psychologically draining and can be prone to high rates of staff turnover, staff sickness and work related stress.
- A “trauma informed” organisational approach can help organisations to recognise and identify develop ways of understanding, supporting and training staff to promote and prioritise emotional and mental health and well being and reduce vicarious trauma.
- Trauma informed organisations need support to develop a supportive and reflective culture, helping them to develop both a culture that promotes emotional safety and well being but also echoes this in its ethos and demonstrates it's commitment to this in it's systems, process, policy etc.
- A “trauma informed” strategic approach enables an organisation to adopt a person centred ethos and culture from its most senior leaders to the staff working on the front line.
- Staff working in the caring professions are at great risk of compassion fatigue, secondary trauma including physical and emotional exhaustion, and a reduced ability to empathise and support others. All of which endanger staff’s engagement and staff retention.
- Organisations need support to develop a culture of learning, development, openness, a “non-blame” culture and empathy all of which can negate the effects of vicarious trauma and can prevent burnout from occurring.
Trauma informed organisations benefit from having an enhanced reputation, improved outcomes, increased staff retention and staff morale and loyalty and most importantly improved outcomes with the people they care for, ensuring they offer a therapeutically congruent approach. In a sector where the most important asset are it’s people, it makes both moral and economic sense for organisations to take organisational culture and staff well-being seriously.
Course Content
This Trauma Informed Organisational training programme is designed to support organisations who work with traumatised people including: public sector services such as Social Services and Local Authority groups as well as Schools and Education provisions, Charities and Commercial residential care, adoption and foster care services.
- Understanding Organisational Trauma, Vicarious/Secondary trauma, identifying signs and symptoms of trauma in the system.
- Developing a Trauma Informed organisational approach: organisational values, vision and culture ensuring that these are aligned with a “trauma informed” approach and evidenced in systems, processes and policies.
- Developing organisational resilience, staff well being and developing systems that can continue to support staff in their roles.
- This work can re-invigorate an organisation’s vision and values and enable them to consider how to develop a trauma informed organisational culture improving its outcomes and staff well being.
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Places still available on 19/20th March and 9/10th April 2025 in Warwickshire