Trauma-Informed Lens

Trauma-Informed Lens

By Matthew BennettBusinessEducationNon-Profit
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Trauma-Informed Lens episodes

  • Episode 76: Emotional Labor, Emotional Intelligence, & Working with Trauma

    Podcasters: Matthew Bennett, Curt Mower, & Dr. Jerry Yager

    Pain, shame, self-doubt, suffering, depression, anxiety, anger are just a few of the emotions we encounter working with people struggling with trauma. We create safe places for people to express their emotions and heal from trauma. In this episode, Matt, Curt, and Jerry examine what makes us effective in our work by looking at emotional labor and emotional intelligence.

    Discussion Questions:

    1. What role does emotional labor play in whether you are successful in your position?
    2. What role does emotional intelligence play in your success with those you serve and your teammates?
    3. How could you assess and build emotional labor and emotional intelligence to improve job performance?

      4. This week’s article: Emotional Intelligence Emotional Labor and Work Effectiveness in Service Organizations

      1 hr 2 min
    4. Episode 75: Role of Supervision in Trauma-Informed Workplaces

      Podcasters: Matt Bennett & Dr. Jerry Yager

      In this episode, Matt and Jerry explore the role of supportive strategic supervision in trauma-informed workplaces. We share our experiences on both sides of the supervision relationship. What role did supervision we receive play in our professional development? How did we positive supervision as part of our efforts to run quality programs and organizations?

      Discussion Questions

      • What has your experiences (positive and negative) been with supervision?
      • How might your organization/program benefit from supervision or rethinking your current approach?
      • How do you see supervision’s role in a trauma-informed organization?

        • 58 min
      • Episode 74: Affect in Helping Organizations

        Podcasters: Matt Bennett, Curt Mower, & Dr. Jerry Yager

        Do emotions play a role in organizational outcomes? Working with trauma, we pay special attention to emotional regulation, mood disorders, and other powerful emotions. It is obvious to see how emotions hinder many people’s ability to achieve positive life outcomes. In this episode, Matt, Curt, and Jerry examine the influences of emotions in organizations that try to help others achieve emotional and social health.

        Discussion questions:

        1. What are the top five emotions you experience in working with the people you serve?
        2. What are the top five emotions you encounter in your co-workers and leadership?
        3. How do these emotions impact you in negative or positive ways?

          4. Article for this week’s post: Why Does Affect Matter

          1 hr 3 min
        4. Episode 73: Small t trauma

          Podcasters: Matt Bennett, Curt Mower, & Dr. Jerry Yager

          What is small t trauma? Does it exist at all? Matt and Jerry have different opinions on the topic, and we spend this episode trying to figure out our differences and come to some sort of consensus. Not quite a battle royal but join us for a fascinating conversation on an important topic.

          Discussion questions:

          1. What are your thoughts on small t trauma?
          2. How do you see long-term stress impacting those you serve?
          3. Do you see a distinction between the impacts of big T and small t traumas?

            4. 56 min
          4. Episode 72: Interview with Dr. Robert T. Muller Author of Trauma & The Struggle to Open Up

            Podcasters: Dr. Robert T. Muller, Matt Bennett, & Curt Mower

            Dr. Robert T. Muller joins Matt and Curt to discuss his new book Trauma & The Struggle to Open Up: From Avoidance to Recovery & Growth. Dr. Muller’s book beautifully frames how the guilt and shame of trauma affects peoples’ ability to discuss and overcome their traumatic pasts. We explore his insights and how they help inform our approaches to helping others heal from trauma.

            Discussion questions:

            1. How do you those you serve trying to avoid dealing with trauma, painful feeling, and their pasts?
            2. Can you identify times that you felt unprepared to handle a powerful disclosure of trauma?
            3. What are ways you could integrate Dr. Muller’s insight into your work?

              4. Click the book cover for more information on Dr. Muller’s book and here for his Psychology Today Blog

              1 hr
            4. Episode 71: Self-regulation & Psychosocial Well-being

              In our final episode in our heart rate variability (HRV) series, Matt, Curt, and Jerry examine the connecting between HRV, self-regulation, and psychosocial well-being. We also reflect on the entire series and crucial lessons learned about trauma’s impact on critical biomarkers. Is HRV the next major step forward in education, psychology, and medicine?

              Discussion questions:

              1. What are the key points you’ve learned in our examination on HRV?
              2. Have our discussions convinced you to track your own HRV?
              3. How do you see HRV impacting the future of education, psychology, and medicine?

                4. This week’s article: Cardiac Coherence, self regulation, autonomic stability

                 

                53 min
              4. Episode 70: Autonomic Regulation and Cooperation

                Podcasters: Matt Bennett, Curt Mower, & Dr. Jerry Yager

                Trauma-related symptoms have been demonstrated to impede the establishment of effective working alliance between therapist and client.  In the article we discuss today, researchers provide some conceptual framework and empirical data that suggest a strong relationship between autonomic regulation and working alliance between therapists and clients seeking trauma-focused treatment.  This also leads to a discussion of the impact autonomic regulation on the formation of effective interpersonal communication, connection, trust, and shared goals that are required for cooperative interactions in other contexts.

                Discussion Questions:

                • If you were to guess, how many of those you work with would measure in a way that shows they are going to struggle to create a healthy working relationship with you?
                • What are some things you could do for those who are not ready to help them to succeed and limit retraumatization?
                • If this technology was given to you for free today, how or would you use it?

                  • This week’s article: Physiological predictors of Working Alliance

                  1 hr 7 min
                • Episode 69: Matt has some Questions about this HRV thing!

                  Podcasters: Matt Bennett, Curt Mower, & Dr. Jerry Yager

                  We are taking an opportunity to hit the pause button and dig deeper into what we’ve covered so far in our heart rate variability series. What does this all mean for our own health, our programming, and how we view trauma. We explore what it all means in this episode.

                  Discussion Questions:

                  • What practical aspects can you pull out of our discussion for your own self-care and the health of those you serve?
                  • What are a couple of key takeaways you’ve gotten from our discussion?
                  • What questions remain unanswered for you about HRV?

                    • The Window of Tolerance Episode

                    The Epigenetics Episode

                    1 hr 8 min
                  • Episode 68: Heart Rate Variability & Social Engagement

                    In this episode, we continue our exploration of trauma and heart rate variability. This week we explore the relationship between stressful life events, heart rate variability, and social engagement. Our conversation explores how this research applies to programming and treatment to help people recover and heal from trauma.

                    Article for this week: High cardiac control protects against future depressive symptoms under conditions of high social support

                    Discussion questions:

                    1. How does the understanding that some folks benefit greatly and others might be triggered by social connections affect how we structure your programming?
                    2. Can you identify ways you can more effectively work with those that need extra time to establish trust and feel safe with staff and others in the program?
                    3. Do you have any thoughts on how you might integrate non-social interventions to supplement your program?

                      4. 1 hr
                    4. Episode 67: Heart Rate Variability & The Fear Response

                      Conditioned fear responses and learning safety cues are critical components of both the etiology of trauma-related dysfunction and recovery from traumatic experiences.  Can inter-individual differences in physiological measures predict our ability to extinguish conditioned fear responses and to learn new safety cues?   In this episode, Matt, Jerry & Curt discuss an article describing a study that asked these very questions.

                      Discussion questions:

                      1. Can you identify the way the fear response manifests in those you work with?
                      2. Does our discussion about HRV provide you any insight into possible strategies to help clients manage stress and fear?

                        3. Article for this week: Resting HRV Predicts Safety Learning Fear Extinction

                        55 min

                      About Trauma-Informed Lens

                      From the publisher's feed

                      The trauma-informed paradigm is challenging traditional views and approach in a wide variety of areas in education, social work, psychology, and public health. Each week the Trauma-Informed Lens…