Trauma is more common than you think.

Trauma may be in here too.

Hello. I am a trauma-informed design researcher, strategic designer and educator. My design practice is located in social outcomes contexts and I have been facilitating a community of practice called Social Design Sydney since 2013. Since 2021, I have been delivering online training in trauma informed design research to people globally. In recent years, trauma informed practice has begun to gain traction within design contexts. I developed this training to better equip designers who may be working with people who have experienced trauma to help minimise potential harm caused during design research engagements. This post is a personal one where I share some reflections about my journey, and how I came to see that for me, trauma was not something out there, but something that was inside of me too. Trauma can show up in places we may not expect, and is not restricted to specific cohorts or topics which is why it is important that designers practise in a trauma informed way, know how to respond to traumatic distress should it arise, and understand the risks of vicarious trauma. The article closes with reflections about how inner development can lead to greater creativity, resilience and better decision making, helping us to better navigate stress and life. Buckle up. Let’s go on a little journey together….

Over the past 20 years I have worked as a designer in different shapes, including as a UX designer, design researcher, service designer, strategic designer and a design educator. Since 2010 I have been working primarily in social outcome contexts in Australia including within child protection, mental health, disability, health and mental health. My work requires me to conduct qualitative research and facilitate workshops with people who may have experienced trauma. There hasn’t been much conversation about trauma informed design practice until fairly recently. During my career, I had often felt ill equipped to be doing this work, not understanding the risks of vicarious trauma, or how power dynamics can cause harm, or how to navigate the distress that can emerge during and after research processes. In 2019, I began some formal studies in trauma informed design with a yearning to deepen my own design research practice and reduce my risk of doing harm while conducting research with people who have experienced trauma. I studied an online certificate course in Trauma Informed practice aimed at organisations holding the question in mind, how might I make my own design research practice more trauma informed? From here I took another course on neuroscience and read widely.

I am very glad that trauma is something that is now commonly discussed within the media, organisations, schools, communities and in design projects. Did you know that more than 70% of adults experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetime (WHO World mental health survey)? People are affected by collective trauma (i.e. trauma that can affect groups of individuals and societies) due to events such as Covid and the rising number of climate events. Trauma can be passed down through generations as well (see Rachel Yehuda’s work). Trauma can arise from insecure attachment during childhood or when a child’s needs are not met (see interview with Gabor Mate). Trauma is an experience, not an event. It is not about a big event happening to us, but rather about how an experience impacts our nervous system. Peter Levine in Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma states; “Traumatic symptoms are not caused by the triggering event itself. They stem from the frozen residue of energy that has not been resolved and discharged; this residue remains trapped in the nervous system where it can wreak havoc on our bodies and spirits”. Initially, my understanding of trauma related to having Post-traumatic Stress Disorder or Childhood Trauma, but I have come to understand that trauma can be caused by all sorts of things for different people, which is why trauma informed practice is so important for EVERY project not just projects where you might expect it to show up.

Trauma is held in the body…and in many bodies.

Learning about Polyvagal Theory and the Neurobiology of trauma helped me see the embodied nature of trauma. Polyvagal theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, explains the role of the nervous system in regulating social behaviour and emotional states. The nervous system is made up of a network of nerves influencing many unconscious physiological functions, such as speech, mobility, organ processes and emotions. The brain and body are inseparably interwoven via the nervous system. It is through the nervous system that we make sense of the world. Our nervous system is always listening inside our bodies as well as outside of our bodies — taking cues from what’s going on and listening for signs of threat. Deb Dana, who works with Stephen Porges says it’s like an ‘inner surveillance system’. (Deb has some very accessible and practical literature about Polyvagal Theory.) The Autonomic Nervous System is designed to keep us safe, yet when we have experience of trauma we can identify situations as a threat based on past traumatic experiences, when there is actually no threat in the moment. Traumatic responses can get in the way of us living fulfilling lives and can cause us to react to situations based on past patterning rather than to the reality of the moment.

If we perceive signs of threat, our nervous system can be activated and move out of its optimal zone of arousal. We may fall into a traumatic response (i.e. fight-flight-freeze-fawn-flop). We all have a “window of tolerance” (This term was first coined by Dan Siegel. Watch an explanatory video about it.), which refers to an individual’s nervous systems’ optimal range of arousal where they can effectively process and cope with stressors. When we are within this window, we are in a state of regulated arousal, and we can respond to life’s challenges in flexible and adaptive ways. When we are out of this window, we run the risk of moving into dysregulation, where we become unable to control or regulate our emotional responses. Experiencing adverse experiences can shrink our window of tolerance meaning we have less capacity to respond to situations and a greater tendency to react or become quickly overwhelmed.

People who have experience of trauma tend to have a narrow window of tolerance, meaning they can become easily triggered, where their nervous system moves into dysregulation. People who have experienced trauma often spend a lot of time in either hypo-arousal hyper-arousal (the two types of nervous system dysregulation). When your nervous system has been primed by trauma, you can overreact to perceived “dangers” that aren’t life-threatening, like when your boss questions you or someone cuts in line in front of you. When you’re a trauma survivor, your defensive states can hi-jack your brain. Instead of helping you survive, trauma responses can become dysfunctional. They can harm your health, impair your ability to effectively handle problems, and disrupt your relationships.

There is good news though. We can all learn to widen our window of tolerance! There are ways to increase our capacity to tolerate stress and regulate our nervous systems’ arousal levels. By expanding our window of tolerance, we can improve our ability to navigate life’s challenges, build healthier relationships, and respond adaptively to stressors. As trauma is so common, this type of inner development is so important! When we are not feeling safe and when our nervous system is not in regulation, our capacity to think clearly and creatively is impacted. I am very curious about this question: How might we increase our response-ability (i.e. our ability to respond, and not react in each moment)? I feel that if we can all better navigate our own responses, we can meet the future with greater resilience and creativity.

Trauma causes

Despite my interest in trauma, as mentioned it took me some time to see my own. I have not experienced abuse or loss of a parent, experienced war, or acts of violence or survived an accident or natural disaster. These events often involve a direct threat to one’s life, physical integrity, or a significant violation of personal boundaries. These sorts of major, severe events are often described as ‘Big T’ trauma. There is another term, ‘Little t’ trauma, used to describe cumulative and less severe stressors or adverse experiences that, over time, can still have a negative impact on an individual’s mental and emotional well-being. These events may not be as immediately life-threatening as Big T traumas, but they contribute to emotional distress and may accumulate to have a significant impact. Examples include divorce, chronic bullying, ongoing exposure to stressors like financial difficulties, or not receiving enough physical touch or eye contact as a child. What may be experienced as a big T trauma for one individual might not be the case for another. (Watch Gabor Mate discuss this).

Trauma writer, Resmaa Menakem states, “When something happens to the body that is too much, too fast, or too soon, it overwhelms the body and can create trauma.” A simple definition of trauma is anything that is too much, too soon, or too fast for our nervous system to handle. Ou Whether experience of an incident leads to trauma or not, can vary from individual to individual and depends on an individual’s resources. For example, let’s say two children had the same experience at school. One child may be more resourced than the other having secure attachment with their parents and a low amount of stress in life. That child was able to go home from school had opportunity to resolve and discharge the associated stress. The other child did not have these resources available to them, the energy in their nervous system associated with this experience was not able to be discharged, and the incident led to a traumatic response for them. I had not understood this initially, I thought trauma occurred when something really bad happened to you, like really, really bad! With this explanation, I do not intend to minimise ‘little t’ trauma. Remember, trauma is about the experience and not the event. It is an embodied response to an experience that makes us feel unsafe and that our brains and nervous systems can’t metabolise.

My journey and why I feel this topic is important.

I started out being interested in trauma motivated by a desire to make my design practice more trauma informed, but at this time, I lacked awareness of my own personal trauma. For me, trauma was something out there, and not something that was inside of me too. I have since come to understand that trauma is something within my own body, influencing my thoughts, feelings, physiology and behaviours (albeit less so now that I understand this). I would like to share my own story with you.

My childhood was a happy one but there were some factors at play within my own experience as well as that of my ancestors that imprinted my nervous system. My grandparents were all affected by the Holocaust. Intergenerational trauma occurs as a result of epigenetic inheritance (see Rachel Yehuda’s work) or thorough adaptational styles that occur when people live with unresolved trauma. I went to a Jewish day school where many of my friends came from similar lineages. After leaving school, I felt that there was a bit of a normalised neurotic-ness amongst my friends and their families which I personally didn’t notice as strongly in other social circles. At age 4, I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and stayed in hospital alone. That’s what was done in Australia in the 1980s. When my step son was 4, I understood just how little that actually was.

To me, trauma was something that happened out there, and to other people. Learning about polyvagal theory helped me to see that I had a narrow window of tolerance. I had thought I was just really sensitive, but I started to understand that I was often living with low level dysregulation (good article about this)…and so my own personal healing journey began. For me, healing happened somatically through the body. Becoming more aware of my physiological responses, and noticing when my nervous system was moving into dysregulation empowered me to act differently in the moment, increasing my personal response-ability. I have become very passionate about this topic and feel that learning to become aware of our embodied responses and our nervous systems, and developing the ability to self-regulate can help us to meet the moment and the future more generatively. If you are interested in this topic, I recommend the work of Deb Dana, particularly her book Anchored. Deb talks about resilience as being able to seamlessly move between dysregulated and regulated states without getting stuck in dysregulation. Life happens, and at times our nervous systems will move into dysregulation but we can learn to identify when this is happening and learn ways to help ourselves metabolise our stress and self-regulate, so that we have more choice in each moment.

There is another little piece here that I want to share. There is a related concept called ‘co-regulation’ which I feel is important here. According to Polyvagal Theory, Co-regulation is a crucial component of the social engagement system. It refers to the “reciprocal and synchronized regulation of physiological and emotional states between individuals during social interactions. In co-regulation, the nervous systems of two or more individuals interact in a way that supports mutual well-being and emotional connection.” (Read more about it). Co-regulation speaks to the fact that our nervous systems read each other looking for signals of threat or safety. The feelings and behaviours of people in close proximity to us, directly impact how we feel, and respond to our own feelings. What this means, is that we influence others through our nervous systems. You know that feeling when you ask someone how they are and they say great, but you feel that’s not the case. That’s because your nervous system is reading their nervous system and tuning into their actual state.

Co-regulation begins in infancy. Before a young child can self-soothe, they need a parent to help them. When an infant is crying a caregiver picks them up, holds them close, rocks, and helps them pacify. The care-giver is helping to regulate the baby’s system. When children become upset, if those around them stay calm, demonstrating how to calm down, the child can calm down quicker. This is actually the same for anyone who is showing signs of distress. Overall, regulating the nervous system is not only about helping us calm down in the moment, but also conditioning our bodies to react to stress more appropriately on an ongoing basis. Keeping our own nervous system regulated, can also help to regulate the bodies around us. This is why I feel this topic is important. If we can learn how to keep ourselves more regulated, more of the time, not only do we become more resilient, but we can also affect those around us with our calm vibes. This is powerful stuff!

When COVID happened, I remember sensing a lot of dysregulation. There was a lot of fear in the field, and not a lot of safety. COVID contributed to Collective Trauma which “occurs when an unexpected event damages the ties that bind community members together” (Australian Institute of Family Studies). The lock down felt long and difficult. The folk who I noticed were doing the best at this time were the people who had done some type of inner development. Personally, I am feeling quite concerned about the state of the world, climate change, international politics, the mental health epidemic…the list goes on. I want to contribute to a flourishing future and feel that inner development will help us humans, be differently, see differently and act differently so that we can co-create a flourishing world and life for ourselves, our communities, our places and the Earth.

An invitation for you.

Thanks for reading. It’s a bit of a personal post. If these topics resonate for you, I would love to connect. I am hosting a few things that may be of interest to you.

If you are a designer or changemaker interested in trauma informed design research practice come along to one of my training sessions. I conduct them for practitioners and also run bespoke trainings for organisations and teams.

>> Check out Trauma Informed Design Research trainings

If like me, you sense that inner development is an important key for navigating life and our current times take a look at the School of Being which is a new initiative I have started with my friend and colleague Vivien Sung. We are a learning community, embodying enlivened ways of seeing, thinking, relating and acting to co-create a flourishing world. We foster a space to unlearn and learn, to become conscious of old patterns, structures, values, and beliefs, to grow vitality and come into wholeness and reciprocity within ourselves, in our relations and our living world. We offer experiential learning journeys which aim to develop inner capacity to help you to increase your presence, your capacity to sense and respond, your resilience, and creativity. We offer Polyvagal Theory informed learning journeys.

>> Check out the School of Being

I hope to see you online soon.

REFERENCES

1. Kessler RC, Aguilar-Gaxiola S, Alonso J, et al. Trauma and PTSD in the WHO world mental health surveys. European Journal of Psychotraumatology. 2017;8(sup5):1353383. doi:10.1080/20008198.2017.1353383. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5632781/. Accessed March 11, 2024.
2. Rachel Yehuda (2022), How Parents’ Trauma Leaves Biological Traces in Children : Adverse experiences can change future generations through epigenetic pathways
3. Interview : The trauma doctor: Gabor Maté on happiness, hope and how to heal our deepest wounds (2023), By Ellie Violet Bramley for Scientific American.
4. Alternatively watch this video podcast by Gabor Mate where he discusses these themes Doctor Gabor Mate: The Shocking Link Between Kindness & Illness!
5. Peter Levine (1997), Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma
6. Resources by Deb Dana’s can be found at https://www.rhythmofregulation.com/media-library
7. Dan Siegel (1999), The Developing Mind
8. YOUTUBE VIDEO Window of Tolerance and Emotional Regulation (Dr Dan Siegel) from Lewis Psychology, Accesses 11 Marchm 2024
9. Resmaa Menakem (2017) , My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies
10. Deb Dana (2022), Anchored
11. Adult medicine specialists, Polyvagal Theory: Advancing The Understanding Of The Autonomic Nervous System In Medicine
12. Australian Institute of Family Studies, Collective trauma is real, and could hamper Australian communities’ bushfire recovery

 Photo by Vince Fleming on Unsplash