As a personal injury lawyer, I meet many people at one of the most difficult times in their life. The hurt they are feeling may be physical, emotional, psychological, or any combination of the three, but it is intense, stressful, exhausting and completely disruptive. They are, in a word, traumatized.
Fortunately, research into the effects of traumas and post-traumatic stress has grown in leaps and bounds over the past few decades. It provides great insight into what people experience when they are traumatized and what they and others can do to help manage and mitigate some of the debilitating symptoms of post-traumatic stress. But, to benefit from these advances, this insight must be properly implemented.
In this blog post, I describe the concept of trauma-informed lawyering. I explain why it is so important for lawyers interacting with traumatized people to understand how their approach to client care will be critical to prevent re-traumatizing them. Moreover, I also explore why using a trauma-informed approach can also protect lawyers from experiencing vicarious trauma while helping their clients.
Hurt and Healing: What Trauma Does to the Body and How the Body Can Heal.
The Centre for Addictions and Mental Health defines trauma as “the lasting emotional response that often results from living through a distressing event.” Post-traumatic stress “can harm a person’s sense of safety, sense of self, and ability to regulate emotions and navigate relationships. Long after the traumatic event occurs, people with trauma can often feel shame, helplessness, powerlessness and intense fear.”
Bessel van der Kolk, a pioneer in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) research and author of the best-selling book The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, has noted that one of the frequent symptoms of PTSD is reliving the traumatic experience - whether consciously or from physiological changes that occur when trauma leaves an imprint on the brain and body.
“To people who are reliving a trauma, nothing makes sense,” he writes. “They are trapped in a life-or-death situation, a state of paralyzing fear or blind rage. Mind and body are constantly aroused, as if they are in imminent danger.”
Healing from trauma is certainly possible, but it is not something a person can do entirely on their own and in a vacuum. Humans are social creatures; our environment and social interactions have a great bearing on our mental health.
“Social support is not the same as merely being in the presence of others,” writes van der Kolk. “The critical issue is reciprocity: being truly heard and seen by the people around us, feeling that we are held in someone else’s mind and heart. For our physiology to calm down, heal, and grow we need a visceral feeling of safety.”
To read the full blog click here.
