While more than a dozen people participating in a trauma workshop Tuesday at the Department of Health’s Clubhouse could identify traumatic experiences, they offered differing opinions on how to deal with it.
“Everyone experiences trauma in some part of their lives. The important thing is not to focus on the event but how to deal with it,” said Khnuma Simmonds-Esannason, executive director of the V.I. Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Counsel and workshop facilitator.
Simmonds-Esannason began the workshop asking participants to identify traumatic events and qualities needed to recover from them. Several of the participants work in the health and mental health fields and quickly answered questions and provided additional information.
She said individual trauma results from an event, series of events or set of circumstances experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or life-threatening with lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and mental, physical, social, emotional or spiritual well-being.
Most of the group recognized that the 2017 hurricanes supplied enough trauma to weaken survivors resistance to stress resulting in post traumatic stress syndrome in themselves and others. Other participants said trauma includes domestic violence, earthquakes, war, bullying, hunger, neglect, poverty and death. One member of the audience said she was dealing with the trauma of her mother’s death, another recently lost her job and a third deals with the knowledge her son has been in prison for the last 23 years – all traumatic episodes.
“I start every day thinking about him and end everyday thinking about him and knowing he shouldn’t be there,” the mother said.
Dealing with trauma involves empathy, resilience, willingness to let go of the event and patience, time and compassion, the group agreed. Some suggested reading about recovery and several mentioned their faith to help recover from traumatic events.
“You have to believe you can move forward,” one audience member said.
A safe place and the proper resources are also necessary to deal with stressful events. It is easy to be overcome by shame and guilt, Simmonds-Esannason said, but those emotions delay recovery. She stressed that empathy is needed to help family and friends deal with the stressful trauma in their lives.
A discussion on vulnerability versus weakness followed selected passages from a TED talk by a woman who disclosed her mental breakdown to millions of listeners. The speaker said being vulnerable is the most accurate measure of courage.
“We all define and see trauma differently. How we respond is part of being human and how we respect ourselves as we go on the journey,” Simmonds-Essanason said.