Trauma-Informed Consulting
How Trauma-Informed care training for businesses can help your company
Today, workplace wellness is on everyone’s minds, both employers and their workers. It’s why so many companies have committed to providing amenities to their employees to reduce work-related stress and increase their overall quality of life. Yet despite the great strides made in this area, there is one factor that is yet to be explored: how trauma-informed care consulting and training can contribute to better workplace wellness.
What is Trauma-Informed care training for businesses?
While you may not have heard of it specifically, trauma-informed care is nothing new. It’s an approach to human services (including Human Resources) that begins with the assumption that individuals are likely to have trauma in their history. It’s the recognition of this trauma, and the acknowledgment of the role trauma may play, that is what characterizes trauma-informed care. This involves focusing on understanding and considering how pervasive trauma can be.
In practice, this leads to the promotion of environments that can aid in recovery and healing instead of those that may result in re-traumatizing individuals inadvertently. In the context of trauma-informed care training for businesses, it’s all about understanding how trauma affects the lives of employees, how it manifests in ways that impact their business negatively, and how to adopt practices that better support employees with trauma and provide them a workplace where they can feel safe.
​​The modern world is an incredible source of stress and trauma
To say that modern life is stressful is a supreme understatement. Much of the stress that we experience daily originates from our work environment, and often regardless of what industry sector we inhabit. In the US it is particularly pronounced; according to a recent Gallup poll, Americans work an average of 47 hours a week, much more than those in other countries around the world. Workplace stress because of long hours thus becomes yet another component of personal stress and adverse experiences.
Regardless of its source, ongoing chronic stress has a negative impact on the workplace. Stressed workers are less productive, more tense at work, and have a higher rate of absenteeism and turnover due to the emotional and physiological effects of being exposed to stress. Recent developments such as the COVID-19 pandemic have fed fuel to the fire, and this makes using trauma-informed care training for businesses an integral component of reducing or managing employee stress levels.