Supervision in times of trauma Mary Byrne Ph

Supervision in times of trauma Mary Byrne, Ph. D, LICSW Youth at Risk Conference 9 June, 2017

Goals of the session • 1. Identify the levels of trauma affecting staff in human service organizations • 2. Identify the critical role of supervisors in balancing trauma narratives. • 3. Introduce a supervisory framework for integrating assessment & intervention of staff witnessing and trauma. • Keep you involved, entertained, sharing and thinking!

Significance of topic • Relative prevalence of organizational and community trauma • Yet supervisors and managers do not have a model in hand of how to navigate crises • Crises can be internal to organization or external • Crises can resonate with organization’s historical trauma or gradual, less visible internal trauma • Model of relational-culturally informed and systemsavy leadership can prepare supervisors

Terms and Distinctions • Crisis refers to an event, a revealed reality- the objective happening • Trauma refers to the personal, organizational, community reaction to the crisis- often experienced as a threat • Narratives are related to the larger mission and purpose of what people and their organizations do- the story, the beliefs. • Caregiver narratives are about “primary tasks of healing, teaching, ministering to and sheltering care-seekers”. (Kahn, 2008)

Kinds of crises/trauma Externally imposed • • Financial/budget changes Policy changes Natural disasters Scapegoated (e. g. Muslim, marginalized client population) Community violence Client experiences of violence/loss Eruption of client to staff violence or victimization Incidents involving staff- workrelated or personal events Internally developed • Financial mismanagement or disloyalty • Active abuse or harassment • Failure of leadership to “witness” the work • Cumulative trauma: dysfunctional patterns of interaction- internal or external, microagressions • Incidents of staff behavior, e. g. tensions, suicide

Middle-Mangers’ “downtime”….

Power of Crisis & Trauma • Kahn talks (2005) about personal and organizational narratives that we weave to buttress the hard work of caregiving • When these narratives are attacked or violated it can impact staff differently depending on how identified they are • Personal narratives (direct) and community narratives (indirect) • Human service organizations are always at the “edge of chaos”, near crisis, or responding to crisis,

Trauma and Human Behavior • Neuroscience tells us about our individual and group brains… • Emotional brain: (Limbic-Amygdalamidbrain)- command central under stress for threat response, fight, flight or freeze • Can overwhelm our thinking brain (Prefrontal cortex)- attention, observation, memory, selective decision-making

What mitigates organizational trauma? • Strong core identity, mission • Organizational self-esteem & self-efficacy- history of success • Facilitating structures and processes- flexible, adaptive, transparent • Hopeful and energetic leadership • Positive connection to peer agencies/community (Vivian & Hormann, 2013)

How organizations affect relationships… • Crises can disturb relational patterns- for better or worse • Can we grasp a model that explains organizational crises and relationship? • Family systems explains cohesion, flexibility/stability, communication: Michelle Barton (Kahn, Barton and Fellows 2013)- Video about crises and organizations https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=A 8 cg. J 8 lvi. OQ

Individual Work-Life Connection Organizational Culture Individuals attracted ts to the work Intensity The Work Itself (Vivian & Hormann, 2007)

View of Supervision • Supervision as relational subsystem Frawley. O’Dea and Sarnat (2001): “a relationship about other relationships” • Holloway (1995): is the “core factor” of relationship, function, and task within system of clients, agency and institutions • Systemic role exercising power with vs. power over, within ecology of agency, community, and larger social systems

Learning to self-observe together - power with vs. power over…

Organizational Trauma and Healing Study (Vivian and Horman, 2013) Three sustaining elements emerge from leaders’ success in managing organizational healing: • “Spirituality” – strong core beliefs that inspire the work • Strong commitment to “the work”; belief in “redemptive” mission • Strong bonds with peers and the community

Individual and Organizational Coping Variables • • • Individual History of trauma & coping style Is trauma raw or well integrated? Affect & worldview Begin/continue to develop flexibility Self-awareness of commitment to mission Measure success by commitment to mission – have expectation of challenges • • • Organizational Success weathering past traumas Worldview- transparency and help-seeking Steadiness and flexible adaptation of CEO, CFO etc. , witnessing the work Belief in mission to absorb challenges “High expectations with high risk of failure” “Compassionate reality”

Critical Role (& Risk) of Supervisor • Carry knowledge of individuals’ trauma-- which can enter organizational culture • “Shock absorber” for organizational tensions • Can become “trauma-induced” or can be “attachment figure” for the new future (Kahn) • “Edge of chaos” is also at “edge of transformation”, possibilities for future

Critical assessment areas with staff… • How rooted are staff in their professional mission and role … positive experience? • Do they have an identifiable trauma history? Personal? Transgenerational? Community identity? • If so how integrated is it into their awareness and functioning? • Relational skills for supervision- do they need to learn self-awareness, boundaries in this relationship? or with colleagues? clients?

Dual Awareness vs. Dual Relationship Supervision Therapy • Help supervisee improve professional functioning. • Help client resolve distress they are experiencing in personal life. • Not responsible for helping supervisee function better in personal life- but in organizational culture and role. • Therapist assumes some responsibility for helping clients find way to function better. • Supervisee may discuss aspects of personal history or circumstances-- as when reactions to clients parallel one’s own life. Is never mandatory or pressured. � � • Strongly encouraged when supervisee’s personal life is impairing their clinical work. (Nelson and Schuette , 2014)

Proposed supervision model for trauma contexts Rooted in integration of: • Applied principals from cultural-relational theory (Jordan 2010) • Structural planning and reflective supervision of trauma treatment (van der Kolk, 2014) • Application from literature on lessons from organizational trauma and healing (Kahn, 2005; Vivan and Horman, 2013)

Tenets of Relational Cultural Theory guiding supervision • • Moving toward connection and authenticity Fostering mutual empathy Supporting vulnerability Working with relational images (e. g. past history that still has power) • Building relational resilience • Acknowledging social context (Hartling, 2008; Jordan, 2010) – Supervisor as the lynchpin connecting organizational culture with individuals/teams

Merger of Relational Cultural with Trauma-Reflective Supervision • • Creating safety Regulating overwhelming stress (and source) Promoting Reflective Thinking Trauma witnessing- telling of the story in treatment goals, plans and documenting outcome – narratives • Setting up supportive structures and relationships • Practicing competence in a stress-filled world van de Kolk’s Components of Complex Trauma Treatment- A Teaching “Map” (2014)

Supervisory Practice in times of trauma • 1. The “engaged” supervisor: ensures stability, safety, containment • 2. Transparent and frequent feedback: name the trauma, normalize experience • 3. Integrate the trauma- in affirming and meaningful ways (e. g. ritual, review) • 4. Collectively make a decision, action plan to move toward future.

1. Ensure stability, safety, containment • Witness the reality, organizational experience -“strengths & shadows”- (Vivian and Horman, 2013) • Recognize the “witness positions” (Weingarten, 2005) • Aspects of physical and psychological safety • Containing function- forums, structure, confidence, collective strength • Reintroduce normal rituals

Witness positions can change… (Weingarten, 2003)

2. Transparency: naming the trauma, normalize experience • • Normalize individual, group experience Bring together vs. isolate reactions “Resize” the story as needed Better understand the impact on self, on organization • Learn connections to prior organizational trauma, old wounds, shadows

Naming old organizational trauma, wounds, narratives, fear

3. Integrate trauma- in affirming and meaningful ways • • Recognize ripples and ongoing process Create a collective understanding Monitor for themes of blame Explicit meaning-making to “re”-member with collective truth • Allay distortions, rumors or myths • Balance organizational compassion with productivity.

4. Moving into the future • Recognize disruption in functioning • Opportunity to re-visit, renew mission • Re-integrate to active mode- ritualize as needed • Reaching out for help as needed- new energy • Plan follow-ups and check-ins as needed- open the channels to outside energy and learning

Crisis presents opportunity… 危机 https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Hx. Ent. Ji. I Ed 0 Crisis & Collaboration

References • Dutton, J. , et al. (2002) Leading in times of trauma. Harvard Business Review. 80(1): 54 -61. http: //hbr. org/2002/01/leading-in-times-of-trauma/ar/1 Retrieved 5/24/2016 • Eible, L. (2015) Social Work Supervision Through a Relational-Cultural Theoretical Lens. Doctorate in Social Work (DSW) Dissertations. Paper 60. http: //repository. upenn. edu/edissertations_sp 2/60 • Hartling, L. (2008) Strengthening Resilience in a Risky World: It's All About • Jordan, J. V. (2010). Relational-Cultural Therapy. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. • Kahn. W. (2003) The Revelation of Organizational Trauma The Journal of Applied • Kahn, W. (June, 2008) Transformation of Meaning in Traumatized Systems. 25 th Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations. Relationships. Women & Therapy 31(2 -4), 51 -70 · September 2008 Behavioral Science December 2003 39: 364 -380.

References, continued… • Kahn, W. A. (2005). Holding fast: The struggle to create resilient caregiving organizations. London: Brunner- Routledge. • Kahn, W. Barton, M. and Fellows, S. (2013) Organizational crises and the disturbance of relational systems. Academy of Management 38(3), 377 -396. • Lenz, A. S. (2014) Integrating relational-cultural theory concepts into supervision. of creativity in mental health 9(1), 3 -18. • Nelson K. and Schuette, S. (2014) Supervising complex trauma in daily life. MA CMH Conference. • van der Kolk, B. (2014) The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. NY, NY: Viking. • Vivian, P. & Hormann, S. (2013) Organizational trauma and healing. Charleston, N. C. : Create. Space. • Vivian, P. , & Hormann, S. (2015). Persistent Traumatization in Nonprofit Organizations. OD Practitioner, 47(1), 25 -30. Journal

Video resources • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=3 ZIwhyag. Cao Trauma in Organizations, Jan Jacob Stam • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Xox. IUa. GAhqc How Can Organizations Measure Trauma-Informed Care to Promote Healing? AIR • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=643 i. MKTKoj. I Building Trauma-Informed Organizations • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=A 8 cg. J 8 lvi. OQ Kahn and Barton: Organizational Crises and the Disturbance of Relational Systems