What is the impact of trauma on you as a professional in education?

You may have trauma of your own that you bring to work or you may experience trauma in the workplace.  Educators experiencing trauma may have:

• Increased anxiety
• Reduced energy and focus
• Trouble regulating emotions
• Difficulty managing responses to students and parents
• Diminished capacity to maintain positive teacher-student and teacher-parent relationships
• Poor attendance or work performance

Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS)

When you work with students who have traumatic experiences, you are at risk for being indirectly traumatized as a result of hearing students talk about trauma and seeing its effects. STS refers to the presence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.  This is also referred to as compassion fatigue.

Symptoms can include:

• Increased anxiety and concern for safety
• Intrusive or negative thoughts and images related to a students' traumatic stories
• Fatigue and physical complains
• Feeling numb or detached from students
• Feeling powerless or hopeless about students and their work
• Trouble concentrating or making decisions
• A desire to emotionally or physically withdraw from people or situations that trigger difficult thoughts and emotions