Becoming trauma-informed through BPS Learn

Heather Sequeira's 25 years working with trauma means she's a psychologist in demand. Alongside her private practice she also works part-time in a specialist capacity for the NHS, and for various universities teaching on trauma and also OCD ("That's my sub-speciality," she says. "Particularly how they're brought together.") She's also behind a BPS-approved course on trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy. Her experience and expertise mean she's well qualified to talk about how key it is in every walk of life to understand trauma and its effects.

"Trauma is when an event or a series of events overwhelms our abilities to cope, which has lasting effects on our nervous system, brain and body," Heather explains. "For most of us, when we go through a traumatic event, some effects are fairly temporary, and will include things like re-experiencing that trauma in our head, or feelings in our body that are to do with that trauma.

"This often leads to a state of avoidance, which in turn makes them feel fearful, numb, agitated or in a constant state of hyper-alertness. This is a completely normal response to a traumatic situation, but in some cases it gets stuck in our nervous system, which leads to conditions such as PTSD, depression, OCD and other behavioural problems."

It's no secret there has been huge psychological fallout from major world events such as COVID-19, the war in Ukraine and even the instability caused by the cost of living crisis. This makes it a really important time for psychologists and people on the front line in non-psychology roles, such as health care workers, school staff and the emergency services to be trauma-informed. The new BPS Learn CPD module on trauma has been designed to give learners an understanding of the ways trauma can affect people, often in far-reaching ways, and how they can be supported.

"We identified that, yes, many, many of us who are psychologists have some training in trauma. But there's also other people who maybe don't have a clinical or psychology qualification that really don't have that awareness," says Heather. "People who are perhaps psychology graduates who aren't trained as psychologists or people working in the emergency services that work with trauma all the time but perhaps don't have specific training on it, so just having that trauma awareness of how it affects us can be really, really useful."

Heather believes becoming trauma-informed can have positive effects not just for the practitioner and the person who has suffered trauma, but for the wider organisation. "First and foremost it's good ethical care. But it also makes organisations more effective at working with those people, and more efficient as well. Because trauma is common and has such far-reaching implications, it affects how people behave and how they feel. It's not just mental health problems, but also physical health problems and behavioural issues. So if we can understand some people's behaviour or ways of reacting to their feelings as perhaps being influenced by the trauma or the other experiences that they've had, then that changes how we can react in a more effective way."

Evidence is limited at the moment, but it is already showing that being trauma-informed can benefit the wider organisation by helping staff respond with more empathy towards each other, bringing the whole organisation together so that it works better. It can improve staff wellbeing and retention, improve efficiency and even increase profits. When people have a better understanding of trauma, everyone benefits.

The Trauma-Informed Practice CPD course is available now on BPS Learn.