Your Team knows they can’t Self-Care their way out of this.
What are you doing to help them?
Chronic Stress & Trauma Exposure in the workplace is a BIG problem
Self-Care alone can’t fix it
Unaddressed chronic stress & trauma exposure in the workplace is a real problem. It can lead to burnout, low morale, poor health, staff turnover, and diminished outcomes for your clients.
Bringing a collective care approach to your organizational culture, equity work, workforce development, and team building can protect employees and help you grow a healthier and more effective organization.
Who is impacted?
The short answer is … all of us.
Many of the people we work with are engaged in public service & social justice orientated professions like education, immigration & human rights law, conservation work, social work, mental health, and crisis response.
However, many people, even those not employed in traditional “helping” roles, are still exposed to suffering at work and experience secondary trauma and significant workplace stress.
Many more experience daily stressors. Even if you do not witness suffering at work, you and your team may benefit from a trauma responsive approach to team development.
What is Collective Care?
Many of us are familiar with the concept of Self-Care, the practice of taking action to preserve or protect one’s own health (Oxford dictionary). While important, Self-Care alone is not adequate to address moral injury, workplace stress, and occupational trauma.
In short, you cannot Self-Care your way out of a structural problem.
Collective Care brings the focus from the individual to the group and recognizes the toll that systems of oppression take on mental, emotional, and physical health (UN Girls Education Initiative). In a collective care approach we shift from asking ‘what do I need?’ to ‘how can we take care of each other?’
