19-5-14-=IAC19-Oxygen Mask-

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Put Your Oxygen Mask on First:

How School Shootings and Community Mass Violence

Impact Counselors, and What We Can Do to

Ameliorate Shared Trauma and Promote Resilience

CCPE/IAC Conference, May 15, 2019 – 3:15-4:30pm #B25-1-Shediac C

J. Barry Mascari, Ed.D. & Jane M. Webber, Ph.D.

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Mass violence knows no single group; therefore, counsellors working in a variety of settings from community mental health and hospitals to schools and universities, will likely encounter

disaster-affected clients sometime in our careers. With increasing numbers of school shootings and events of mass violence in the U.S. and other countries, if we do not prepare ourselves, we may suffer from

secondary traumatic stress, existential angst, vicarious traumatization, and shared trauma. Counselors can ultimately become as wounded as the survivors we help.

Recent research indicates that emotion and somatic regulation, as well as post- traumatic growth (PTG) can buffer traumatic effects during and after horrific traumatic events. In this session we examine the impact of mass violence on counsellors and show how emotion regulation and resilience skills after mass violence can prepare

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Why School Shootings Affect Us So Deeply

• _{Protect and save}

innocent children, teens

• _{Sudden, random, shock,}

terrorizing, terrifying

• _{Teacher/counselor/}

parent empathy and

identification

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Neurobiology of Fear and Dread

• We become triggered when there is little or no danger to us,

transforming sadness and grief into fear.

• Amygdalae, our smoke alarm, go off randomly; we react with fight,

flight, freeze

• _{Heightened sympathetic dominance}

• _{“It could have been my school and my students.”}

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• The Unthinkable: Who Survives When

Disaster Strikes–and Why

(Amanda Ripley, 2008)

Dread= uncontrollability +

unfamiliarity +

unimaginability +

suffering +

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5 Key Principles

(Hobfoll et al., 2007

)

1. Safety

2. Connectedness

3. Self and collective efficacy

4. Calm

5. Hope

6. Body regulation (Awareness of triggers; check

yourself)

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"it is our heart working in tandem

with our brain that allows us to feel

for others ... It is ultimately what

makes us human... Compassion is

the heart's gift to the rational mind."

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BRAIN & HEART INTERACT

• Research suggests that, although the heart reacts

to the brain, the brain reacts to the heart as well.

• We feel things first in the heart, then the brain

reacts.

• Sudden, traumatic loss (death of a relative)

results in the pericardium (outer muscle layer)

showing physical wounds; seen mostly in older

women.

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Counselors’ Support Group

It wasn’t until I heard another counselor share her

experience with guilt for not doing enough that something clicked

inside me….

I came to understand that there was no number of hours I

could volunteer, marches I could walk, sympathy cards I could

help my daughter create, or money I could donate that would

change what had happened to the victims of the shooting.

I realized that ‘never enough’ was good enough. This

realization became a central part of my self-forgiveness and

healing.

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It is not compassion that creates the fatigue

“We know that many caregivers experience a high rate

of energetic burnout from not being able to find the

balance between care and

overcare

. That’s

understandable… it’s not an easy task for people who

care deeply. At first, trying to distinguish the difference

between balanced care and overcare can seem

complicated.

This is because when we are in overcare,

we can tend to feel that’s when we are caring the

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Empathy Guilt, Survivor’s Guilt, Shared Trauma

• _{Empathy guilt-reacting to another’s distress believing}

that I should try to relieve these feelings of not doing

enough.

• _{Survivor’s guilt: Surviving a traumatic event or}

counselors working with victims or survivors, asking

why me?

• Shared trauma: Having experienced the same trauma

my clients experienced

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Pathways to resilience

• Social support:

reaching out

• Meaning making:

telling one’s story

• Managing emotions: taking heart

• Successful coping:

taking action

(Echterling, Presbury, & McKee; Echterling & Stewart)

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GRATITUDE LIST

• Some time, take a few moments to think about

gratitude in your life.

• _{Number your paper from 1-5.}

• _{List 5 things that you are most grateful for in your life}

• _{RIGHT NOW? TODAY?}

• _ALWAYS?

• _{Carry this list, post it on your refrigerator, mirror or}

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• _{Researchers found the effects of music on the heart’s}

rhythm,s and blood pressure respond to music, going up and

down with volume and beat.

• _{The magic number IS 10, which syncs with the Mayer}

Wave

• _{MUSIC WITH 10-beat rhythm (some VERDI and Ave Maria)}

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A Simple Practice to reduce stress and build

resilience –

The Quick Coherence

®

_Technique

Step 1) Focus your attention in the area of your heart. Imagine your breath flowing in and out of your heart or chest area, breathing a little slower and deeper than usual.

Suggestion: Inhale 5 seconds, exhale 5 seconds (or whatever rhythm is comfortable)

Step 2) Make a sincere attempt to experience a regenerative feeling such as appreciation or care for someone or something in your life.

Suggestion: Try to re-experience the feeling you have for someone you love, a pet, a special place, an accomplishment, etc. or focus on a feeling of calm or ease.