Self-regulation in an upsetting world

Touching Safe Ground in action

How do you deal with hearing upsetting things? For many of us, we tend to want to distract ourselves with scrolling on Instagram, or getting really into cleaning the house, or perhaps accidentally taking it out on our friend or partner? 

Whether you work with people who live very tough lives, are someone people love to tell their problems to, or only occasionally encounter other people’s trauma, it can be hard to get the stories we hear out of our minds. Meanwhile, life continues and we still have to get on with our jobs, cook tea for the kids, or take dad to the doctors. So we need to find healthy ways to process these things, to recover and centre ourselves again, rather than letting difficult thoughts and feelings become stored inside. 

Globe Community Project’s 3-month pilot, ‘Touching Safe Ground’ provides gentle bodywork integrated with English language learning for newly-arrived refugee and migrant women, which can be both fantastically rewarding and very challenging. The women we work with are staying in local emergency accommodation and are often disoriented, having been abruptly moved from the other side of the city. Many are living in rooms without windows, speak little or no English, and have only the clothes they arrived in, having fled conflict and violence in their home countries. Some have been trafficked, and remain fearful of their traffickers.

Hearing about refugee’s experiences can strongly affect those working to support them. We spoke to our Project Lead Sally Ramsden about how to deal with hearing upsetting things or witnessing others’ trauma, which might be staying with you and affecting  you. Her main message was the importance of supporting ourselves so that we can support others.

“We serve others best when we can find ways to enjoy the rest of our day. A top tip is to try not to schedule difficult work meetings, phone calls, or very challenging things for the afternoons right after a session.” She adds, “Be very kind to yourselves after these sorts of sessions and try to make space and time for yourself or with a friend or partner in the evening - to do something relaxing and enjoyable.”

“Trauma is held in the body. So it's very helpful to move the body to help it pass through. A very brisk walk, even better a jog, cycle or yoga can all help. I usually recommend our volunteers try to do this soon after any sessions which they feel affected by, so they can shift the energy and move through any impacts of hearing about harrowing stories. Personally I find this very helpful, though talking to a friend, colleague or partner is also good. The optimum may be both, so talking with someone as well as moving. Not necessarily at the same time!” 

As we talk about Sally’s unique experience of using yoga to work with trauma, she explains  “knowing how yoga helps people with trauma is actually the reason why I decided to train as a yoga teacher,” advising anybody wanting to understand more about trauma to read the same book which inspired her to train in yoga: ‘The Body Keeps the Score’ by Bessel van der Kolk.

The staff and volunteers on our pilot project ‘Touching Safe Ground’ have been fortunate to receive training from both Refugee Trauma Initiative and from Dr Livia Ottisova, Clinical Psychologist, Waltham Forest Refugee Psychological Therapies Service, together with her colleague Dr Maya Khera, Counselling Psychologist, Freedom From Torture. We are grateful for their generosity in gifting this vital support. 

Find out more about The Language of Wellbeing, the project which sparked our idea for mini-pilot ‘Touching Safe Ground.’

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