Cultural, Historical, and Gender issues - a core principle of the Trauma Informed Approach
In the past, I separated my commitment to using trauma informed principles from my commitment to equity and liberatory practices, believing that they were two unique efforts. The more I understood how to apply trauma informed principles to the way I showed up in relationships, the more I realized that these practices are actually two ways to achieve the same thing.
One of the six principles of the trauma informed approach is “cultural, historical, and gender issues,” which I’ve also seen defined as cultural responsiveness. The focus of this principle is the recognition that experiences of oppression are traumatic, oppression is systemic and institutional, and the impacts of oppression are felt over multiple generations, even if that oppression has evolved and changed. For example, even though slavery in the United States legally ended in 1865, its impacts are still experienced now. The dramatic increase in Black women’s unemployment last year is one example of how Black people continue to be disregarded in our society, even when they are overqualified and incredibly competent.
The principle of Cultural, Historical, and Gender Issues highlights that denying the historical and present-day impacts of oppression is also traumatic for those who are oppressed. As an advocate for survivors of sexual and domestic violence, it was expected that my job was to simply believe the stories of trauma and abuse that participants shared with me. It came easily because I understood that any survivor willing to reach out for help was being courageous, and I wanted to earn their trust and be considered a resource.
Unfortunately, for many people who have been marginalized, their experiences of discrimination are often brushed off by their co-workers and supervisors, especially when those experiences happen at work. Years ago, my day started with an email from a colleague who wanted to tell me all of the things that were “unprofessional” about my co-worker, who held many identities that experienced oppression. The colleague had included my co-worker in the message, so I knew they had read it too. I immediately went to talk with them about it, and their body language told me that they expected this conversation to be difficult. When I started with, “I’m so sorry about this email - do you want to talk with me about what it’s been like to work with this colleague?” their shoulders lowered, and they took a noticeable, deep breath. I sensed that they had expected me to start with our colleague’s claims, and if I was right about that, I assumed it was because that had happened to them before.
One of the simplest ways to support other people in this kind of scenario is to believe them when they tell you about their experiences and the impact of those experiences.
Take the time to assume you may not understand exactly what they’re going through. Appreciate that they are willing to tell you about it, and intentionally strive to be trustworthy with their story and confidence. If you notice yourself becoming reactive, take a breath and focus your attention back to listening. Your reaction is about you, and they don’t need to be distracted by it when sharing something hard.
“One of the simplest ways to support other people in this kind of scenario is to believe them when they tell you about their experiences and the impact of those experiences. ”
If you provide direct services, use this principle to think about who is and isn’t accessing your services. If you are primarily serving one type of participant, consider whether you’re doing an adequate amount of outreach and relationship building with different communities and people. Honestly, most of our organizations are not. If you are creating intentional outreach, make sure you’ve taken the time to be ready for an influx of new participants. For example, if you’ve paid to have your materials translated into Spanish but no one on your staff is bilingual in Spanish, you’ll need to be ready and able to pay interpreters and have them available at all times. All of this requires intentionality and resources, and doing what you can is better than sticking to the status quo.
The fact is, becoming culturally responsive is not a skill any of us will ever be done building. For me, this is comforting because it means that learning will be continuous, and my commitment to doing better can always be nurtured. One another’s humanity will always make it worth it.
