DOMAIN 4: SECONDARY TRAUMATIC STRESS–INFORMED LEADERSHIP
Item 6
Strategies for Leaders:
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- Model a healthy, balanced lifestyle:
- Balance your workload and avoid regularly working excessive hours or outside of the workday.
- Make sure to eat (regularly and healthily).
- Take time off and have boundaries around doing work on time off.
- Regularly take time off, take breaks during the day and engage in adaptive coping strategies throughout the day, including:
- Be mindful of what is going on for you in the present moment.
- Allow yourself to feel a wide range of feelings (rather than avoiding feelings) without judgment.
- Change negative thinking patterns.
- Appreciate what is good and how you are making a positive impact.
- Take breaks during the workday.
- Maintain healthy boundaries between your professional and personal life.
- Build healthy support systems inside and outside of work.
- Model a healthy, balanced lifestyle:
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Review the resources in Domain 1, “Resilience-Building, Staff Health, and Wellness.”
Implementation Resources:
Fact Sheets
- “Examples of Short Self-Regulation and Grounding Techniques to Embed in Your Day,” a handout a list of ways you can self-regulate during the day, developed by The Center for Child Welfare Trauma-Informed Policies, Programs, & Practices (CWTTT).
- “Pause-Reset-Nourish to Promote Well-Being: Use as Needed to Care for Your Wellness,” a fact sheet from the National Child Trauma Stress Network (NCTSN) that contains information on a specific self-care strategy called Pause-Reset-Nourish, or PRN. PRN acknowledges the levels of stress that professionals may be currently experiencing and offers a way to address unwanted stress reactions and promote and replenish well-being and enhance resilience.
Podcast and Videos
- Feet on the Floor, a simple grounding exercise demonstrated by Diana Tikasz in this brief video. This exercise can be used before, during, or after a stressful event.
- “Headspace.” This YouTube page contains videos on the science of mindfulness as well as shorter videos on putting it into practice.
- “Pause, Reset, and Nourish” (5 minutes), from the Well@Work podcast series, produced by the University of Kentucky Center on Trauma & Children. In this episode, Dr. Ginny Sprang talk about the PRN self-care strategy and how to use it to alleviate the impacts of stress.
Publications
- Pause-Reset-Nourish to Promote Well-Being, a guide that contains information on a specific self-care strategy called Pause-Reset-Nourish, or PRN. PRN acknowledges the levels of stress that professionals may be currently experiencing and offers a way to address unwanted stress reactions and promote and replenish well-being and enhance resilience.
- “3 Ways to Improve Your Cognitive Flexibility,” an article by Jennifer Verdolin, PhD, on how improving cognitive flexibility can help us cope with change and improve problem-solving.
Websites/Apps/Posts
- WHS Virtual Calm Room features sounds and music, puzzles and games, guided meditation, stretching and yoga, visual relaxation, and coloring.
- UCLA Health Guided Meditations offers videos of guided meditations; also available as an app.
- Mindful houses numerous resources and how-to guides for meditation, relaxation, and working through feelings.
- Oxford Mindfulness Centre contains online trainings, courses, podcasts, and live keynotes around the subject of mindfulness.
- Smiling Mind offers tools for children and adults on mindfulness. They also have an accompanying app available.
- “Strategies to Remain Healthy & Compassionate,” Children’s Advocacy Centers of North Dakota. A webpage devoted entirely to practical strategies for maintaining well-being, healthy, and compassionate.
- UCLA Mindful app (free) offers guided meditations in both English and Spanish.
- Insight Timer app (free) offers guided meditations.
- Calm app offers guided meditations.
- Healthy Minds Program app (free) helps you build tools for healthy patterns of thought.
- Mood Notes–Mood Tracker offers daily journaling and mood tracking.
- Daylio (free) offers daily mood and activity tracking.
- “10 Tips for Setting Healthy Boundaries,” a post from ChoosingTherapy.com. Learning to set boundaries is essential in order to create sufficient space for self-care.
- “The Best Strategies for Creating a Healthy Work-Life Balance for Employees,” a post from Babbel for Business focuses primarily on strategies related to burnout, but these strategies are useful for trauma-exposed organizations since burnout often co-exists with STS.
Select Action Plan to begin to organize and implement next steps.