Self-Care, Work-Life

Balance
& Trauma Stewardship
Presented by
Dom Crosby & Nolan Yaws

Opening Reflection

What things (both positive and

negative) come to mind when you
hear people mention self-care
and work-life balance?
What does work-life balance and
self-care look like for you?
What are some of the barriers that
prohibit you from being able to
fully engage in self-care?

TE
D
TA
LKNI
GE
L
MA
RS
H

Nigel Marsh is
best known for
his creative
pursuits. As well
as the author of
three books Fat,
Forty and
Fired,Overworke
d&
UnderlaidandFit,
Fifty and FiredUp he is also
the co-founder of
Earth Hour and
the founder of
the
Sydney Skinny.
His first book is
currently being
developed into a
major TV series in
America.

Key Points:

Companies are always going to want to get the most

out of us that they can and at times that will mean
that they expect us to sacrifice our personal time.
It is up to us as individuals to take control of our
quality of life. We have to establish and reinforce
the boundaries we want in our lives. We cannot
sacrifice them all the time and expect to still be able
to find a sense of balance.
You cant do it all in one day. You have to elongate
the scope at which you are considering your
balance, but you cant elongate it so far that you
are saying Itll be better after____ (insert:
graduate, retire, training, ECT)
Balance is about having a healthy mix of spiritual,
intellectual, emotional, and physical health and
fulfillment.
The small things matter. We do not have to

Why are we discussing all

this?!

Live in professionals
High demand placed on us
Constant on-call mentality

Valued by the department

Scheduling time of
Weekends of during trainings

Impact of Secondary Trauma

LA
UR
A
VA
N
DE
RN
OO
T
LIP
SK
Y
Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While
Caring for Others

On the Clif of
Awakening
I finally came to understand that
my exposure to other peoples
trauma had changed me on a
fundamental level. There had
been an osmosis: I had absorbed
and accumulated trauma to the
point that it had become part of
me, and my view of the world had
changed

Trauma Exposure
Response
We are all efected by the
sufering of others and of our
planet

Time for a Video

An introductory video-- to make you

smile

http://traumastewardship.com/the-book/videos

Understanding
Trauma Stewardship
From Part 1 of the Book

Trauma Stewardship

Refers to the entire conversation

about how we come to do this
work, how we are afected by it,
and how we make sense of and
learn from our experiences
To participate in trauma
stewardship is to always
remember the privilege and
sacredness of being called to
help

Trauma stewardship calls us to engage

oppression and traumaby caring for,
tending to, and responsibly guiding
other beings who are struggling
At the same time, we do not
internalize others struggles or assume
them as our own. Trauma stewardship
practitioners believe that if we are to
alleviate the sufering of others and the
planet in the long term, we must
respond to even the most urgent human
and environmental conditions in a
sustainable and intentional way

Of the Utmost
Importance:

The most important technique in

trauma stewardship is learning to
stay fully present in our
experience, no matter how
difficult
This entails, being aware of your
awareness and paying attention to
your intention

Not just for the WEAK

Trauma stewardship is for anyone

who interacts with sufering, pain,
and crisis of others or our planet
In the fields where I work, there
is historically a widely held belief
that if youre tough enough and
cool enough and committed to
your cause enough, youll keep on
keeping on, youll suck it up. Selfcare is for the weaker set

Efective Trauma
Stewardship
Efective Trauma
Stewardship
might require that
we question some
of our deeply held
beliefs about our
lives and work

Inquire into your

responses,
reactions, and
coping
mechanisms with
no judgment, no
defensiveness,
just curiosity

Efective Trauma
Stewardship
The more we try to
protect ourselves
through not being
fully present to
what is unfolding in
our lives, the more
we feel the efects
of trauma
exposure

Efective trauma
stewardship might
require that we
question some of
our most deeply
held beliefs about
our lives and work

The truth is
The truth is that we have no

authority over many things in

our lives, but we do control
how we interact with our
situation from moment to
moment. If we allow our
happiness and sense of
success to hinge on things
outside ourselves, we will wait

Mapping Your Response to

Trauma Exposure
From Part 2 of the Book

We often assume that

our very status as
helpers grants us
immunity from the
sufering we witness. We
are often wrong

Trauma Exposure
Response

The transformation that takes

place within us as a result of
exposure to the sufering of other
living beings or the planet
The ways in which the world
looks and feels like a diferent
place to you as a result of your
doing work
Occurs when external trauma
becomes internal reality.

16 Trauma Exposure
Responses

Feeling Helpless and

hopeless
A sense that one can never
do enough
Hypervigilance
Diminished creativity
Inability to embrace
complexity
Minimizing
Chronic
exhaustion/physical
ailments
Inability to
listen/deliberate avoidance

Dissociative moments
Sense of persecution
Guilt
Fear
Anger and cynicism
Inability to
empathize/numbing
Addictions
Grandiosity: an
inflated sense of
importance related to
ones work

Pair and Share

Review the list of trauma exposure
responses and select the top 3
responses you experience.
Discuss these responses with a
partner.

Do these responses manifest in certain

situations?
How are you able to manage through
these responses?
What do you need to better manage these
responses?

Whats Next?

We must continue analyzing how

we respond to trauma.
In a future business meeting we
will go over how to navigate
through Trauma Stewardship.
Finding ways to change our daily

practices
Discussing further a healthy work-life
balance