Trauma informed journalism. Do we have trauma awareness training at our news outlets? How much could it help our nation’s mental health if we did? Have been thinking about this a lot the past year and it applies to how the news is covered in general. With yesterday’s news, especially, read a harrowing account of one of the student’s experience with the news outlets outside their school. Should the kids themselves be the ones having to plead for compassion? (Am not saying this solely lies on the shoulders of journalists, this article shows how it’s more complicated than that. This is for the institutions.)
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Sending love to all those affected.
To the kids, I’m sorry that you have had to experience such tragedy at such a young age. if you don’t have a grown up who knows how to guide you through this, it must feel so scary, i hope you know that it doesn’t mean that what you are feeling is not valid. There is nothing wrong with you. You are not weak. You are not making a “big deal” out of “nothing”. That’s how a lot of adults have been taught to deal with the things we’ve been through, too, so they might not know how to guide you. If that’s the case, do reach out to someone who is trained to do this. Sending you lots of love. Have included a list compiled by @thetapestryproject 🤍
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To the adults, how difficult it must be. If no one has ever held space for your trauma, which shows up in many different ways, to have to learn how to do it for yourself and for those in your charge, that must be so hard. Sending you lots of love. Do take care of yourselves, if you don’t know how, do reach out to someone who is trained to do this. 🤍
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It’s been a lot, everything has been a lot. There is a community called @safecircle.sg, they’re committed to building a more trauma informed community, this is something that all of us can learn to do. Perhaps we learn to hold space, perhaps we learn to give compassion, perhaps we learn to receive it, perhaps we learn to have difficult conversations, perhaps we learn to deal with our emotions, perhaps we allow ourselves to have emotions, perhaps we learn to validate, perhaps we learn to grief. Perhaps. 🤍
