Workforce Reintegration: How A Trauma-Informed Approach Can Help

Forbes

2 days ago

Maayan Aviv, CEO, American Friends of NATAL, is a nonprofit leader with 15+ years of experience, driving impact in mental health treatment.
When trauma hits, it impacts all parts of an individual's life, including career progression and professional identity. It creates disruption in the way people think and behave, which sends ripple effects through the workplace in addition to their personal lives. From a career standpoint, the impacts stretch beyond the individual suffering. It affects coworkers, colleagues and others.
Three years ago, our parent organization created a career development model to help individuals coping with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) either return to the workforce or find their new professional pathway. Here's why I believe workforce reintegration should be trauma-informed:
The Invisible Barrier: How Trauma Can Disrupt Career Pathways
In the workplace, trauma often affects cognitive function, emotional regulation and motivation. I've seen how it can undermine traditional career development methods and cause loss of occupational identity, sleep deprivation, emotional and sensory dysregulation, negative thoughts and a break in trust and sense of safety.
There are other signals that someone may be going through a trauma at work. A survey of participants enrolled in NATAL's vocational coaching program found that at the outset of coaching:
• 58.6% struggled with procrastination or difficulty in self-organization and time management.
• 57.5% experienced concentration difficulties.
• 51.5% reported low motivation.
• 48.6% experienced issues related to self-worth.
Interestingly, almost half of the participants in our parent organization's program held higher education degrees. This showcases how PTSD symptoms can significantly impair work performance, even in high-potential individuals. Moreover, the skills gap isn't always about skills.
Nearly 55% of individuals surveyed reported earning below the national average wage for their position, indicating that they're employed in positions that underutilize their skills. Almost half believe their current or most recent job doesn't reflect their actual capabilities.
In other words, trauma survivors can have strong educational or technical backgrounds, and yet, they remain unemployed or underemployed. The challenge isn't a lack of qualifications, but the internal barriers caused by trauma. Trauma can hold survivors back from where they should be.
From Healing To Hiring: Supporting Workforce Reintegration
To approach career development from a trauma-informed perspective, a mentor is needed to help participants find the right career or focus on what they would like to do. Why? Because as they process their trauma, sometimes the symptoms can become more disruptive or different feelings rise up as a result of looking into the future. Career development counselors can give them the hope they need to realize that there's a lot they can do despite their trauma.
Trauma-informed coaching can teach the individual to be aware of their triggers, emphasize their self-worth and skill set and help individuals set realistic goals and time frames. Importantly, it isn't therapy. It's a structured approach to vocational support that accounts for emotional and psychological realities.
Look for a model that is:
• Short-term, goal-oriented and trauma-informed.
• Based on strengths and inner resources, including the potential for post-traumatic growth and discovering new meaning and a future-oriented career vision.
• An ecological approach that not only asks what the organization can do but also what additional resources and supports exist that could aid in recovery and growth.
• Evidence-based, while also promoting growth and hope.
• Globally focused to account for a variety of perspectives.
It's also important to consider your workplace. The post-pandemic workforce looks different than it did before, offering work-from-home opportunities with independence and flexibility. While these practices benefit many professionals, they can sometimes negatively impact those who need structure, framework and guidance. In fact, a study published in Psychology Today found that a structured return to work can significantly help with trauma recovery.
Measuring Impact: Metrics That Matter
In the United States, research indicates that veteran employment programs can be effective. In Israel, the Ministry of Defense and the National Insurance offer rehabilitation programs, but a study indicated they're not trauma-informed and more could be done to address the impact of PTSD on work functioning. Our parent organization's trauma-informed vocational coaching program in Israel, as noted in the study, found a sizable decrease in PTSD symptoms at the end of the program and a significant decrease in major symptoms, with the highest impacts in cognition changes and mood. About 60% of participants reported improvements in employment status or advancements in career planning, and a third reported an increase in income.
Business leaders can track outcomes such as job placement or advancement, improvements in self-regulation and confidence and goal completion from individualized work plans. Continued engagement, such as opting into an extended mentorship program, can serve as an additional marker of long-term success and professional reintegration.
Ultimately, trauma-informed vocational counseling should be based on safety, trustworthiness, collaboration, empowerment and choice. Trauma-informed approaches can prevent individuals from experiencing new traumas that may be caused by returning to work. Without a trauma-informed approach, workforce reintegration is difficult.
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