Being kind does not cost time or money (PORTO-04-EN)
- This course is presently not described -
- EMOTIONS
- Anxiety or severe fear
- Feeling out of control
- BODY
- Elevated heartbeat, respiration, and blood pressure
- Muscle tremors or uncontrollable shaking
- THOUGHTS
- Difficulty concentrating
- Distortion of time and space
- BEHAVIOUR
- Restlessness
- Startled reaction
Situation
Joseph, 22 years old, is a victim of parental violence who goes to the municipal services. When he enters, the employee ignores him and does not make eye contact. When he greets her, she does not return the greeting or smile at him.
After explaining his situation, he is criticised for only trying to solve the situation now. Joseph automatically feels alert and scared, with a sense of threat and fear. He felt his heart beating strongly, as if it wanted to come out of his mouth, he felt dizzy and tingling in his hands. All he wanted to do was run away from there, but he didn't feel the strength in his legs. He could no longer hear or respond to what was being said to him.
Trauma-Informed Response
The employee realised the situation and immediately changed her behavior. She apologised for the way she had interacted with him and explained that she had had a very difficult appointment immediately before. She also said that he was at no fault for what had happened and that he did well to bring his situation to their attention. She stated that she completely understood, and left him completely at ease, if he would prefer to speak to a different employee that she could call;
In the meantime she gave him directions to focus on several objects in the surrounding environ-ment, recruiting his different senses, as a way of disentangling him from the unpleasant bodily sensations he was experiencing;
When the employee's colleague arrived, she also said she was sorry for what had happened. The new employee gave an empathic response, showing that she understood the difficulty of the situation and listened attentively to the request. She followed all the steps of the service´s protocol and used micro-skills/attending behaviours, such as open questions, minimal encouragements, paraphrasing, and summarizing. At the end, the new employee told him that sometimes reactions like his were caused by trauma and explained where he could get more help if he wanted it.
She asked if she could help him with any other issues and said goodbye.
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