Rosenverse

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

Leading through the long tail of trauma

Thursday, July 7, 2022 • Advancing Research Community
Share the love for this talk
Leading through the long tail of trauma
Speakers: Rachael Dietkus, LCSW , Uday Gajendar , Dr. Dawn Emerick and Dawn E. Shedrick, LCSW
Link:

Summary

The fatigue and trauma from events of the past few years has affected many of us – not just personally, but also professionally, and at the organizational level as well. For the most part, the corporate world has recognized the impact these past years have had on employees and teams. However, many organizations have only recently become aware of the longer-term effects and are struggling to support their people as they work through the long tail of trauma.

Key Insights

  • Trauma is an individual and embodied response to overwhelming events, not just external occurrences.

  • Including people with lived experience in research planning helps anticipate trauma triggers and informs sensitive methods.

  • Cultural context significantly shapes how trauma is expressed and needs tailored approaches to avoid misinterpretation.

  • Research with traumatized or marginalized communities should minimize retraumatization by using asynchronous and participant-controlled methods where possible.

  • Organizational trauma-informed change, especially in HR policies and leadership behavior, is essential for authentic support beyond individual care.

  • Researcher and staff self-care, including debriefing and peer support, protects against vicarious trauma and burnout.

  • Paired interviewers allow one to step back if retraumatization occurs, maintaining ethical research integrity.

  • Trauma-informed approaches must critically assess whether projects or products perpetuate oppressive systems instead of enabling harm.

  • Transparency with participants about research questions ahead of time can empower consent and reduce anxiety.

  • Trauma-informed work is an ongoing process of learning and unlearning, not a finite certification or checklist.

Notable Quotes

"Trauma is not so much an external event as it is the way that event embeds in individual bodies."

"You cannot heal your way out of death or oppression by reforming oppressive systems; you can only do so when you dismantle them."

"Being trauma-informed means restoring a sense of safety, power, and self-worth."

"Even if there is an element of enrichment in research participation, all processes have some extraction and must be minimized."

"Question your assumptions; biases creep into everything and being humble allows for safer, more ethical work."

"If you have any leadership in your organization and you want to be trauma-informed, start with how you organize and support your people."

"There are no best practices in trauma-informed design because every person and culture is unique."

"Assume everybody has the potential for trauma to show up in any interaction you have with them."

"Self-care is as much about preparing before you enter the field as it is about debriefing afterwards."

"Trauma-informed work is a journey of becoming, not a destination."

Ask the Rosenbot
Michael Weir
Mixed Methods and Behavioural Science
2023 • Rosenfeld Community
Sam Proulx
Accessibility: An Opportunity to Innovate
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Sarah Gallimore
Inspire Progress with Artifacts from the Future
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Sharon Bautista
Time to Make the Donuts: How User Research Helped Bridge Disparate Teams
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Sean McKay
Whole Product Thinking: Expanding beyond problem and solution space thinking
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Indi Young
Thinking styles: Mend hidden cracks in your market
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Joseph Meersman
Sweating the Pixel: Scaling Quality through Critique
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Erika Flowers
Introduction to MURAL for UX
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
JJ Kercher
A Roadmap for Maturing Design in the Enterprise
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Lija Hogan
Contexts of Use: A Framework for Connection
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Candace Myers
Standardizing Design at Scale
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Eduardo Ortiz
Day 3 Theme Panel
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Sam Proulx
SUS: A System Unusable for Twenty Percent of the Population
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Megan Blocker
Positioning insight: Structuring teams, roles and careers for a changing research landscape
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Changying (Z) Zheng
Practical DesignOps: From Ideas to Tools That Teams Actually Use
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Marieke McCloskey
User Science: Product Analytics & User Research
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold

More Videos

Yoel Sumitro

"Our learning framework does not prescribe but supports reflection in action and demonstration or action."

Yoel Sumitro

Actions and Reflections: Bridging the Skills Gap among Researchers

March 9, 2022

Sam Proulx

"For many users with disabilities, mobile is the best experience for the job because of its accessibility affordances."

Sam Proulx

Mobile Accessibility and You

June 9, 2022

Dalia El-Shimy

"Stakeholders aren’t leaving us out on purpose; they make reasonable decisions with imperfect information."

Dalia El-Shimy

So You've Got a Seat at the Table. Now What?

March 31, 2020

Jemma Ahmed

"Sustained collaboration with communities through advisory groups can help steer research to be more equitable."

Jemma Ahmed Subhasree Chatterjee Robert Fabricant Alexandra Jayeun Lee Ben Robins

Collaboration: learning from other fields beyond our own [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

August 7, 2024

Randolph Duke II

"Carol was really grateful for our conversation."

Randolph Duke II

War Stories LIVE! Randy Duke II

March 30, 2020

Laura Weiss

"Why am I talking? Sometimes it’s better to ask a question and be silent."

Laura Weiss

There is No Playbook: Leader as Coach During Challenging Times

April 26, 2024

Landon Barnes

"Customers benchmark your company to their last best experience, often outside of your industry."

Landon Barnes

Are My Research Findings Actually Meaningful?

March 10, 2022

Dr. Jamika D. Burge

"User research's value lies in linking user needs and pain points directly to business profit and loss."

Dr. Jamika D. Burge Nick Fine Alexandra Jayeun Lee Greg Nudelman Bo Wang

How UX researchers can partner with (and not be replaced by) AI [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

August 31, 2023

Jonathon Colman

"Most content design teams aren’t healthy; their output is overly constrained and management cannot do anything about it."

Jonathon Colman

How to Maximize the Impact of Content Design

January 8, 2024