Clowns in the Nursery
While participating in the Attachment Vitamins: Interactive Course on Early Childhood Attachment, Stress, and Trauma, I was thinking about how effective a similar, though consolidated, training module could be for our partners at Clowns Without Borders. Our partners are specifically requesting a toolkit for their working artists to become more prepared with basic knowledge on trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences so that they can more effectively deliver their care and performances in high stress environments. We had discussed creating a series of short training videos for them to implement, and the overarching structure of the Attachment Vitamins training can provide great inspiration: beginning with basic attachment theory, describing developmental milestones and normative fears, the effects of toxic stress, and trauma, and finishing with self-care when working in early childhood mental health. The concepts of ‘ghosts in the nursery’ and ‘angels in the nursery’ has always been a beautifully effective metaphor in my eyes so I would be curious to highlight that in our own trauma informed toolkit.
In the segment about toxic stress and trauma, the training detailed how Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in young children may cause them to re-experience trauma, avoid trauma-related stimuli, dampen positive emotional responsiveness, and increase arousal. It will significantly improve the work of the artists on the ground with Clowns Without Borders if they can recognize these manifestations of trauma when interacting with audiences. Therefore, a main focus of our toolkit should be to translate these manifestations into possible scenarios they may witness in person so that they can recognize children in the audience who may need extra support and understand the potential causes of certain behaviors.
Additionally, in the segment about self-care when working in early childhood mental health, the mental healthcare providers discussed the physical and mental stress that can be transferred to the clinician when working in high stress environments or directly with patients who have experienced a significant amount of trauma. This particular section struck me as important to include in our deliverable because ultimately our brief is to design a toolkit that will help the artists provide better care to children in a wide range of high stress, high trauma environments across the world. Although there will be varying cultural nuances in each place, we could suggest a constant ritual that opens and closes each day of performances. Providing a module within the toolkit about a simple group breathing exercise to start and end each session could help train the artists to better care for themselves and therefore provide better care to others.
Overall, this trauma informed training provided great inspiration about how to layout a trauma informed training in a logical order and at a level that is complex enough for adult trainees, but not so complex that it assumes all trainees have a specialized degree in Psychology or related field. The presentation was well balanced between background theory regarding attachment, temperament, and development and the impacts of trauma on a child with that background theory in mind. Adapting this general structure to a bite size deliverable that takes into consideration a context that is widely applicable given our partners’ changing environments will be our biggest challenge, but I believe that with open feedback from our partners we will be able to tailor it to their artists’ experiences and needs.
