Trauma Informed Care in International Contexts
The NGO my team and I are partnered with is Clowns without Borders (CWB). This NGO focuses on providing play as a form of providing support to children who are experiencing traumatic events. CWB’s reach is internationally recognized. They often are at the frontlines of a crisis, empowering children through play and performance. Our team spoke with Naomi, the executive director (as well as a performer herself). She emphasizes that play is an important foundational tool for children to not only process and cope with adverse experiences, but to also reintroduce joy to the child. Joy being such a powerful tool in combating stress and offering small reprieve for the children during an adverse event. Her passion for the overarching mission of CWB is evident in the way she speaks about the work being done, and our team is excited to be a part of that impact.
That being said, as I was going through the training modules on “Early Childhood Attachment, Stress, and Trauma”, I was able to clearly tie it to what children are experiencing within these international contexts, and how CWB fights to improve outcomes for these children. Specifically thinking about the sliding scale of stress and at what level it becomes detrimental to the individual. Honing in on the definition of a “traumatic stress response”, it is stated as the ability or inability to cope after a traumatic event that compromises one’s psychological well-being. As well as including a traumatic injury or risk to one’s life. The children that CWB seeks to reach are facing risks to their and their families lives, sometimes in more than one way, so this felt especially pertinent to me when taking this training.
In our meeting with Naomi, we talked about how this response might look, and how it can differ from child to child. Some children experiencing high levels of stress will act out during performances, and while it can be difficult for the performer to handle, Naomi highlighted above all else, this was a child seeking connection, and this very much stood out to me when taking this training.
Additionally, it was also very clear that reminders of trauma can vary from environment to environment and from child to child, as was highlighted in another portion of the training under “trauma and loss reminders”. Which got me thinking about the performances that CWB delivers and how this might be taken into consideration when developing these performances. Especially when incorporating performers that are not local to the community, and how unfamiliar faces, or different situations could be a reminder to families facing displacement.
In conclusion, this training felt multifaceted and especially important to consider when working with populations of children and adolescents facing adverse experiences. Additionally, taking into account the differences in cultural contexts internationally and how that might change what traumatic stress responses look like from community to community. Furthermore taking into account the larger support system that children typically rely on (such as family and community members) and how incorporating them could be beneficial (again depending on the cultural context).
