Trauma
4 Steps Communities in Web3 Can Take to be Trauma-Informed
Founders, community builders, and moderators take note. Serving the mental health needs of people with trauma requires extra love and attention.
Web3 communities have the reach and ability to make experiencing mental health symptoms, receiving mental health care, and prioritizing self-care normal. Given the high rates of trauma in our world (remember 2020?), in order for Web3’s mental health focus to be successful and sustainable, community founders and moderators need to implement trauma-informed practices in their projects.
Here’s how…
Step 1. Use Non-Violent Imagery and Language
Imagery and language with themes of dominance, violence, restriction, or control can be off-putting at best and triggering of trauma reactions at their worst.
When writing copy and laying out your roadmap, make things as direct and easy to understand as possible. Many abusers who gaslight use cryptic language to do so. As a result, many trauma survivors spend a lot of time second-guessing themselves and swimming in self-doubt. Especially if they see that others seem to ‘get’ complex concepts, they can’t wrap their heads around.
Be as clear and concise in your communication as possible and open and available to community members who have questions.
Step 2. Create an Atmosphere of Safety
Safety for the community requires an active and engaged sub-community of moderators that will communicate with each other, enforce the rules, block trolls, and be on top of potential scammers targeting community members.
Sending the same ‘close your Discord DM’s’ and ‘our team will never message you directly with a link’ messages over and over again can feel tiresome. But they’re necessary for creating a community where people can feel safe.
Safety does not mean disagreement doesn’t happen. It means that when there is disagreement, discussions are respectful, and there are no power games being played. This is true in the private discourse among the moderators and founders as well as in the public eye in the community.
The tone of the relationships among moderators and founders is going to trickle down into the community. Keep things assertive and healthy on all levels.
Step 3 — Look to DAOs
By its nature, a traumatic event takes away a person’s sense of power and control. This, coupled with an internalized negative belief about oneself, is what makes something traumatic. Thus, DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) are one of the most exciting aspects of Web3 for me as a trauma therapist. This decentralized approach to power, which involves community member collaboration and input in decision-making, is aligned with promoting healing for victims and survivors.
A well-implemented DAO, especially when someone can earn voting power thru non-financial means, has the potential to help trauma survivors find their voice and assert their power. This experience can empower that person to create a new positive belief about themselves in the process.
Step 4 — Transparency from Founders
This means founders have a clearly written roadmap for their project and give regular updates along the way. If you have not met the benchmarks of the roadmap, it’s better to acknowledge this than to skirt around the issue or pretend it doesn’t exist.
Transparency and consistent, honest communication build trust more than meeting benchmarks.
In a nutshell, being trauma-informed means incorporating what is healing and empowering to people who have had their sense of power and control taken away. This means offering choice, collaboration, and providing a sense of safety. No one is more well-positioned to incorporate these concepts and create an atmosphere of healing than leaders in Web3.
