International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc.
International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc.
By: Ava Lam Ka Man – The Robust Wellbeing Company, Hong Kong
I have been providing assistance to CISM in the EAP sector for over 10 years and have responded to different crisis ranging from industrial accidents, unusual incidents, sudden death of a staff member, natural disasters, social unrest, to the recent pandemic traumatic response. In this work, I have often had to provide guidance to the Human Resources Practitioners and senior leaders of the response teams. Sometime, I learned about their experience from questions I asked, and I would like to share some of what I learned from this:
Crying is a part of being human but normally, in a corporate setting, the senior leaders are very much expected to be in control of their own emotion. Thus, normally, my response would be “it’s okay, just don’t break down.” However, I did have one experience where one senior leader broke down when kicking off the session. I worried how this might affect the whole very factual process of CMB but soon realised the senior leader’s action had actually given the staff the message, “it’s okay to express and okay to cry.” This permissioned 80% of the audience’s weeping during the session. It provided an opening to educate the crowd on being grounded during intervention in a CMB session.
I wondered if this was a situation that required neutrality. However, my experience with ritual indicated that it is very helpful assisting people in recovering from their traumatic experience. Often, they lack the sense of control and by participating in a ritual/or raising the idea of a religious ritual, it helps the affected member to feel a sense of being able to “do something” in this situation, regardless of any religious orientation of the company. After the ritual, people feel as if they can move on.
This is a question often asked. Along with the question of the normal time frame for recovery, we must also consider what to watch out for and the flexibility required to provide to the staff during this time. I also think it’s important to talk about the post-traumatic growth. We human beings are actually capable of finding meaning out of an unfortunate event, and even being able to grow from it. A normal impact that I often observe is the sense of closeness that develops between the team members. If handled in a timely and appropriate matter by the company, this can also simultaneously result in enhancing a sense of belonging and commitment to the company.
To conclude, it’s a very valuable experience being able to talk and empathise with someone who has just experienced critical incidents. It is important to stay open minded to possibility and belief that, with our assistance, people can change and grow as a result of traumatic experiences.
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