Help to Understand and Heal from Collective Trauma

Photo : Matthew Peddie, WMFE

By David “Dirk” Smith, M.Sc., SDL (He/Him)
 
This is an article I never wish I had to write, but with the high recurrence of mass shootings and pure inaction of the powers that be to do anything to stop them, our reality in the USA is that mass shootings have become a normalized part of everyday life. Yet, for the communities in which these shootings occur, the trauma from such an event will forever change and shape that community.
 
Collective trauma is when people share an emotional reaction to a bad event and leads to people feeling powerless, alone, scared, and uncertain about the future. As a society, we’ve all experienced collective trauma when we’ve seen our communities affected by natural disasters, acts of terrorism, global pandemics and just about everything in between. Collective trauma can be viewed as a fractal measure of scale, that is self-similarity in the emotions involved regardless of size. It can be experienced by small few, say a sports team affected by the injury or death of their teammate, a large group such as a school that experienced a mass shooting, an entire city that has been partially burnt down by a wildfire, a social community that has experienced a mass shooting, a country that has been subject to a terrorist attack and even the entire planet hit by a global pandemic. Unfortunately, I write these out as examples of collective trauma I and many others have directly experienced. In this article, I am sharing some of my anecdotal experiences in this regard as well.

Now, I don’t mean for this all to come off as depressing, but when talking about collective trauma, the reality is that you have, am or will experience it yourself. As sport psychologists and sport leaders, you are also in a unique position to help your community of athletes, coaches, parents, and others to understand their emotions and them heal.  
 
When a community experiences collective trauma, members will respond by self-organizing actions to create a positive and shared meaning by it. Most commonly this is scene with spontaneous memorials that include flowers, pictures, letters of love, messages of hope and other things to help honor the victims. Usually, these memorials emerge close to the site in which the traumatic event occurred and utilize surrounding resources, such as barricade fences, signs, and other things to help increase the visibility and access to the memorial.
 
Organize and encourage people to come together, acknowledge what happened and talk about their feelings.
 
One of the most important things that should be done as soon as possible, is to bring the community together and share with each other how this experience has affected us. As a gay man myself, one of the scariest times I experienced collective trauma was following the 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, FL. I had never visited Orlando nor even heard of the nightclub, but the shooter targeted the LGBTQ+ nightclub specifically. A nightclub that was no different than any of those that I regularly visit in my own life. So, reading the news about what happened, how the people I knew who were directly connected and some who were direct witness to it, really scared me. Despite being thousands of miles away in Denver, CO, it easily could have been me and my own friends directly in that situation. A place I thought was safe no longer felt that way. Denver itself has had its fair share of mass shootings, so it hit a bit too close to home. Yet, one of the first thing that LGBTQ+ communities all over the country did, was to come together to talk about what happened and to heal from it. Within days of the Pulse shooting, memorials appeared at nightclubs and places all over the city, Denver’s largest LGBTQ+ nightclub quickly organized a memorial service and a call to action for change, inviting politicians to come to speak and help offer words of hope and leadership.
 
Healing Collective Trauma Requires an Individual Touch
 
Communities are affected by trauma, but the individuals of the community each have their own emotional response to such an event, and everybody heals differently. Thus, helping to heal collective trauma means that we must be in touch with the people affected by it to help them deal with it on their terms. Taking time off, finding purpose again, practicing self-care techniques, even offering an ear to listen, a friendly face or simply a hug. The social connections we have with friends, family, colleagues, and acquaintances are crucial for us to prevent feeling isolated, fight feelings of powerlessness, staying connected and working to support each other.
 
Even being all the way in Germany, I was profoundly impacted by the mass shooting at a King’s Soopers in Boulder, CO because I have several close friends who live within very close proximity and regularly shop at the store. I have also shopped their many times, so seeing the news made me instantly worried about those I cared about who lived merely yards away. Despite being half a world away. it was important to me to check in with them every day, to help them know I was there for them, and I had many late-night talks on the phone with them because more than ever, they needed to talk with a familiar voice who could help them process what happened. It helped them to heal, and it also helped me to process what happened. Since many of these friends are athletes themselves, I encouraged them to go out and train as well, reminding them it didn’t have to be particularly intense or physically productive, but to just get some exercise. Bringing in the training helps bring about a sense of normalcy, breaks out of the negative feedback loop of self-talk and can help a person disconnect from reality a bit and helps people to process their emotions.
 
Look Out for Relapse and Signs of Mental Health Issues
 
People with pre-existing mental health conditions or substance use disorders, especially those recovering from addiction, may find themselves slipping again into old habits or struggling to maintain strength ad resiliency. Trauma causes emotional and psychological distress, that is normal, but it can be challenging for people who are recovering from such issues or are at higher risk of developing them. People may even have experienced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in which professional help should be sought.
 
Most people who experience trauma will heal from it in their own way, it just takes time. The most important thing is to be patient and let people heal at their pace. We humans are very resilient and capable to adapt. We can learn from each experience and allow our response to evolve so that we can help the healing process for ourselves and our communities.
 
One of my favorite stories of community healing from collective trauma is the story of the community of Gandor, Newfoundland, Canada the week of September 11th. This story has been published as a book and Broadway musical known as “Come From Away” and shares how a very small community in Canada had found its population doubled in a matter of hours when 38 jumbo jets full of passengers landed at their airport on September 11th, 2001. While the 9/11 attacks were truly traumatizing, the community in Gandor and many others in Canada, Mexico and all over the world stepped up to take care hundreds of thousands of people who found themselves stranded for days in an unknown place, far from home and during one of the scariest and most uncertain moments in US history. It was a moment when people needed each other most of all and communities came together to take care of each other. Creating memories and connections that continue to persist today.
 
Stories like this remind us that in tragedy, there is always hope. As Mister Roger’s famously said, “when I was a boy, and I would see scary things in the news. My mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping. '”