Debriefing a Traumatic Event

We would like to offer this conversation for people to use with colleagues, friends and family to begin to process traumatic situations and respond to them productively

download this conversation

The Situation
Traumatic events, ranging from natural disasters to acts of violence, shake us deeply. Our fears take over and we lose perspective. This conversation has helped people draw meaning from events that have disrupted their lives and the lives of their friends and colleagues. When you find yourself facing this kind of situation, this conversation can help.

Rational Objective
To talk about personal experiences of the trauma, face reality and begin to deal with it productively

Experiential Aim
To move from shock to beginning to come to terms with the situation

The Beginning Point
The concrete beginning point for this conversation is the specific event that happend to the individual or the group.

The Conversation

Opening

This event has shaken all of us. Let’s take a little time to reflect on what’s happened, so we can come to terms with it. I’m going to ask some questions that will help us gradually process what happened. I would like you to let everyone have their own answers – no interrupting, arguing, or judging what anyone says.

Objective Questions

Imagine you were a video camera recording what you have seen and heard happening since the first events.

• What actions, words, phrases, objects, and scenes are recorded on your tape?

Let’s get everything out - the first events, then everything that has happened since -- so we all have as full a picture as possible of what has happened to this point.

Reflective Questions

• What were your first reactions?
• What shocked or frightened you most about this incident?
• What images or previous experiences were triggered for you?
• How else did you find yourself reacting

Interpretive Questions

• What impact has this had on you personally? How are you different now?
• How we different as a group or as a society as a result of these events?
• How has our view of the world changed?
• What might have been some contributing factors to why this happened?
• What might be some of the underlying issues behind all of this?
• What might we learn from this?

Decisional Questions

• What can we do to deal with the situation in the short term?
• What are some things we can do to begin to deal with the underlying issues and prevent events like this from happening again?
• What can we do to help each other?

Closing

We will undoubtedly continue to reflect on this. If you need help, please be sure to ask for it.

Hints

Some of these questions are difficult to answer, so if there are few spoken answers, don’t worry. The very fact of raising these questions and following this flow allows deeper reflection later. It may be helpful to print out the questions for people to take with them for later reflection.

This conversation is adapted from a conversation in "The Art of Focused Conversation for Schools" by Jo Nelson . It has nearly 200 sample conversations and is available in the ICA Bookstore.