Trauma Responsive Toolboxes: A Tool for Our Time

Name, Tame and Frame

It was not as if we didn’t have enough trauma in our world, affecting and damaging the lives of adults and children. Then, along came the pandemic followed by racial tensions. For our nation – and the globe – adults and children are facing new challenges, and our capacity to move forward positively hinges on our ability to: (1) recognize these new traumas and their impact on our psychological and physical wellbeing; (2) identify and apply amelioration strategies; and (3) appreciate and highlight the depth of trauma’s impact on our family lives, our workplaces and our communities.  Stated simply, we need to name, tame and frame trauma, the architecture that undergirds my new book, Trauma Doesn’t Stop at the School Door: Strategies and Solutions for Educators, PreK-College.

Trauma Toolboxes

There is no single approach to dealing with trauma symptomology, once we admit to ourselves that trauma is never going away. While trauma isn’t reversible, we do have strategies for ameliorating trauma’s effects. And, there is growing research on additional approaches for tackling trauma’s impact. This makes trauma different from many other things that enter the lives of individuals for which there is no cure, no relief, no solution. 

We are in search, then, of strategies that can help adults and children: concrete doable strategies.

In an earlier piece, I wrote about the creation of trauma responsive toolboxes. These toolboxes are designed to enable users to lower their autonomic nervous system responses to trauma (fight, flight, freeze, fawn and faint) and to address dysregulation, isolation and overregulation, all trauma symptomology. The toolbox contents are designed to activate the senses, to engage the imagination, to open neural pathways and disrupt existing thoughts and behaviors. 

The actual contents could differ from toolbox to toolbox but they could include feathers, playdough, mini pads of paper and mini crayons, feeling stones with soothing words on them that could be placed between one’s thumb and index finger, worry dolls, figurines, pipe cleaners, Lego or other construction toys, emoji dice (with different expressions on each side). There could be wrapped candy like lifesavers (pun intended). The point is to have variety and include items that activate different of our senses.  In this way, the items would enable users to access different parts of their brain to ameliorate their trauma symptomology.

Students could keep the toolboxes in their school desk. They could keep them in their backpacks. They could bring them home. They could put them near their beds. They could put them in places that have meaning for them – shelves, drawers, tables. The point is to put the toolbox in a spot or spots where it is easily accessible and just seeing it provides a cue that there are ways to deal with trauma’s symptoms. 

College students could benefit from these toolboxes too. And lest anyone suggest that this is infantile or coddling or snowflaking, we only need to read the newspaper, listen to the television and look at social media to see the profound impact the current state of the world is having on our individual and collective psyche. From social distancing to racial tensions, we are struggling to keep our balance in every sense of that word.  Toys are not infantile; neither are stress-relieving devices. It isn’t only children who need the benefits of play.

One could call these trauma response toolboxes the mini equivalent of play tables, a notion developed in Trauma Doesn’t Stop at the School Door. The idea is that when trauma rears it head, play can be best strategy. And, play should not be mistaken for absence of learning. No, play is a critical activity that allows one to be creative, feel less tension, engage alone or with others or both, develop a sense of relief. Playing is often something that disappears from the landscape of traumatized children and adults. And, some adults think play has not place in one’s life when one is “matured.” Wrong. Restoring play, whether through the toolbox or the play table, is a key strategy for helping alleviate trauma.

Layered Meaning of Toolboxes

Beyond the value of the trauma toolboxes just described, there are other, more expansive ways of thinking about these toolboxes. Start with how they are constructed. 

The boxes could be made by teachers and given to students; they could be made by institutions and delivered to employees. Or, better yet in my view, they could be an activity completed when schools/offices reopen; the students/workers would create their own toolboxes. The institution would give individuals a box (it could be wood or cardboard or plastic); it could have the school’s name or individual’s name on it. Then, there would be a table with items that individuals could select to go into their toolboxes. The choice then moves from the teacher to the student, employer to employee, empowering an individual to identify what might be the most effective tools for him/her. Call it personalization. Imagine the excitement that could come from filling one’s trauma box. And, how important to be the recipient of a gift, especially if one was caregiving prior to returning to school/work.

“Toolbox” as a term is also helpful in addressing trauma. The very name suggests that something can be “fixed,” that there actually are tools that can benefit individuals struggling with trauma symptomology. That knowledge alone is powerful. Even looking at the box, without touching anything inside of it, can message the power of the box and the impact it can have on individuals. The toolbox becomes, then, a symbol of practical resources but also inner resources. 

A toolbox is also not an elite item. It is not a fancy theory; it is not something only used by the rich or the entitled. A toolbox is about working, and it is about what we need to work effectively. In earlier centuries, there was something called the poor man’s toolbox. Instead of a big wooden box with a myriad of differing tools, all the tools in the poor man’s toolbox were housed within in – kind of like those modern screwdrivers where you take off the cap and other tools are within the tool handle. The point here is that the toolbox is for everyone; and it has the tools we need to improve what needs mending.

On yet another level, a toolbox is like a library of resources that are available to a person. It is like a reminder that we have skills and strategies to help us navigate and fix what ails us. And, there is value in not having an empty box; the key is the toolbox has items in it. The items can be added to or changed. They can become more complex. A toolbox is refillable and evolving; one can always be on the lookout for items to add into it. 

On yet another level, the toolbox is something one can share with or give to someone.  Sharing one’s toolbox has intimacy; it is like sharing one’s diary or photo album. What works for a person may help another person. In a sense, it is a recognition of the trauma we are all experiencing and the possibility of amelioration

ToolBox is also a software term that relates to the items/icons that enable a computer user to access common functions. In this sense, a toolbox is an aide, a facilitator. Different computer toolboxes have different icons. Some are geared to artists; some are geared to learning computer functions. Some toolboxes are for writers; some are for presenters and teachers.  

In a sense, the toolbox is like an entry gate: it lets folks into a computer program.  The trauma toolbox serves something of the same function: it eases individuals into a set of tools that can help them deal with trauma and they are not complex or inaccessible or confusing. They are designed – like the computer toolboxes – for ease

And, toolboxes can be conversation starters. Students may not be keen on sharing feelings to each other or adults (or identifying them within themselves) but they can use their toolboxes together and start conversations about the items in the box and what can be done with them. There is actually a term “toolbox talks,” defined as a short conversation between an employer and employees where workplace safety is addressed. Since trauma erodes safety, toolbox chats generated by the trauma toolbox are, in a very real sense, a discussion about safety.

Finally, the most significant ameliorating strategy for trauma symptomology is reciprocity, and the trauma toolbox can generate collaboration and cooperation among two or more individuals. It can engage people together, even as they work on their own with the tools in their box. Picture a group of students, each with their toolbox, looking at what the other gathered students are doing and creating with their toolboxes. That’s reciprocity.

Time for Action

Trauma is not disappearing. If anything, it seems to be worsening for children and adults alike. We would be well served to create implementable affordable trauma responsive strategies now. What reason is there to wait? Trauma toolboxes are far from a panacea but they do move the proverbial needle in the right direction. And at this point in time, all forward positive movement is needed to get our students to do more than survive; we need to enable them to thrive.

 Post Script: Ten Trauma Responsive Toolboxes will be delivered to the first 10 attendees at the Virtual Book Launch of Trauma Doesn't Stop at the School Door on Monday, June 22, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. est. Details for joining are at: www.karengrosseducation.com. Join us. Win a toolbox.