Trauma-informed
leadership in schools:
From the inside-out
The foundation of
being a trauma-
informed leader is
transformational
“inside-out” work that
heals adult trauma
and develops social-
emotional intelligence.
How can we teach what
we do not embody?
12
Leadership
The schools we serve are often
impacted by students who have high rates
of trauma. Once you have an understand-
ing and knowledge of trauma, especially
how trauma affects the minds and bodies of
young people, you may experience a para-
digm shift from asking, “What’s wrong with
this student?” to one of asking, “What hap-
pened to this student?”
Students often come to school wounded,
and we have to figure out how to best sup-
port them without re-traumatizing. Further,
this information is critical for educators, so
we can be more skillful in working with stu-
dents who have been impacted by trauma.
And we must process our own healing of
trauma, so that we are not so easily trig-
gered ourselves, re-creating a cycle of trig-
gers that results in a poor culture-climate
of the school community. Of course, along
with understanding trauma, it is imperative
to explore resilience strategies, so we can be
responsive.
“Trauma” is defined as “a deeply dis-
tressing or disturbing experience.” A more
complete definition is: “Individual trauma
results from an event, series of events or
circumstances that is experienced by an
individual as physically and emotionally
harmful or life-threatening and has lasting
adverse effects on the individual’s function-
ing mental, physical, social, emotional or
spiritual well-being.” How did we get to that
definition? The term “adverse childhood ex-
periences” (ACE) came out of a landmark
medical study from 1995 to 1997 of more
than 17,000 White middle-class patients led
by Dr. Vincent Felitti of Kaiser Permanente
and Dr. Robert Anda from the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
The study originated out of an obesity
clinic, but ended up revealing that aspects
of obesity were directly related to trauma
experienced during the first 18 years of life,
categorized into three groups: abuse, neglect
and family/household challenges. After
deeper investigation, the study found that
the higher one’s ACE score, the more prone
you are to indulge in health risk behaviors
and developing major long-term health
problems.
The CDC has deemed ACE a major pub-
lic health issue, rightfully so, as we see the
impacts of childhood trauma in our class-
rooms nationally. In addition, childhood
By Shawn Nealy-Oparah and Tovi C.
Scruggs-Hussein