Getting it off your soul: transformative conversations for processing traumatic experiences

Abstract

ABSTRACT Emergency workers are confronted with trauma as an essential part of their work. Learning how to moderate the impact and coping with traumatic experiences is at the center of this study. The researchers empirically chart ways that emergency workers cope with trauma, process and integrate these experiences, and describe what supports their learning. Findings suggest a need to engage in alternative forms of communication, differentiating between professional and emotional feedback in order to foster transformative learning. The study reveals two different, complementary ways to constructively communicate, each with its own architecture: structured debriefs and transformative conversations. Mezirow borrowed from Habermas’s idea of rational discourse in dialogue, some of which is seen in debriefs, wherein emotions are set aside in the intensity of the moment in favor of processing facts and identifying decisions and actions for the future. In transformative conversations, by contrast, emergency workers seek to understand their inner selves and make meaning of their experiences. The research shows that certain conditions for transformative conversations need to be in place in order to work through emotions and unblock cognition by recognizing and working through affect, emotion, and potential vicarious trauma. This qualitative analysis derives from 57 reflective writings collected from paramedics and firefighters.