To avoid burnout and do this work, practitioners need each other and need to be in solidarity with one another. It is important to place the client at the centre of the work. When colleagues transgress boundaries and become either enmeshed (the hero) or disconnected (the victim) from their clients and work, teams need to collectively bring them back to the zone where their best work can occur.[1]
Supervisors play a key role in gauging when supervisees (including leaders) are not in the zone. Through sensitive and honest conversations, they can invite them back into the zone.
This complements the trauma-based ‘window of tolerance’ model,[2] which describes what happens when people, including clients and practitioners, become dysregulated.
References
[1] Reynolds, ‘The zone of fabulousness: resisting vicarious trauma with connection, collective care and justice-doing in ways that centre the people we work alongside’.
[2] D Siegal, The developing mind: Toward a neurobiology of interpersonal experience, Guildford Press, 1999.
Updated