Asking meaningful questions is valuable for gaining clarity and is particularly helpful in building a trauma-informed culture. Use these ten questions to guide you and your team into deeper trauma-informed practice.
The Right Questions Lead to Better Solutions
“There are no right answers to wrong questions.” – Ursula K. Le Guin
“The one who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions.” – Confucius
“The power to question is the basis of all human progress.” – Indira Gandhi
“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask.” – Albert Einstein
In our trauma-informed coaching, consulting, and facilitation services, we often ask more questions than provide answers. We do this not only to be in the company of some of the best thinkers and leaders but also because we know you already have the best answers! Rather than telling someone what the best path forward is, our trauma-informed coaching encourages you to get curious, self-reflect, and find the best solutions for you and your team.
Asking too few or too narrow questions may result in overlooking the best approaches to a problem. Questions slow us down (and that's a good thing!). Questions let us linger. Questions lead us down many different paths, creating limitless outlets of potential solutions.
Questions Bring You into Executive Functioning
Individual and collective trauma stunt our logic and creativity, so decisions we make under duress should be re-examined using careful questions. Trauma brain is the setting we use when we are triggered, afraid, or feel unsafe. This switches us into survival mode, overriding our rational brain, the frontal cortex, into making decisions as if our survival depends on it.
We can express deep gratitude to our brains for activating in times of emergency to keep us safe. However, trauma brain can misinterpret a manageable challenge into a moment where our survival is at stake. This, in turn, leads us to apply survival thinking rather than rational thinking. With time, space, and a safe, supportive team, we can use thoughtful questions to mindfully engage our strong executive functioning skills toward new and old challenges.
Example: Child Welfare
Let's bring this big-picture topic down to earth with a very real situation (and the one that happens to be the catalyst to our entire story): child welfare.
When we think of child welfare, the immediate concern goes out to those who are at the highest risk of harm. We tend to think of the thousands of children in out-of-home placements in the child welfare and foster care system and ask, “What do we do with all the children removed from their families?”
It's not a bad question, but it does limit our answers. If that’s the question, your solution will be to find beds – residential treatment, group homes, foster and adoptive families.
What happens if we shift our perspective? When we change the question to, “Why are so many children removed from their homes?” the solutions would be different. Interventions might include offering concrete support to families, building social supports, or providing therapeutic services. Different questions lead to different solutions.
The great thing about this model is that it can be used at various scales: whether we're looking at a system like child welfare or working with individuals on our team.
Using Trauma-Informed Questions with Care
With care and curiosity, you and your team can guide your own reflection by asking clarifying, open-ended questions. Create a sense of safety by sharing honestly and listening with compassion.
Teams can use trauma-informed questions to guide themselves toward the best solutions for their organization. Peers and colleagues are resources; everyone in an organization has the potential to teach or coach using trauma-informed principles.
These 10 questions for trauma-informed solutions can be applied in a variety of situations where clarity is needed. With compassion for yourself and others, committing to safety and non-judgment, begin to ask questions.
10 Questions for Trauma-Informed Solutions
How do you know that?
We make quick judgments and become committed to the reality where our initial assessments are true. Unravel how you arrived at a decision. Maybe there is a truth you missed.
Who are you being in this, and is that really you?
As we develop, we take on roles often to meet the needs of those around us. Is the role you’re playing appropriate and necessary here? Is there another, more authentic way you can be present?
What is the "should" in this situation for you?
Obligations (real or perceived) restrict our creativity. What expectations are you feeling? Is that real?
How do you intend to handle that?
Take a moment to pause before responding to a situation. Access your wisdom rather than rely on your autonomic nervous system to address a situation.
How much longer can you continue this?
This question encourages you to take a wide perspective and look to the future. What is the stressful or maladaptive behavior at hand? What effect is it having on me? What are my options?
If you do that for the next ten years, what will happen?
Adaptive behaviors serve us for a time but can be reassessed for current value. Trauma brain keeps us in the present, but this question is future-focused.
What is your vision for yourself and the people around you?
Imagine what life could be like for you and your team at work. How do you want it to feel? What are you saying? What are you hearing?
Underneath all of this, what are you really committed to?
Clarify your values and your desires. When situations get messy or confusing, realigning with what’s important to you is a helpful tether.
What is "too big," even for you?
You face a lot of challenges at work and are capable of managing them, but we all have our limits. Others want to help and accepting support builds team culture. Who can you ask for support?
If time and money were not an issue, and you knew you would not fail, what three things would you most like to have, accomplish, or work toward?
The fear of looking foolish or incompetent is a powerful deterrent to exploring our needs and wants. In a work environment, this question can lead your team to aspirations beyond your imagination. Dare to share your vision and see what you can accomplish together.
Closing Thoughts on Powerful Questions
The process of asking questions and allowing solutions to emerge is a trauma-informed practice that requires safety, openness, curiosity, and forward thinking. It can also guide you to more trauma-informed solutions you may not have considered otherwise. Use these (or a variation of these) questions in your workplace to explore together.
Read more about ways to embody trauma-informed values in your organization.
Find these ten questions and more on page 25 of the Chefalo Consulting Complete Guide to Trauma-Informed Implementation: Holistic Solutions for Improving Employee Wellness & Organizational Performance.