Part of the Trauma informed coaching is to study the experience of emotion. When we see the word emotion, the first impression we have, about the concept of emotion, may be how we feel our feelings. Feeling comes and goes. When we simply only experience feeling, feeling does not necessarily enable us to make connection to the thing we engage with, in other words, feeling, itself, does not necessarily enable action. But we know how a person feels can create a significant impact on the way a person responds to a situation. Therefore, the concept of emotion is not limited in feeling, instead, there are other action related components that it co-create the concept of emotion.
In trauma-informed coaching, I want to invite you to view emotion as e-motion “energy motion”. Emotion is not about how a person feels, instead, it is about how a person experiences the energy s/he has in the situation. When it comes to coaching, a coach aims to work with the energy a person has in order to evoke motion. When the energy shifts, a person will have the ability to make changes in life. Therefore it is beneficial for you to be mindful of the energy you have in coaching space.
Trauma work is an emotional work. In the chaos of trauma, feelings get all over the place and it is overly overwhelming, in result, a person may get paralyzed either instrumentally (as in physical and mental) or intuitively (as in emotional and spiritual), that’s the reason why we called it trauma. When a person is unable to regulate emotion, more likely the experiencing emotion is unknown to the person, at the same time, the person does not have the capacity to process all the received information. It can be challenging for a person to learn new emotion as well as to interpret emotion correctly during the chaos of trauma. Ironically, it is by embracing the self in such unknown emotion allows a person to learn: what the experiencing emotion is about to the self, how the experiencing emotion has impact on the self, what kind of appropriate practice the self can do to make a response to the experiencing emotion? Personal growth can actually come from learning your own experiencing of the unknown emotion. Trauma-informed coaching is not about coaching someone to change how to feel, instead, it is about coaching someone to learn how to work with the emotion in the experience. The outcome of change comes from the learning in the experience.
There are different kinds of emotional wheels that help people visualize emotion, learn the difference and the connection between different emotions. Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions enables learners to see how emotion evolved and co-related from one another, as well as how the two different emotions can be mixed to create a new emotional experience. Geneva Emotional Wheel enables learners to visualize and evaluate the intensity of the emotion may be experiencing in the experience. There is also a wheel of emotion that offers many expressive emotional words that it helps a person to expand the vocabulary for emotion, so that people can better gain awareness of the experiencing emotion in a cognitive approach and figure out appropriate ways to respond to their emotional experience.
I think it is beneficial for people, who are experiencing trauma, to take dedicated time as they process their energy fully. Processing energy is different from staying in the feeling. Processing energy is about giving permission to the physical body to take on a lead, enabling the physical body to give guidance on evaluating the kind of capacity the self is able to occupy in, so the physical body can determine the appropriate action or behavioural response for the self to practice in order to work with the personal wellbeing.
The concept of “energy motion” enable us to experience emotion in two ways; the first one is addressed to the “energy” , that I see it as the expression of the emotion, which is about how a person’s internal body experience the energy; the second one is addressed to the “motion”, that I see it as the action respond to the emotion, which is about how a person can create an experience to move the energy in order to work with emotion. When we allow the experience of internal energy and the experience of action response work separately, we enable a person to put her/his emotional experience into perspectives where, a person is able to learn how the experience of internal energy has impact her/his wellbeing, and how the experience of action response has impact her/his connection.
Beeskit Social’s Emotional Action Wheel is designed to provide some guidelines for people, who wish to work with their emotions, in response to traumatic experience. It can be challenging for a person, who is experiencing trauma, to figure out the appropriate response or solution for the experiencing conflict or problem during the time of chaos. I hope Beeskit Social’s Emotional Action Wheel can become a helpful tool for people to use for guideline or reminder, when they get lost and confused in their emotional experience, so that they can get mindful of their “energy motion” [emotion], and have the awareness to make their emotional experience into a learning opportunity for their growth.
Beeskit Social’s Emotional Action Wheel is designed through the lens of Coaching. It provides practical advice on how to work with emotion and the impact of the emotional experience. The Emotional Action Wheel is presented in the shape of a spider web. Working with emotion in the experience of trauma is a process of handling all sorts of inner connections and outward relationships that, such process is a matter of how a person executes her/his ability to manage a holistic “network” inside out. Every connection and relationship a person has engaged with, may result in creating an impact to a trauma response. By managing connection and relationship in the form of a "network", it may offer a method to support a person who is experiencing trauma to get organized. Knowing everyone experiences and interprets emotional experience differently, the design of the emotional action wheel is only for the purpose of guidelines.
There are a total twelve basic emotions. These basic emotions are the emotional experience a person may come across in the living experience of trauma. The basic emotion is located in the first layer of the inner circle, which is presented in the colour of orange.
The second layer of inner circle is known as the expression of the emotion, which is presented in the area of colour blue. Here, the expression mainly addresses the inward experience a person has when she/he experiences the emotion. The word Expression implies how a person feels the energy being generated inside the body. Inside the bracket, it suggests the action a person may practice subconsciously (reaction) in response to the expression of the emotion. The second layer mainly focuses on the internal process of how a person may internally experience the “energy motion”.
The third layer of the inner circle is known as the action response to work for emotion, which is presented in the area of colour green. Here, the action is mainly addressed outward as how a person may bring the experiencing emotion into awareness and, practice the suggested action in response to the emotion with consciousness. The suggested action response is proposed to enable the person to shift the energy in the living experience. Inside the bracket, it implies the purpose of the action and how such action may support the person to work with the addressed emotion. The third layer mainly focuses on the external process of how a person may create an experience to proactively work with emotion for a better outcome.
The fourth layer is known as a reminder of emotional response, it is a friendly reminder to the learner, as to advise them the kind of action not to practice in response to the addressed emotion. Inside the bracket, it provides how the practice of “NOT to Do” may benefit the learner and provide support to the learner's growth. The listed reminder is adapted from the wisdom words introduced by the elders who have learned their lessons from their previous living experience of pain or suffering . The wisdom words have been circulated in the easten philosophical educational framework, that the elder wishfully passes to the younger generation. The fourth layer mainly focus on the practice what a person not to do so that s/he can avoid further damage or re-traumatization, at the same time, it also inform a person what is possible to do in response to the addressed emotion, as making the emotional experience into a learning process for their personal growth.
Here is a set of coaching questions to provide you some guidance what you can do to work with you emotions:
Basic Emotion
What does your relationship look like with this emotion?
In what kind of environment would you give yourself a full permission to fully experience this emotion?
Subconsciously Reaction
Which part of your body initially responds to this emotion?
How does your reaction serve you in the situation?
Expression of Emotion
If you can give this emotion a voice, what does your emotion tell you?
What kind of value do you hold in this emotion for you in response to the situation?
Purpose of Action
What kind of energy is generated in this emotion?
How does this energy impact you and what would be the consequence if you allow this energy remaining inside your body for the following few hours?
Action Response to Work with Emotion
What kind of contribution this energy can make in the moment you are experiencing it?
What can you do with this emotion to create a better outcome?
Lesson for Inner Growth
What do you want to create or produce with the energy you are experiencing?
What have you learned through the experience you have in this emotion?
Reminder of the Lesson
What would you like to do differently next time when you experience the same emotion?
What can you appreciate for the experience of having this emotion in your living journey?
Emotion is about “energy motion”. How a person creates the experience of energy will have a significant impact on how a person may take action to respond to the experiencing emotion. There is no “good” or “bad” emotion, all the emotion people experience in life is valid for their survival and living; however, there is “good” and “bad” energy. Learning to work with energy is essential for people who are experiencing trauma. The reality is, energy always comes from within, therefore, in trauma informed coaching, we coach you to ignite energy through your inner self where it actually enables you to take action for making desirable changes.
Cite:
Perreault, Yvette. When Grief Comes to Work: Managing Grief and Loss in the Workplace, a Handbook for Managers and Supervisors. AIDS Bereavement and Resiliency Program of Ontario, 2011.
Smith, Julia Vaughan. Coaching and Trauma From surviving to thriving. Open University Press, 2019
Trauma-Informed Coaching Certification (2021) by Moving the Human Spirit
Seconds, S., 2020. Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions: Feelings Wheel • Six Seconds. [online] Six Seconds. Available at: <https://www.6seconds.org/2020/08/11/plutchik-wheel-emotions/> [Accessed 20 December 2020].
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