What is a trauma-informed and culturally competent researcher?
A trauma-informed and culturally informed researcher recognises that trauma can be expressed and experienced differently across cultures. They understand the intersection of trauma and culture and integrate both frameworks into their research practice. Actively going beyond the ethical principle of ‘doing no harm’, they ensure their research is respectful and empowering to the individuals and communities they undertake research with.
Developing cultural competency
Cultural competency is the ability to effectively understand and respectfully interact with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. The process of becoming culturally competent is ongoing and requires engaging with complex and contextual understanding of individual’s and communities’ lives. This includes understanding systematic inequalities and how they affect different communities.
Developing cultural competency requires each to ask of themselves ‘who am I?’. Researchers working to develop their cultural competence to support trauma-informed research practice requires commitment to examining their own cultural backgrounds, assumptions and biases to support with:
- recognising how their experiences shape their world view;
- being aware of any prejudices or fears they harbour about people from different cultural backgrounds and why they may hold these prejudices or fears; and
- honestly reflect upon any areas where they may have any unconscious biases.
Reflection of personal biases and cultural background in integral to supporting understanding of any assumptions and research perspectives. A culturally competent researcher however, has also to move beyond personal understanding to ensure their research approaches, methods, analysis and reporting has a positive impact upon the quality and ethics of their research.
Culturally competent researchers
A culturally competent researcher is able to:
- Locate themselves in the research as an insider, outsider or managing being on the margins as simultaneous insider / outsider (Smeaton 2019).
- Reflect upon the nature of power dynamics between researchers and research participants and how they can be informed by historical injustices, privilege and status.
- Ensure cultural relevance is considered for all stages of the research process. For example, by including diverse voices in analysis of data to reduce bias in interpretation; and presenting findings in a manner that respects the complexity of cultural identities and contextualises findings through consideration of cultural, historical and systematic factors and trends.
Becoming trauma-informed and culturally competent
Trauma-informed researchers do not have to be experts in trauma but look through the lens of trauma and implement trauma-informed practice in interactions with, for example, colleagues, research participants and others throughout the entire research process. This avoids retraumatisation of trauma survivors and preventing vicarious trauma in researchers (Smeaton 2020).
While a trauma-informed researcher asks ‘what happened to you?’, rather than ‘what’s wrong with you?’ (Levers 2012), a culturally competent trauma-informed researcher also asks ‘who are you?’ (Wilson et al 2015). Understanding both trauma and culture includes not only paying attention to direct experiences of traumatic events but also to broader challenges including poverty and discrimination relating to sexuality, gender, race and disability (Elliott et al 2005).
Historical and intergenerational trauma are closely related. A distinction is that historical trauma is collective and tied to a large-scale event or experiences that affects an entire community; intergenerational trauma is the familial and personal transmission of trauma across generations from both historical and / or personal trauma. Understanding historical and intergenerational trauma, such as slavery, colonisation and forced migration, is also key to being trauma-informed and culturally competent.
Being both trauma-informed and culturally competent supports researchers to avoid research participants experiencing any costs when participating in research. Potential costs include emotional distress, shame and not being believed. A trauma-informed and culturally competent research study also supports avoiding costs for wider communities including research teams and research audiences.
Understanding the intersection between trauma and culture
The intersection of trauma and culture is both diverse and complex. Culture influences how trauma is experienced, expressed and responded too, with some cultures having unique approaches to understanding and responding to trauma. For example, some cultures may view trauma through a psychological or medical lens, with other cultures viewing trauma as spiritual, communal or driven by fate.
Cultural norms and value influence how people are able to express their trauma and any associated distress; they can also act as a barrier to seeking support for recovery. For example, any cultural stigma around mental health or persecution or marginalisation for sexual orientation can mean that some individuals in some cultures cannot voice their trauma and seek support.
Culture can play a role in both the transmission of trauma and the resilience built to recover. Cultural beliefs influence how individuals and communities recover from trauma. For example, some cultures place an emphasis upon individual therapeutic interventions while others rely on collective rituals, spiritual practices or storytelling.
Steps to support becoming trauma-informed and culturally competent
Becoming trauma-informed and culturally competent is an ongoing process that requires ongoing reflection. This includes recognition of context specific considerations and adapting knowledge and practice to specific research studies. To support this process:
- Commissioners can integrate trauma-informed principles and cultural competence into the aims of research studies and ensure invitations to tenders request bidders demonstrating implications for the research study and how they will address these.
- Research organisations, teams and individual researchers can assess their current understanding of trauma-informed research and cultural competence, identifying both gaps and required steps to support their practice to deliver trauma-informed and culturally competent research.
Final words
Through working as trauma-informed and culturally competent, researchers can ensure that research participants enjoy the benefits of research. These include being recognised, validated and empowered. Trauma-informed and culturally competent researchers can support research participants with the opportunity to explore experiences and emotions in a non-judgemental content through engaging in research that can support with enacting change.
The crucial need for research to be trauma-informed and culturally competent illustrates the importance of research commissioners and research organisations ensuring that research design and delivery is both trauma-informed and culturally competent. This includes supporting researchers to be provided with associated development opportunities alongside steps to protect wellbeing.
References
Elliott, D. Bjelajac, P. Fallot, R. Markoff, L. and Reed, B. (2005) ‘Trauma‐informed or trauma‐denied: principles and implementation of trauma‐informed services for women’. Journal of Community Psychology Vol 33 (4) pp 461-477.
Levers, L. (2012) Trauma counseling: Theories and interventions. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Smeaton, E. (2020) Trauma and trauma informed researchers.
Smeaton, E. (2019) Co-production and the role of the researcher.
Wilson, J. Fauci, J. and Goodman, L. (2015) ‘Bringing trauma-informed practice to domestic violence programs: A qualitative analysis of current approaches’. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry Vol 85 (6) pp 599.
AUTHOR BIO: Emilie Smeaton is Director of Trauma-informed Research. She has been a researcher for more than thirty years and has extensive experience of undertaking research and evaluation addressing trauma and practice and policy responses to trauma survivors. She currently works with research organisations and teams delivering training and consultancy support with trauma-informed research and with organisations to support their journey towards trauma-informed practice. Emilie can be reached at: [email protected]