Launching RATS!: our first post-traumatic community core group
Updated: Jul 31, 2024
Nightmares. Flashbacks. Periods of dissociation. Struggles staying in the here and now. Responses to words, smells, sounds, textures, colours, shapes, that just don't make sense to most people. Exhaustion from living so much of our waking and sleeping lives with stress chemicals soaring around our bodies, because our brains perceive threat from so many sources.
If you recognise any or all of these symptoms, you may well be living with post-traumatic stress (PTS) or complex post-traumatic stress (cPTS). Simply put, PTS usually results from one isolated traumatic incident: it is often intense, but might be shorter lived. cPTS usually results from ongoing traumatic circumstances or repeated traumatic events, often starting from childhood and often relational in nature: its symptoms can be less severe than PTS, especially as we learn to adapt to them over time, but typically last a lot longer and can be lifelong. Saying this, there are no hard and fast rules here about what traumas evoke what responses, so we will refer to both interchangeably as c/PTS.
At RAT, we think the most important thing for you to know - and this might be contrary to what others have told you - is that you are not “wrong in the head”. When the healthy human brain receives sensory information that it has reason from past experience to believe is threatening, it cuts off the part of our brain that processes complex logical thoughts and instructs us to respond instinctively and immediately based on stored information on what has kept us safe before. This is why we stop on the pavement when we hear a car screeching past, or duck when we see a ball flying towards our head (unless we’re playing football, of course). It isn't trying to trick us. It’s doing what it’s supposed to do: it's keeping us safe.
The problem is that when we have experienced really extreme or prolonged or domestic threat, it becomes difficult to separate the non-threatening information from those contexts from the threatening information, even if logically we know the difference - or the information that we should be wary of just in case, from the information that we should immediately distrust and respond to. And because trauma can have a knock-on effect on our lives and lead to new traumas, such as losing our jobs or relationships, the idea that certain information is dangerous seems to be validated, and the responses heighten and the new perceived threats pile on. c/PTS is rarely exclusively “post-traumatic”, in that sense, but mixed up with ongoing traumas.
This is why it is so important for people to understand and identify trauma for what it is, and treat survivors accordingly. This takes joined-up thinking and action across services and in our communities: since our brains are responding appropriately to a bad situation, the bad situation needs to be acknowledged and addressed at least as much as the brain needs help to rewire its responses to signals.
If a survivor of domestic abuse receives mental health support to recognise their responses to certain patterns of behaviour as part of an “illness”, they may unlearn some important instincts and find themselves in abusive relationships again, or stay in the same one - and worse yet, may be less able than before to trust that it is wrong and they deserve better. If someone experiencing homelessness is finally given a roof and a set of keys, but no further support to identify what that means for them, they may be flooded with uncomfortable associations with previous housing situations, or the sheer mental rewiring required to live so differently may be too overwhelming to manage.
But these things happen again and again. And because our support structures tend to be geared either around the lived experience from which our trauma came (homelessness, criminal justice system, domestic abuse, etc) or the symptoms we have developed as a result (addiction, depression and anxiety, eating disorders, so-called [shudder] “personality disorders”), it has not been possible for survivors from across experiences and responses to come together to challenge misinformation and figure out how to create the change we all really need to see.
Don’t get us wrong: there is so much value in groups that bring people together based on lived experience or symptomatic conditions. But if they are the only spaces we make for post-traumatic growth, we may be limiting our reflections on what has been and what can be. And if they are the only platforms from which we push for change, we may lose sight of the push for trauma awareness to become part of everyone’s interpersonal encounters in all settings, at all times.
That’s why we want to bring survivors from across our work streams, and others not yet known to us, together to find out what a post-traumatic community looks like, needs, and achieves.
What will we do?
Our sessions will be built around three key principles:
SELF-DISCOVERY: using theatre- and performance-inspired techniques, we will commit some time in each session to checking in with the parts of ourselves that we usually feel we have to hide away, so we can more safely and in supportive company connect with our values, ambitions, and potential.
COMMUNITY-BUILDING: from this place of openness, we will share whatever reflections we wish to share with each other - be that through conversation, movement, dramatic improvisation, creative writing or visual art - and from there build into communication about what personal and societal themes are most important to survivors, to inform our future projects.
CO-PRODUCTION: the number one rule of trauma-conscious practice is agency: giving voice and choice to survivors, and responding transparently. We are in the first few months of our life as a charity, and believe it is crucial to start this journey with genuine co-production at its root. So we will finish each session by looking at aspects of how we operate - our vision, values, key performance indicators, theory of change - and make sure that they are balanced and responsive to the wealth and range of humanity in our community.
When and where is it happening?
Currently, we only have funding for the first three sessions - but we want and expect to be able to extend them to occur monthly without too much, if any, disruption.
The first sessions are at
Old Diorama Arts Centre,
201 Drummond Street,
Regent's Place,
London NW1 3FE
on
Sunday 4th August, 2-5pm
Sunday 25th August, 2-5pm
Sunday 15th September, 2-5pm
At the moment, this core group is the only way to participate with us on an official regular basis. We hope this will not remain the case, and will use these sessions to establish what our future ongoing offers need to look like.
How are you making it accessible?
We passionately want survivors to be able to access this space regardless of circumstances. The brilliant Old Diorama Arts Centre where we hold these sessions is fully accessible. It is large, so if you need to take time out, you will be able to leave the space and come back - we will also have welfare leads available if you need some help during sessions. If you feel unable to take part in anything at any point, you will be welcome to stay in the space and sit things out here and there: it’s important that you are free to take things at your own pace.
If you need to bring your kids with you, we can provide childcare in a separate space on the premises. If travel costs are a barrier, we can probably cover these for you. Please do note that for childcare and travel expenses, it is important that you let us know at least a week in advance of the session, so we can make sure we have put things in place and can accommodate.
On the whole, we would love to know who is coming and so would be grateful if you could sign up whether or not you have access needs to tell us about - but if this isn’t possible for you, and you don’t need us to be able to guarantee these things, we get it, and you’re still welcome just to rock up.
What do I have to tell you to be eligible?
You don’t need to prove your survivor status to come to sessions. If what you have read here resonates with you, and you feel like this space is right for you, then it is right for you and you are welcome. We do not intend to set any rules about what people may and may not talk about in sessions - we get censored in our everyday lives plenty already, thank you very much! - but you will never be under any obligation to disclose anything you don’t want to. We believe you.
How do I sign up?
If you feel ready to sign up, please go ahead and access the form here. If you want to ask some questions first, drop us a line at info@responseabilitytheatre.com. If you aren’t available for these first few sessions but might want to get involved further down the line, sign up to our mailing list to make sure you’re kept in the loop.
How can I help you keep the group going?
Finally, if you want to support our work, you can make a monthly or one-off donation to help us accommodate the needs of anyone who wants to join us, and help us keep the community meeting long-term - or even just choose us as your supported cause on Give As You Live to raise money for us at no extra cost to you when you shop with selected retailers!
Post-traumatic growth means
change for you,
change for us all,
and change for the better.
We’re so excited to be making it with you.
The details again:
Our first sessions will be taking place at Old Diorama Arts Centre, 201 Drummond Street, Regent’s Place, London NW1 3FE, on:
Sunday 4th August, 2-5pm
Sunday 25th August, 2-5pm
Sunday 15th September, 2-5pm
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