What Helps Communities Heal After Tragedy (Revisited)
By Adele Logan O'Keefe
(This article was originally published in November 2023 in the FEAP Newsletter at the one year mark of the Tragic November 13th shooting.)
Note: In remembrance of student-athletes Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr., and D’Sean Perry, the University Chapel bells will toll at 1:55 p.m., on Wednesday, November 13, 2024. The bells will play the first verse of Amazing Grace, followed by three chimes honoring Devin, Lavel, and D’Sean. All members of the University community are encouraged to step outside, wherever they are on Grounds, to observe the moment. For those on North and West Grounds, UVA Facilities Management is working to activate a speaker system connected to the Chapel bells so that community members across Grounds can participate in the moment.
The tragic event of November 13th was an experience of shock, grief, and loss for our UVA family. One year later, our community is impacted by residual emotions, survivors’ remorse, and trauma.
After a traumatic event, it can feel like those who have survived should find a way to move on swiftly. Traumatic events overwhelm the senses and often affect our ability to tap into our natural coping skills. This disaster response model by Zunin & Meyers highlights the prolonged impact of traumatic grief on individuals and communities, which can lead to unexpected disillusionment years after a tragic event. The model emphasizes the need for extended processing time for psychological healing and recovery from loss within our community. It also validates the longer timeframe required for communities to establish a lasting sense of connection and healing. Given the frequency of traumatic events in our country, concerns about psychological safety persist. At FEAP, we are actively addressing these ongoing stressors.
We acknowledge that for many, the upcoming one-year commemoration of our UVA loss triggers the effects of historical community trauma experienced by black, brown, marginalized, and disenfranchised communities, along with many more who may experience an extended impact of waves of tragic loss and trauma. As we grieve at these various levels, it is essential to prioritize humanness and embrace the experience of emotion.
It can seem overwhelming as we take inventory of our feelings, thoughts, and physiological trauma responses. Research by the US Department of Health & Human Services (2000) suggests that communities continue to grieve and experience disillusionment as trigger events and situations remind us of the presence of the trauma recovery process. This is a collective, non-linear recovery experience. There are steps we can take as we continue to hold conversations across race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and a wide range of our own experiences that may help us to more effectively recover from the supplemental effects of how trauma unfolds for each of us and the level of safety we feel to express our authentic response with others.
Ways to Heal Together
Recognize & Validate your own Traumatic Grief Response
We can often protect ourselves by creating defenses, suppressing our feelings, or even denying we should have them. Take time to check in with your feelings and perhaps even physiological symptoms you may be carrying from this event as you continually seek to manage them. Where do you feel them? How are they carried in your body? What symptoms have surfaced for you? Next, focus on where you draw from your strength, resilience, and trust, even if fatigued. Breathe into this space, soften tension, and begin to take steps to create deeper, more centered conversations and interpersonal connections.
Find Your Allies & Mentors
We are not meant to shoulder traumatic grief alone. Though we may feel unsafe and sensitive to triggers that create trauma echoes, when we build our network of those with whom we can feel more safe and able to express our real feelings and concerns, we can feel greater connection, even if the solutions are not yet clear. If you are unsure who your allies and mentors are, seek them by asking for this in your workspaces and meetings. If you experience the effects of racial and ethnic trauma, creating opportunities to build these connections can be vital. If you have difficulty locating these earnest connections, we can help you build connections.
Listen With Intention
Two of the most important stress moderators after tragic community events are social support and a psychological sense of empowerment or confidence (Norris et al., 2002). Please take steps to create continued social support, mentoring, networking, and events in your departments to both recognize the one-year mark of our collective tragic event and find ways to continue to energize these two elements of resilience. Conversations that bring us together in person to honor those experiences and normalize the exhaustion that can come from managing daily stressors, pressures, and challenges in our roles while healing from our own personal responses to tragic events are vital to creating a greater sense of safety and connection.
Here are some questions you might ask yourself: What worries your employees? What pressures are they experiencing? Are there concerns to which we are not responding? Are there ways we can be more proactive in creating healthy and safe interpersonal support?
Connect with Effective Community Mental Health Support
Many of you may have been significantly impacted by the event of November 13, along with other stressors and losses in your daily lives. You are not alone; many are facing these chronic effects more than ever.
We are here at FEAP to help provide a safe place to process what you have endured, acknowledge and hold the hurt and pain with you, and help to provide ways to cope with these stressors to lessen the trauma effects through time. We can also help you locate effective, skilled counselors and other resources to bolster your recovery. We also plan to continue to hold more intentional conversations in group forums to come together to have these meaningful conversations realistically.
Play with Your People
Find local groups of like minds where we can have fun, move our bodies, and play more often. The research in disaster recovery indicates that yoga, acupuncture, massage, and other somatically releasing healing bring about being in the here and now in our own bodies. What groups are local that you can join in with others? What are ways you can feel validated and more at ease when not working so that you continue to spark a more secure sense of belonging in the community?
FEAP Group Support
FEAP recognizes that the upcoming one-year mark of the tragic event of November 13 can bring up many feelings, memories, and physiological symptoms as we approach this time for our community. We also know that support for social engagement and developing a sense of psychological empowerment are the markers of reducing the effects of these ongoing symptoms associated with the recovery and healing process of traumatic grief in our community. We are considering starting a group of faculty and employees to come together to process this event and others that shape the way we experience community violence and loss and explore effective healing methods for ways we can come together to create a greater sense of safety and secure bonds in time, even if we cannot prevent these events from occurring.
Contact FEAP
FEAP (8am-5pm M-F): 434-243-2643 (uvafeap.com)
FEAP After-Hours Support: 434-243-2643
About the Author
Adele Logan O’Keefe
Dr. Adele Logan O’Keefe brings over 30 years of experience in counseling and therapeutic education. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College and a Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision from the College of William & Mary.
A Licensed Professional Counselor in Virginia, she specializes in stress, anxiety, and healing from trauma. Her studies in empathy, resilience, and leadership development create a unique blend of knowledge and approaches for fostering health and vibrancy in the workplace.