BEYOND BURNOUT:�Stress, trauma and resilience for investigative reporters

GIJC 2021

Bruce Shapiro & Elana Newman, PhD

November 2 2021

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About the Dart Center

• Established in 1999.
• A project of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, NYC
• with a Research Center at The University of Tulsa
• Offices in Europe and Australia
• Linking journalists, clinicians, researchers
• Dedicated to innovative, ethical and effective coverage of violence, conflict and tragedy worldwide
• Global programs and partnerships

Today’s presentation*

*This is not a substitute for mental health assessment or treatment. Resources will be shared at the end of this presentation.

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• Concept/Framework about stress and traumatic stress (UNDERSTAND)
• Checking in on stress levels (NOTICE)
• Finding places to intervene (DO SOMETHING)

Note: Slides are from both Newman and Shapiro

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When journalists talk about stress and burnout, what do we mean?

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What are your 3 top signs of stress?�

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• 2
• 3

How is your nervous system responding to what you need?

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Starting from the current stress

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What is stress?

• Technically
• your body's reaction to a challenge or demand
• More commonly
• When external demands of daily life outweigh internal resources

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Stress can’t be eliminated

The pandemic increases stress load�

• Challenges both work and personal capacities
• Work/Craft:
• pandemic related concerns
• Changes in interactions with sources in story-telling
• Access to archives
• Routines are off

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• Personal Challenges of the Pandemic
• Screen fatigue
• Family obligations
• Daily hassles
• Constant risk analyses

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�Stress in short doses is helpful

Damage from Stress Response most likely when

�News is a stress and trauma facing profession

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• Direct – personal witness, present at scene
• Vicarious – empathic engagement with traumatized sources & communities
• Secondary – graphic imagery in professional context
• External - Threat, Abuse, Harassment
• Moral – breach of our moral compass
• Cumulative – career-long exposure
• Stories that interact with our personal history and identity

Distress is normative

• Distress is not a terrible thing
• Unpleasant, awful
• Good morale being
• Strong overwhelming feelings are appropriate
• Moral outrage is warranted
• Can help you do your work
• Focus/Motivation
• Distress/ Emotions can be experienced without damage
• Even intense, negative feelings are not “traumatizing”

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How Does Trauma Differ from Stress or a Stressor?

• Trauma involves -
• life threat
• serious injury
• sexual violence
• experienced directly or witnessed happening others

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Trauma & Stress are biopsychosocial experiences

With biopsychosocial consequences

BIO PSYCHO SOCIAL

Resilience is the norm

• The process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or even significant sources of stress.” (APA)
• Most people bounce back from stress

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�Journalists are a resilient profession

• Trauma exposure in journalism higher than in the general population but PTSD rates comparatively low.
• Majority of journalists return to their equilibrium and are fine
• Craft, ethics and colleagues all protective factors.
• BUT psychological injury distinctly toxic to journalists when it does happen.

Stress/Trauma is a biopsychosocial experience

With biopsychosocial consequences

Signals of stress reactions:

These signs are signals to notice so you can make a plan

Some common signs of trauma impact in journalists:

Persistent change, i.e.

• Missed Deadlines
• Lateness
• Increase in sick absence
• Minor Accidents

• Anger
• Spaciness
• Irritability
• Depression
• Lack of interest
• Lack of concentration

More extreme consequences

• Chronic risk-taking
• Avoidant spin-cycles
• Chronic disassociation
• Substance abuse / Dependency
• Combative work relationships & mistrust of colleagues
• Loss of news judgement and ethical compass

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• Burnout / Loss of purpose
• Newsroom-wide contagion of mistrust/ secrecy / fragmentation

Secondary Traumatic Stress

Focusing on intentional well-being during crisis work

What is secondary traumatic stress?

• Indirect exposure to trauma through accounts of a traumatic events
• Can result in biopsychosocial symptoms and reactions similar to PTSD:
• Nightmares
• Irritability
• Anger
• Intrusive imagery
• Fatigue
• Concentration problems
• Isolation
• Changed meanings about the world

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Risk Factors

• Personal history of trauma
• A particular identification with a story or a person
• Lack of social support
• Age and experience and trauma training also indicated

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So what’s burnout? (Maslach et al., 1996)

Response to chronic work stress, or a result of unmanaged work stress

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• Feelings of depletion, exhaustion
• Negative feelings or cynicism about the job
• Less effective or feel less effective

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C. Maslach, S.E. Jackson, M.P. Leiter, Maslach Burnout Inventory manual (3rd Ed.), Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, CA (1996)

Two Main Coping Dimensions

What can we DO to deal with secondary traumatic stress?

Everyone wants tools

General Self Care Strategies & Tools

Expect variation in how you are doing

• Over time

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• Over a day…over a shift

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• And…across your team

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• Think of ripples

The first tool we can use:

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• PAUSE

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• SCAN
• NOTICE

Scanning in each domain:��BIO PSYCHO SOCIAL

Pay attention to sleep, eating, exercise

Notice mood, thoughts/feelings, self-talk

Notice outreach, isolation and boundaries

Reducing Arousal/

• Take breaks – micro-breaks
• Physical
• Stretch
• Take 5 deep breaths
• Relax and tense muscles
• Walk
• Exercise
• Nap?
• Mental
• Look at a picture of something that makes you happy
• Play a song you like for 3 minutes
• Think of something silly, humorous, preposterous
• Imagine something beautiful
• Safe places in mind
• Count something
• PPE- mantra, image
• Write in a journali

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• Social
• Make a quick phone call
• Talk to a colleague
• What else can you do?

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Breathing & Grounding techniques

BREATH!!!!!!!!!!!!

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• Breathing: 4-4-4
• Grounding:
• Feet on the floor-push down
• Notice sights, sounds, sensations

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ostile Environment

GROUNDING

• Place your feet flat on the floor with your legs about 6-8 inches apart.
• Place your hands, flat and palms down, on the top of your thighs.
• Focus your thoughts on the sensation of your feet on the ground
• Feel how your hands feel against the fabric of your clothing
• Feel how your feet feel against the ground
• As you focus on your feet securely on the ground, breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Continue this breathing with a conscious awareness of how your feet are securely and strongly on the ground.
• You can say a simple meditation, such as: 

I am feeling my feet on the ground in this moment. I am here and I am in the present moment, safe and secure with my feet on the ground. The ground is strong beneath me and I am strong as I sit here.

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PSYCHO…

Paying attention to your meaning-making

Know your signs: People cope differently

• Old bad habits can come back- make a plan
• What do experience when you are stressed?
• What do you experience when you are REALLY stressed?
• Use good habits to your advantage
• Pre-existing vulnerabilities need attention

What am I saying about this situation to myself?

• Take a moment to reflect on how this current work that you are doing has affected you. What are you saying to yourself as you do this work?

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• Notice self-attack, guilt,

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• Remember the mission

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• Gratitude

PSYCHO: Assessing negative thoughts

• EXAMPLE: I feel bad/stressed about X
• Do a biopsychosocial scan of yourself as you think about X

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• Try:

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These parts of my problem require different types of coping

Are you a worrier?

• Worry is real in today’s world
• Focus on TODAY not tomorrow
• Set a worry time
• Distraction/Detachment: Involve yourself in an absorbing positive task

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(Meyer, FB post March 30, 2020)

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SOCIAL…

Rely on your community

When did you experience colleague support and what did they do?

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Overall Tools for Social

• Reach out assertively to help others
• Reach out for yourself
• You do this for stories, you can do personally
• Team Projects
• Buddy systems
• Structured check ins
• Professional gatherings to chat

During a protracted Crisis -& during your down time

• Provide support
• Strengthen
• Increase relaxation
• Provide challenge
• Replenish and recharge
• Change how you think about work
• Disconnect or remember successes

Shorten stress response:�Technology and boundaries

• Changing nature of work and technology are intertwined, boundaries are more permeable

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• Consequences of technological tethers
• The Bad: WF conflict, technopressure
• The Good: Flexibility, job performance
• Benefits are strongest for people who

see technology as a resource

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• Set boundaries around and with technology

Takes practice

Building a Self-Care Practice�

Balance

�Managing hostile online environments

Limit exposure & arousal

• Clear times/schedules for offline head-clearing
• Avoid engaging when tired/fatigued or close to bed time
• Turn off notifications
• Non-work devices?

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Look for the positive & positive focus of control

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Periodic operational debrief

• What have we been doing right?
• What is challenging
• What are the lessons learned

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Reinvent your mission and job!

• The world has changed. What’s my/our job now?
• Refresh your beat
• Different reporting strategies
• New narrative approaches
• What does success look like?
• Define attainable goals!
• Use different muscles
• Operational debriefs

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Ethics, standards and well-being

• Articulate mission
• Build a culture of learning
• Give meaning to events
• Avoid moral injury

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Therapy

• Don’t be afraid to get help: It works!
• Journalist Trauma Support Network - US: https://www.jtsn.org/dart-center
• How to use your journalism skills to find the right therapist for you - https://dartcenter.org/content/choosing-psychotherapist
• Each country has its own location method
• ISTSS find a clinician is international

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Let’s talk!