– because we are fabulous. Fabulousness happens when we enact collective ethics, and are collaborative, innovative, and justice- doing. We can be heartbroken, but as workers we are not the centre of the heartbreak. We understand that this is not our tragedy (Heather Gilmore, personal communication, December 1, 2015). We resist disconnection and enmeshnent, enacting fl uidity from queer theory where we move into and away from the work, like a dance. We co-create spaces where imperfection and need engender creativity. We can be messy with each other (Reynolds, 2014a). But it is also hope-fi lled, embracing our ethical obligation to be the bringers of hope, seeing a believed-in hope as an ethical stance; a “relational hope, hope as something that happens in the space between us, rather than inside of me or you...” (Lizet e Nolte, personal communication, April 13, 2018). We are connected to ourselves, our


emotions, our bodies, our team members, and persons. In the Zone of Fabulousness we enact our collective ethics, shoulder up the team, engage collective accountability and respond with collective care versus self-care. We envision our work as useful and possible, and the person is at the centre.


Zone slippage One necessary assumption I make for my


work as a clinical supervisor is the belief that no one came into this work to hurt people. It may not be an accurate assumption, but it is a useful assumption without which I could not work. From this analysis I see workers who slip into disconnection or enmeshnent as workers we have let down. As fellow workers we witness these folks slipping, yet we side with the politics of politeness, gossip, and lack the moral courage to off er critique, smoothing over ethical issues. Collective care and collective ethics require that we off er critique when we witness peers slipping. As workers, we do not simply become enmeshed or disconnected. I think of this as zone slippage, where we are in the Zone of Fabulousness and then we get exhausted, disheartened, broken- hearted, spiritually pained, and we slip into enmeshnent, or disconnection. We need to consider what we are thinking, feeling, and doing that lets us know we are leaving the Zone of Fabulousness. When I start to get overwhelmed, tired, broken-hearted, I move towards disconnection. When I am talking to co-workers, I start to think, “Damn, would they just get to the point? Could they just shut up?” When I start get ing impatient, I know I


38


am leaving the Zone of Fabulousness, moving towards disconnection. When I slip towards enmeshnent, I get heart-broken about one person, and I want to do things for them I could never do for others. Or I want our whole team to reorganise around somebody at the cost of the relational community.


We cannot keep ourselves fabulous: Cultures of critique, collective care and solidarity teams


Self-care is oſt en prescribed as the antidote


to burnout, but it is individualised, positions workers as damaged and does not respond to the social determinants of health and contexts of social injustice in which persons suff er and workers struggle. Collective care invites us to shoulder each other up, work in solidarity, see our sustainability as a collective project and acknowledge that we are not going to stay with sustainability and be useful across the long haul individually. As individual workers, we cannot keep ourselves fabulous: we are meant to do this work together, and our sustainability is inextricably linked to our collective care. Solidarity teams (Reynolds, 2011b) can be a useful practice for folks to intentionally structure support and decide who and what holds them up, sustains them, and how to access this heart-felt and spirited connection in responding to the darkness in our work and the heartbreak of unnecessary politicised deaths of vulnerable and oppressed people. We need to create relationships of respect and dignity and create cultures of accountability, appreciation and critique,


to catch each other when we experience zone slippage, and off er ethical critique that brings us back to Fabulousness (Reynolds, 2014b). Despite discomfort, we engage moral courage and off er critique to bring workers back to Fabulousness because, “we owe each other a terrible loyalty” (Janice Abbot , personal communication, January 8, 2012).


Conclusion T e Zone of Fabulousness is a frame


to consider how we are centring persons, enacting collective ethics and fostering collective sustainability while working in contexts of social injustice, mean-spirited politics and oppression. How are we centring persons? How are we enacting connection; being collaborative, creative, messy, and imperfect? How are we connected to our bodies, emotions, the sacred, justice-doing, each other, and communities of struggle? What is going on for workers in terms of


‘vicariously traumatic experiences’ might be bet er understood as acts of resistance and reasonable responses to politically desperate situations, and not symptoms of mental unwellness. When the measure is mental wellness, which is always infl uenced by privilege, more-privileged workers will oſt en be evaluated as more professional, having bet er self-care, boundaries, and more resilience against burnout. I am humbled by community workers, who – despite struggling to do justice in harsh contexts of exploitation, oppression, and being broken- hearted – are able to show up, shoulder each other up, and hold other people at the centre: T at is the Zone of Fabulousness.


Context 164, August 2019


The Zone of Fabulousness: Resisting vicarious trauma with connection, collective care and justice-doing in ways that centre the people we work alongside


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76