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Organization Development Journal

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 O R G A N I Z A T I O N D E V E L O P M E N T
Healing Emotional Trauma in Organizations:
An O.D. Framework and Case Study
Mias deKlerk, Sasol
Abstract
Unresolved emotional trauma in many organizations
blocks peoples’ capacity to be effective and ability to per-
form. O.D. professionals cannot eliminate suffering, but
can be instrumental in influencing the healing process.
O.D. programs must therefore get a new focus on facili-
tating the healing of emotional trauma. This article de-
scribes a theoretical and conceptual background and an
O.D. framework to organizational trauma, and provides a
practical case study on the healing of trauma in organiza-
tions.
Introduction
Enabling higher levels of performance is a primary O.D.
objective. But how can one help people to higher levels
of performance when they feel emotionally hurt and too
traumatized to perform or be open to accept change?
Unresolved emotional trauma is a significant barrier to
employee performance within many organizations. This
does not refer to trauma resulting from physical hurt or
danger, but rather emotional trauma. Since the human
body cannot differentiate between an emotional emer-
gency and a physical danger, trauma that results from
experiences which represent “psychological emergencies”
can trigger significant emotional trauma. With the in-
crease of traumatic events in modern organizations, the
ability to facilitate the healing of emotional trauma has
become a fundamental requirement for O.D. practitio-
ners.
Emotional Trauma in Organizations
Over the past few decades, many organizations have
found that their only recourse to survive in a competitive
business environment has been interventions such as
downsizing, outsourcing, mergers, restructuring and con-
tinual changes. Trauma symptoms following these inter-
J O U R N A L
ventions are well documented and are listed in Table 1.
Organizational trauma not only affects those who are
directly involved in the traumatic event, but also those
who are indirectly involved – such as survivors and wit-
nesses – who often report experiencing trauma just as
profoundly as the victims (Allen, Freeman, Russell,
Reizenstein, & Rentz, 2001; Baruch & Hind, 2000). Given
the broad impact that downsizing and restructuring in-
terventions have on the emotional well-being of employ-
ees, it is surprising that organizations often expect that
impacted employees will easily embrace these changes
and quickly move the organization to function optimally
again.
Downsizing and restructuring interventions are only a
few of the many triggers of organizational trauma. Emo-
tional trauma can also be prompted by any event with
sufficient emotional power to overwhelm people and
overcome their usual coping abilities, such as experienc-
ing the betrayal of trust, the invasion of personal space,
various forms of harassment, and abuse of power – just
to name a few. For some, even success in the workplace
can lead one to experience emotional trauma brought
upon by increased responsibilities, loneliness, loss of peer
acceptance, envy and sometimes confusion of gender
roles.
Attachment, loss and trauma are linked together. We all
have aspects of our lives that we cherish: a loved one, a
relationship, a house, a job, freedom, health, or even an
activity like jogging or golf. As these people and things
become more important to us, the more emotionally at-
tached we become to them. As such, the loss of any one
of these aspects of our lives has the potential to trigger
trauma responses. The loss of abstract attributes such as
trust, security or dignity can also trigger trauma respons-
es. Even relatively minor change in our lives can be dev-
astating. Doka’s (1989) conceptualization of loss and
grief compels us to recognize the enormity of every loss,
despite society’s measure of its worthiness.
VOLUME 25 • NUMBER 1 • SPRING 2007 | P35
 Symptom Description
Aggression Intention to cause harm to, or within, the organization
Anxiety Anticipation that uncertain danger is about to happen, which causes unhealthy ner-
vousness
Apprehension A dreaded and fearful anticipation that something bad will happen to oneself in the
organization
Cynicism Having distrust of the actions and intentions of others, accompanied by skepticism,
suspicion and sarcastic or sneering responses
Decreased commitment Reduced willingness to take up time or energy to fulfill obligations
Diminished loyalty Reduced feelings of allegiance to the organization or its members
Disorientation Being confused about what is happening and how to proceed
Distrust Losing faith or confidence about the organization’s trustworthiness and honesty
Emotional numbness Apathy, demonstrated by absence of emotional sensations and reactions such as feeling
good, bad, happy or sad
Fear Being scared, usually accompanied desires to fight or flee
Helplessness Feeling unable to cope with one’s circumstances
Higher absenteeism and Being more inclined to take sick leave or resign
turnover
Lack of focus Inability to concentrate clearly on one’s work
Lack of involvement Employees’ reluctance to immerse themselves in their work or the organization
Perceptions of betrayal Feeling that the organization was disloyal, unfaithful and deceitful in “delivering” one-
self to a worse situation
Rejection The experience of not being accepted, but rather being pushed aside by the organiza-
tion
Sadness Intense feelings of unhappiness, grief and sorrow
Uncertainty Being undecided and not knowing what to do or where to go with one’s actions
Withdrawal Removing oneself emotionally from organizational obligations and relations
Table 1. Trauma symptoms following major organizational change initiatives.
(Allen, Freeman, Russell, Reizenstein, & Rentz, 2001; Baruch & Hind, 2000).

The problem with trauma is that it does not stop once
the traumatic event is over. Instead, the intense energy
that has been revved up in the body becomes “frozen”
and one’s nervous system may become stuck on “high
alert.”Traumatic events also do not stand alone, but rath-
er have a cumulative effect where the trauma of an inci-
dent adds to and builds upon previous trauma. New ex-
periences link to a chain of experiences that stretches
back indefinitely; current experience becomes weighted
with the emotions of present and past threats.
Although organizational trauma originates at the indi-
vidual level, the individual projects his or her trauma into
the larger organizational system if the trauma experience
is of high intensity. If the trauma happens across a broad
enough spectrum, other individuals may identify and as-
sociate with the trauma, ultimately leading to group trau-
ma. Through further projection and projective identifica-
tion, the trauma can spread to other groups until it
reaches multiple parts of the organization.
Leading Emotional Trauma Healing:
A New O.D. Paradigm
There is a dangerous mind-set in organizations which
assumes that, provided the organizational issues are
dealt with and a grandiose vision of change is sold to the
organization, the survivors will be okay. Most change
management models focus on articulating a clear vision
of the ideal future, and “selling” exciting changes into the
organization (e.g., Appelbaum, St.Pierre, & Glavas, 1998;
Graetz, 2000; Mento, Jones, & Dirndorfer, 2002; Kotter,
1995). Although “selling” positive visions is an essential
element for successful change, focusing on it solely may
lead an organization to ignore those who are “broken”
from the changes and in need of healing. Selling the vi-
sion of a new, exciting future to people who are still in
grief is akin to telling a grieving husband at the grave of
his wife to marvel at the beauty and virtues of potential
wives standing around the grave. Such thinking ignores
the loss, hurt and pain that comes with change and is not

P36 | VOLUME 25 • NUMBER 1 • SPRING 2007

likely to address this person’s underlying grief. The wid-
ower must first grieve his spouse before he can see and
appreciate new possibilities. Similarly, many employees
must grieve and mourn their loss before they will be
open to see a new exciting future full of possibilities.
It is important to note that the symptoms of trauma are
natural and necessary for healing. The grief and bereave-
ment resulting from trauma, is not a weakness, an illness
or a disorder. Instead, it is a restorative response to an
emotional injury and an essentially positive and neces-
sary healing process (Worden, 1991). It is not the trauma
itself that can produce disorders such as Posttraumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD), but rather the failure to process
trauma adequately that can lead to dependencies or
pathological behaviors.
There is an urgent need for those who seek and promote
performance, personal transformation or organizational
change to recognize the inevitability of loss, to expect the
experience of trauma during change, and to help those
affected to deal adequately with such trauma. It is a mis-
take to accept the notion that people automatically go
through the emotions of the trauma curve (e.g., the grief
cycle of Kübler-Ross, 1970) up to the stage of acceptance.
Whereas the terminally ill patient has no choice in the
outcome of potential death, traumatized employees do
have a choice whether to accept this traumatic fate.
Nonetheless, they will often need help to reach the stage
of acceptance, allowing them to become content with
their past and to move forward with their lives.
Work-related emotional trauma is emerging as a major
organizational problem. O.D. professionals cannot elimi-
nate suffering, nor can we ask people to check their
emotions at the door. However, we can be instrumental
in leading the healing process and helping people to deal
with the traumatic organizational events that they expe-
rience.
Case Study
A strategic business unit (A) of a large corporation was
merged into a much larger business unit (B), causing a
complete restructuring and the dissemination of func-
tions in A. As a result of the merger, all that remained of
A was the marketing and sales group which consisted of
38 people, headed by the previous General Manager of
A. Employees were assured that the restructuring would
not result in any jobs losses and that a comprehensive,
but traditional change management effort facilitated by
O.D. specialists would take place. Six months after this
announcement, the management team of the marketing
and sales team embarked on strategic planning session
for their function. However, it quickly became clear that
they were not ready to embrace the outlook of their fu-
ture with the organization. Unconsciously, they were still
grounded in their memories of the past and their present
feelings of hurt. They were still associated with the for-
mer A organization (which no longer existed) rather than
with their new role in B. The team needed help to work
through their trauma before they would be able to see a
new and exciting future.
The strategic planning process was halted to first deal
with their trauma in a session that lasted almost a full
day. The team was asked to draw pictures in answering
two questions: “What have we actually lost?” and “How
do we feel about it?” From their pictures, team members’
emotions became clear. They were able to symbolize,
share and discuss their intense feelings of loss and trau-
ma in a non-threatening environment. They realized that
they had lost much more than their autonomy, but also
their confidence, identity, sense of hope and meaning.
One illustration of their feelings is shown in Figure 1.
Other illustrations included symbols such as graves and
violent thunderstorms.
Figure 1. “We feel sad, hurt and angry.”
Describing the picture, they admitted: “We feel sad and
angry” (e.g., tears, mouth),“we feel dismembered” (un-
connected body parts) and “it feels like our eyes have
been poked out…...” Much consolation came from indi-
viduals’ realization that they were not alone in their trau-
ma and hurt and that many of them shared similar feel-
ings. Even the General Manager could, for the first time,
share his deep feelings of loss and hurt. Sharing their
emotions took the sting out of their trauma. Once they
could name their feelings and share them with one an-
other, they were ready to look more positively into the
future.
The team was then asked to draw pictures in answering
two more questions: “What have we gained?” and “Why
can we carry on?” From this exercise they realized that
they were now part of a much bigger organization that
offered much more personal opportunities for individual
development and growth. They realized as a group they
had the opportunity to make a much larger organiza-
tional impact as more resources were to their disposal.
One picture of their realization why they could carry on
VOLUME 25 • NUMBER 1 • SPRING 2007 | P37
is shown in Figure 2; a large Band-Aid strip. Their com-
ment was brief, but powerful: “We are healed!”
Figure 2. “We are healed.”
By opening their emotional wounds in a creative and
non-threatening environment, the team was able to
begin their journey of the healing process and had expe-
rienced an inordinate amount of a relief as a result of this
intervention. Consequently, a similar intervention was
conducted with the rest of the marketing organization
and achieved similar positive results.
The case described is one illustrative example of how
healing in organizations can take place. The steps to deal
with trauma as described can and have been used in sev-
eral cases of organizational trauma which originated
from a wide range of triggers. Although some leaders
might believe that asking employees to share their feel-
ings is opening a “Pandora’s box,” our approach is rela-
tively risk-free when used in the appropriate timing and
conducted by an experienced facilitator. Although a “Pan-
dora’s box” is apparently opened, it only revealed emo-
tions that already existed in the organization. Our ap-
proach will help O.D. practitioners surface the underlying
emotions and can provide an open forum in which they
constructively deal with and let go of negative feelings,
such as sadness, anger and fear.
A Model to Facilitate the Trauma Healing
Process
The above case study illustrates the application of a ther-
apeutic model for healing emotional trauma. This model
is comprised of four integrated steps: (1) acknowledge
the existence of trauma; (2) providing a safe space to
work through the trauma; (3) symbolizing the trauma;
and (4) allowing emotions and dealing with the emo-
tions.
Acknowledge the Existence of Trauma
Organizations must acknowledge the existence of orga-
nizational trauma and be willing to deal with it. They
must take deliberate action against what Iacovini (1993)
calls “the unconscious conspiracy of silence about the
feelings of sadness, anger, denial and fear that employees
experience as they let go” (p. 66). In other words, the un-
speakable needs to be said; it is only when trauma is
being dealt with openly, that victims, survivors, witness-
es, and even the perpetrators, can reach contentment
with their respective pasts.
P38 | VOLUME 25 • NUMBER 1 • SPRING 2007
The word “trauma” stems from Greek, meaning “wound.”
Describing trauma as a wound powerfully symbolizes the
violent emotional injuries and its associated hurt and
pain. This metaphor is also relevant in the way the
wound must heal. As with a physical wound, emotional
wound needs to be opened and cleaned before it can
heal; the unsymbolized needs to be symbolized and ex-
periences need to be brought into awareness, accepted
and acknowledged. Organizations need to build a capac-
ity to face the trauma in its midst, and to grief what is
lost in order to move on. For this to happen, the wounds
of emotional trauma need to be opened, the problem
named, and emotions must be symbolized and dealt with
before employees can move on to acceptance, and be-
yond.
Acknowledging the existence of trauma and supporting a
process of trauma healing is the most important role of
the leader in the process. The leader can not be excluded
in the trauma healing process, but they are also not al-
lowed to take a “leadership” role. Leaders are participants
that must deal with their own trauma. Leadership behav-
iors that have shown to contribute to an effective process,
include sensitivity to the traumatic effects of change,
compassion, empathetic listening skills without explana-
tion, awareness of their own emotions, and vulnerability
to show their own pain and sorrow (De Klerk, 2006).
Providing a Safe Space
The experience of trauma is subjective; one person may
come through an event with no emotional scars while
another might struggle for years with traumatic residue
under the exact circumstances. Since most trauma suffer-
ers are not familiar with the way in which trauma affects
people, many of them may think the trauma symptoms
are their fault, or there is something wrong with them
because other people do not appear to have the same
problems. Because the symptoms of trauma are very
often associated with weakness, many victims are
ashamed of their thoughts and feelings try to hide these
feelings in fear of being stigmatized. In alleviating trau-
ma, it is essential to provide a safe space where people
feel allowed to express their feelings of hurt, anger and
helplessness without embarrassment, without being
judged, without being moralized, and without being
forced into accepting help.
Symbolizing the Trauma and Putting it Into
Perspective
In healing the wounds of trauma, experiences need to be
brought into awareness. There are several techniques the
O.D. professional can use to accomplish this objective.
An effective way to symbolize trauma is to develop a
narrative. Developing and telling one’s story bring order
to the insensibility and chaos of your recollections and
emotions. Putting upsetting experiences into words al-
lows people to stop inhibiting their thoughts and feel-
ings, to begin to organize their thoughts and to find
meaning in their traumas (Niederhoffer & Pennebaker,
2005). There is much power in speaking the unspeakable
and creative energy is released when the barriers of de-
nial and suppression are lifted. Disclosure has a remark-
able potential in alleviating the affects of emotional up-
heavals. Our team has found narrative approaches to be
very effective in dealing with the trauma of downsizing,
mergers, restructuring, workplace abuse, betrayal and
harassment. We have seen tough production managers in
tears when they could tell their painful stories of humili-
ation of when they had to reapply for their own jobs dur-
ing a downsizing initiative eight years before. We have
also witnessed their emotional release when they could
tell this story to their colleagues and superiors. Although
very little changes outwardly, they had the opportunity to
offload their baggage of emotional trauma.
Adult trauma survivors often suppress their thoughts,
emotions and feelings into their unconscious minds,
making it difficult to access. They often find it hard to ex-
press their true thoughts, emotions and feelings in a
group of colleagues for the fear of being viewed as weak
or non-supportive. Combining expressive arts therapy
with narrative therapy is an effective way to overcome
such barriers. Expressive arts (e.g., drawing, painting,
writing, playing and music) strengthen self-organization
and create access to whole-brain problem solving. It
stimulates the more emotional right brain and its interac-
tion with the logical left brain then promotes spontane-
ous emotional communication.
The drive to tell one’s story’ seems particularly strong
when one is confronted with trauma, loss, and grief, even
when the traumatic event is long gone and the person or
group suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD). When working with PTSD caused by organiza-
tional trauma, using metaphors can be particularly effec-
tive in combining expressive arts therapy and narrative
therapy. For instance, drawing a colorful painting of a
river as a metaphor of a group’s life, with all the hard-
ships, traumatic events, but also good times, provides the
group a useful way to tell their individual stories and get
in touch with the group’s history. Art stimulates and re-
leases the thoughts and emotions in the unconscious
mind and make it visible on the painting. The use of a
metaphor eases discussing difficult emotions. It provides
an environment of emotional safety that makes the trau-
ma explicitly visible in a non-threatening way. Once peo-
ple see the symbolized trauma, they find it much easier
to speak about it and to deal with it. The painting encap-
sulates the trauma onto paper, moving it away from the
individual or the team which improves the healing pro-
cess.
Gestalt psychology adds an effective dimension in deal-
ing with trauma when combined with narrative and ex-
pressive arts therapy. When we can give form (Gestalt) to
trauma, we can see the whole and do not just experience
the racing thoughts through our mind. From being able
to see our trauma, we understand it better. Making color-
ful drawings of one’s loss and feelings serves the same
purpose of stimulating unconscious thoughts and emo-
tions, making issues visible and easing an intense and
emotional reaction. This approach is especially effective
when the therapeutic process involves playing. Playing as
a child takes us back to a period of being carefree. It re-
moves much of our psychological barriers about what is
right and what is wrong, what is acceptable and what is
proper. Colorful 3-dimensional toys and the grainy struc-
ture of course sand stimulate the creative mind further.
O.D. interventions with several groups showed that
members understood their trauma much better and
could find quicker healing of their trauma after playing in
sandboxes with toys, giving Gestalt to their trauma and
telling their (previously unwelcome) stories.
Allowing and Dealing With Emotions
Trauma is associated with loss and loss is associated with
grief. Grieving is a process of emotional healing, a grace-
ful and deliberate walk backwards while keeping a sure
foot in living forward (Moules, Simonson, Prins, Angus,
& Bell, 2004). Grieving requires time and patience so that
conflicts can be worked through. Premature resolution of
trauma occurs when people try to force themselves to
resolve grief without allowing themselves to move
through the full cycle of mourning. In such cases, people
stay stuck in anger, pain, and resentment. The value of
mourning as containment of grieving has great potential
to resolve trauma.
Humor is an important factor that adds to the success of
all these approaches. Humor has been shown to be an
excellent way to deal with trauma and to recover from
illness (Lefcourt, 2005). Although these therapeutic inter-
ventions are emotionally intense, their creativity and
playfulness inevitably render some humor and laughter.
Similar to humor, laughter reflects a distancing from the
grief, allowing the person to recover and enjoy current
life more fully.
The integrated application of these steps can help people
to deal with their trauma. This approach to dealing with
organizational trauma has been used successfully in sev-
eral instances.
Conclusion
Loss and trauma is a part of every human life and of
every organization. Each new traumatic event exposes
old wounds and offers the positive opportunity to repair
VOLUME 25 • NUMBER 1 • SPRING 2007 | P39
and truly heal the past rather than just treat its symp-
toms. Thus, dealing with trauma is a natural part of the
O.D. challenge. Measures such as return on assets, return
on equity and sales are negatively affected just by the an-
nouncement of change (Sahdev, 2004), and occupational
injuries are much higher at workplaces that goes through
transformations (Brenner et al., 2004). By acknowledging
the existence of organizational trauma, opening the
wounds of emotional trauma, naming the problem, sym-
bolizing and dealing with the emotions and putting the
problem in perspective, organizations can alleviate the
trauma and create positive views, enabling employees to
move on to acceptance and beyond traumatic events.
Leading people to deal effectively with organizational
trauma is a step towards gaining contentment with the
past, a hugely positive and inspirational step towards
well-being, and an essential step to restoring normal lev-
els of performance.
Change management models and O.D. programs need to
be expanded to include loss, trauma and bereavement.
However, facilitating the process of healing organiza-
tional trauma is sensitive and demands a skilled and
competent O.D. professional. The process explained in
this paper is not a mechanistic recipe for success. Tech-
niques must be applied thoughtfully and with under-
standing of the situation or else it would be experienced
as merely an interesting event or a fad. Understanding
the psychological foundations of the techniques are as
essential as the understanding of how to apply them;
timing of interventions is as important as selecting the
correct techniques. O.D. practitioners need to understand
the psychologies of trauma, loss and grief, and be able to
help the bereaved to negotiate the different reactions,
stages and tasks of mourning and grief. Personal cred-
ibility is required from the facilitator to lead the process
effectively; e.g., a “green” college graduate is unlikely to
have much success with facilitating the trauma of sea-
soned Executive Committee members.
Many human motivations, cognitions, and behavioral
consequences are rooted in suffering, despair and pain.
We must embrace people’s powerful sense of loss and
learn how to help them adapt to the trauma of even the
most devastating loss. Learning to lead the healing of
organizational trauma, facilitating people to contentment
with their pasts and to find meaning in loss is an essen-
tial competency for O.D. professionals.
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Author’s Reflection
I work as a full-time O.D. consultant in Sasol, a large
petrochemical group of organizations. My role does not
fit into any specific organization or department, but
spans multiple groups throughout the organization as an
“independent” consultant. As an independent consultant,
I enjoy exposure to a portfolio of many different organi-
zations and the freedom to act and intervene as needed
by the situation, without being subject to prescribed pro-
cedures and methods. I believe that such independency
increases the level of trust that employees and groups
place in me and promotes their willingness to show
vulnerability and disclose their thinking and emotions.
They do this because they know that I will not hold their
behavior and feelings against them at some later point.
In the case study described, the intervention was planned
for three consecutive days. The manager decided to use
an outside consultant to facilitate developing a team
code of conduct on the first day. During the first day, I sat
in as an observer in preparation for the following two
days which was intended to focus on developing a strate-
gic plan for the newly formed department. Soon into the
process, it became clear that the team was not ready to
develop a strategy. Rather than focus on their new role,
they made comments that indicated they were still as-
sociated with their old organization, which no longer ex-
isted. Some of them were still calling themselves by their
old organization’s name and constantly referring to the
past “when we…..” From my prior experience in working
with several traumatized organizations, I realized the
team needed to work through their trauma before they
would be able to see a new and exciting future. However,
not understanding the internal dynamics of this organi-
zation, the external facilitator did not detect many of
these comments and their underlying meanings. As an
internal consultant, I understood the specific context of
the organization and was in a better position to detect
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these fine nuances that would require further attention.
Although I felt frustrated with the external consultant for
failing to pick-up on these signals, I did not intervene
immediately since I did not want to discredit him or in-
tervene with his facilitation. After the first day, I dis-
cussed my observations and suggestions with the leading
manager and we agreed to work the next day on the
trauma before starting with the strategic planning pro-
cess.
One specific challenge which I faced was that I did not
come prepared with the material and equipment that I
would have liked to have used during such an interven-
tion, as the intervention was planned for a different out-
come. Although I had to improvise by applying the prin-
ciples described in the paper, I was able to design an in-
tervention that I felt confident would deliver the desired
outcome. The experienced value of this intervention was
confirmed through the management team’s request to
have this intervention repeated with every employee in
the organization. I was able to accommodate this request
within one month and was able to achieve similar suc-
cess to that of the first intervention. The client gave the
following feedback: “After our integration, Mias assisted
us to face the past and helped us to deal with it. We un-
derestimated the trauma related to such a major change
but he took us through a process to talk about our feel-
ings and how we could face the future with new hope.
Even today, we still use a replanted tree as our symbol of
our new growth and strategies.”
In reflecting on this intervention, my advice to internal
consultants is: be sensitive to the context of the situation
and adapt your approach as needed; have dignity and
respect for the people and their emotions; and when
working with another facilitator, be sure to clarify roles
and plan as one unit.
VOLUME 25 • NUMBER 1 • SPRING 2007 | P41