Take These Healing Steps After a Negative Racial Experience at Work

Racial trauma can be very easily overlooked., and it’s not always clear how it impacts your life.

Racial trauma is when you are hurt mentally and emotionally due to racial bias, discrimination, and hate crimes. You could have experienced a negative experience with racism at your last job that has stayed with you for years later.

Racial trauma tends to take a toll on black women’s mental health as one study shows they have stronger brain responses to threats. It can be a real tragedy experiencing racism in the workplace where you spend more time than at home. It should not have to be a battle every day you go to work.

Here are some healing steps you can take after a negative racial experience at work.:

Identify Your Symptoms

You could be experiencing racial trauma without knowing it. Knowing your symptoms is the quickest way to know whether or not you should seek treatment.

You may go through depressive episodes and angry outbursts because of the racial tension you have been through. If you dealt with racism at your last job, you may believe racism will always follow you. Even if someone says something to you out of context, it can be easy for you to take it the wrong way.

Racial trauma also involves reoccurring thoughts of past events. You could see something on the news that can trigger past trauma. You could also experience physical symptoms like chest pains, headaches, and insomnia. It doesn’t matter if this negative experience occurred long ago, the nature of trauma is it may always feel fresh to you.

Address Racial Trauma

Companies have a responsibility to address racism in the workplace. If not, this could be re-traumatizing and allow more racial taunts, microaggressions, and discrimination to occur.

You may want to consider speaking to your employers about racism in the workplace. After all, the organization should be serving you just like you serve them.

Optimally, leaders need to come together to find ways to make the workplace a safe, inviting place for everyone. Racism is not going to go away if people pretend it is not happening. Opening up dialogue might lead to a beneficial outcome.

Seek Flexibility

Racial trauma symptoms can be overwhelming. A person of color may hold anxiety, depression, or have a substance abuse disorder as a result of their trauma.

Your mental health is always going to be more important than anything. If you have to take a day off from work to focus on yourself, do not be afraid to ask for one. If companies normalize mental health days, this will show that they care about what is going on with you and will let you do what is necessary can for you to come back in working shape.

Find an Ally

If you take a closer look, you can find some employees who can relate to your struggles and who you could confide in. You can also speak to the HR department about what you have been going through in the workplace and advice of how to get through a tough shift amidst the racial tension. Although, it is important to recognize that HR represents the company that you work for, and so may not be a safe place to turn.

Finding allies at work can provide you with a group of people you can confide in will that can help work be a safe place for you. If you’re looking for ways to process and heal from racial trauma at work, we are available. Please read more about therapy for women and reach out soon.