Helen Pasquale – Founder, TICCS

My name is Helen Pasquale. I am the founder and head consultant of Trauma Informed Change Consultancy Services Limited or TICCS for short. I retired from Police Scotland in October 2021 and retrained as a trauma-informed coach.

I found that most of my clients were from a policing or social work background and they were struggling to provide the level of service they wanted to the public. I wondered why, so I carried out a survey over a period of 9 months. What I found was very concerning.

Despite claiming to be trauma-informed, the majority of workplaces and work practices did not align with these ethics. The stress, strain, and burnout of the workforce were not coming from the public that they were serving. It was coming from the ethos of the organisations they were working in. I became curious if this was limited to public services and increased the scope of my research.

Research Insights – Workplace Impact

I discovered that those companies who provided a workplace in which the staff felt safe, were asked to collaborate and empowered to share ideas, and were kept informed, had much higher levels of productivity.

Further to this, those companies who had a robust process in place to support staff when they suffered any kind of traumatic event, showed real empathy and trusted staff to take the time they needed to bounce back, had lower staff absence and lower staff turnover.

I then thought back to the times in my own career when I had managers who had shown these qualities and realised that those were the times that I had gone above and beyond what was asked of me. Conversely, I also reflected on those managers I had worked with whose management style was to rule through fear and derision. My performance at these times was much reduced and my home life also suffered.

Our Mission – Trauma-Informed Workplaces

I HAD FOUND MY MISSION!!! I believe that the benefits of implementing a trauma-informed workplace will far outweigh the costs of the consultancy and change management. But only if it is done in the right way.

If you are interested in finding out how we can help you with this, hit the contact us button below. We would love to help!