I like the current policy with brief introduction. As you say, triggers are very personal. I used to know someone for whom country music was a very real trigger. It's not my story to tell, but I can say that it was no joke. Hearing country music was very bad news for this person. Thing is, the world's sharp edges can only be bubble wrapped to a certain point. This person had to deal with the fact that she might hear country music coming from someone's vehicle or through the open door of a bar, and she had to plan how to avoid those things to the best of her abilities. And, sometimes she couldn't, and it was bad for her when that happened. Sometimes the reality of something and its seriousness, and the degree to which the world around a person can be responsible for managing it for that person just don't match up.
To my mind, a writing workshop is, at the get-go, a potential red flag environment. A person knows going into it that they might encounter things that are distressing, and if they have a serious, devastating trigger on the level of this woman's country music trigger, they'd probably be better off staying out of it. Giving people a general heads up about the possibility of encountering the most typical triggers feels like a good plan, and asking people to introduce their individual works feels like an extra layer of safety. Beyond that, it just seems like extra layers of bubble wrapping that will be stressful for some people and still won't insure that no one will ever bump up against something distressing.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2019-03-26 12:40 am (UTC)To my mind, a writing workshop is, at the get-go, a potential red flag environment. A person knows going into it that they might encounter things that are distressing, and if they have a serious, devastating trigger on the level of this woman's country music trigger, they'd probably be better off staying out of it. Giving people a general heads up about the possibility of encountering the most typical triggers feels like a good plan, and asking people to introduce their individual works feels like an extra layer of safety. Beyond that, it just seems like extra layers of bubble wrapping that will be stressful for some people and still won't insure that no one will ever bump up against something distressing.