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Working Principles

The following principles were agreed by the core group that met on 4th August 2024. They will be updated as and when necessary.

Agency With Bravery

Nobody has to take part in anything they don't want to do in RAT sessions. Or if they want to take part but need to adapt it slightly to their own needs, so long as that doesn't obstruct another person’s participation, that is fine.

On the other hand, we invite people to try things out if they feel safe enough doing so, even if they don't know why we're doing it at first or it feels a bit silly - because stepping out of our comfort zone and “being” in a different way can be the first step in finding out something really important about ourselves.

If in the space and not participating, we ask people to be generous to those still working by giving authentic, sincere energy to them and the process.

In RAT spaces, we either are not, or bravely strive not to be, afraid of people’s feelings, and create a space in which overwhelm can coexist with equilibrium if it wants to do so.

Allow The Process To Happen

We all have to put up so many defences in the world around us that reaching a place of authentic communication requires a reset of sorts.

RAT sessions involve experiential tasks, games and exercises that help us to find that reset. It ensures that our intellectual activity continues to be informed by what our bodies and spirits instinctively know.

We invite people to allow the process to happen without interrupting it for themselves or others, knowing that there will be time to reflect afterwards, and room to be held in whatever form that reflection takes.

We Will All Get It Wrong

It normally isn't hard to tell when someone is making a mistake and when someone is intentionally causing offence.

To learn from mistakes, we need to be shown grace.

If we can all start with the assumption that everyone will say something ignorant at some point, and there is space to grow from that, we set each other free.

Compassionate Compromise

Trauma leaves us all with very different needs - and sometimes our needs will conflict with those of someone else in the space. That’s OK.

If we can be open about it and work out a compassionate compromise, we have an opportunity to open our hearts and minds to another person in a way we may not usually get to do.

We try to avoid saying that we aim to make the space equally comfortable for everyone. Partly because the work often takes us a little out of our comfort zones, and partly because an assertion like that risks gaslighting someone who ends up making bigger sacrifices than others here and there.

Instead, we strive to make the space equally challenging for everyone. We’re still unlikely to achieve that, but it at least reminds us to keep our awareness of each other and our capacities to compromise alive.

Balance The Space

In spaces where so many of us have not been free or able to communicate as we have needed, it is particularly important that we remain alert to the different textures of presence in the space, and acknowledge them all.

So we ask our participants to notice if they are big talkers, or communicate better through movement, writing, drawing, eye contact, breath - and notice that in each other, too.

If you’re a big talker, are you listening out for what isn't being said? If you’re a quiet type, are you as present as you could be on your own terms? At any one moment, do you feel like everyone around you is occupying the same space - and if not, what can we do to help?

We Are All Survivors

And therefore, we all at least on some level "get it."

And therefore, we are all vulnerable.

This means we all have to look after each other more than in other settings.

In therapy, this wouldn't be helpful - and we certainly aren't setting out to provide therapy.

But it provides a perfect opportunity for learning how to model the kind of person you would want others to be to yourself in a trauma-conscious world.

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