Teaching With Trauma and PTSD: Navigating the Aftermath of Sexual Assault as a Graduate Student Instructor

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Contents

Introduction

Conceptualizing Sexual Trauma and PTSD

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Challenges of Teaching with Sexual Trauma as a Graduate Student Instructor

Integrating Trauma-Informed Pedagogy, Critical Disability Theory, and Networks of Care

Reframing Shame

Building Community

Evolving Assessment Practices

Concluding Thoughts

References

About the Author

Conceptualizing Sexual Trauma and PTSDs

A physical, behavioral, and psychological response to sexual assault, sexual trauma represents the intricate network of scars–both hidden and seen–that mark us as survivors (APA, 2022; Merlon & Sugden, 2023; Pasque, 2023). I’ve compiled the table below to illustrate the breadth of responses, but it is in no way exclusive (APA, 2022; Dworkin, 2020; Pasque, 2023; Yang et al., 2021).

Table 1: Examples of Physical, Behavioral, and Psychological Responses to Sexual Trauma

While it can be useful to categorize effects in this way, we must understand that physical, behavioral, and psychological phenomena frequently overlap (APA, 2022; Dworkin, 2020; Pasque, 2023; Yang et al., 2021). Anxiety, for instance, causes physical symptoms such as dizziness and nausea, and emotional dysregulation has both behavioral and psychological components (APA, 2022).

Conceptualizing trauma becomes increasingly complex once we incorporate discussions of psychiatric disability. While we must recognize that trauma and disability are not synonymous, as disability is an “impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities” (ADA.gov, 2020), there is certainly an overlap that arises when the effects of trauma progress to disability. For instance, anxiety might progress to Generalized Anxiety Disorder, depression might progress to Major Depressive Disorder, and headaches might progress to Migraine (APA, 2022; Dworkin, 2020). While the key here is severity, it would be wrong (in both a practical and moral sense) to treat trauma as a less vital concern. (Tangentially, psychiatric disabilities do not always exist on a better-to-worse scale, but I digress.) Rhetoric and Composition scholars Price (2021, 2017, 2011) and Kerschbaum (2022, 2021, 2013) have written extensively on the relationships between mental health, disability, and academic labor, citing fear of disclosure due to stigma surrounding perceived mental illness and discussing how stigma prevents faculty from accessing needed accommodations. When mental health struggles are driven by sexual assault, a highly stigmatized subject, survivors may fear how others will perceive their trauma and/or disability, causing them to isolate further.