About This Resource

If you work in a helping profession — as a therapist, social worker, advocate, nurse, or crisis responder — secondary trauma isn't a possibility. It's an occupational reality.

Addressing Secondary Trauma in the Workplace: Tools for Awareness, Self-Care, and Organizational Response in Montana is a research-backed toolkit developed by a team of Montana-based professionals, including Dr. Abi Blakeslee, who contributed Tool 6: Restoring the Nervous System — a practical guide to using Somatic Experiencing® principles for self-regulation in high-stress work environments.

What's Inside the Toolkit

The book is organized into three sections, each building on the last:

Section I — Awareness helps you understand the different forms of trauma (primary, secondary, historical, and intergenerational), recognize the signs of compassion fatigue, and identify your personal risk factors.

Section II — Self-Care offers concrete tools, including mindfulness of breathing, nervous system self-assessment, and Dr. Abi's somatic-based exercises for grounding, orienting, self-contact, movement, and visualization — all designed to bring you back into your window of tolerance before survival mode takes over.

Section III — Organizational Response addresses the workplace level: how to run trauma-informed meetings, practice low-impact debriefing, and build a culture of accountability around secondary trauma.

Dr. Abi's Contribution: Restoring the Nervous System

Drawing from Somatic Experiencing® (SE), Dr. Abi Blakeslee adapted core SE principles specifically for victim service providers. Her section introduces five body-based exercises any helper can practice — no prior SE training required. The goal is simple: recognize when your nervous system has been pulled into a survival response, and know what to do about it.

Curious about what that looks like in practice? The full toolkit is available as a free PDF here.

Citation

Blakeslee, A., Clements, E., Ellis, C., Knight, K.E., McLane, R., Osterloth, K., Powell, C., Saverud, A., Sherstad, A., Talcott, A.K., & Young, K. (2018). Restoring the Nervous System. In K.E. Knight, C. Ellis, & A.K. Talcott (Eds.), Addressing Secondary Trauma: Tools for Awareness, Self-Care, and Organizational Response in Montana. Bozeman, MT: Montana State University.

Read the Full Article Here

Tools for Awareness, Self-Care, and Organizational Response in Montana.

Restoring the Nervous System. In K.E. Knight, C. Ellis, & A.K. Talcott (Eds.), Addressing Secondary Trauma: Tools for Awareness, Self-Care, and Organizational Response in Montana.  Bozeman, MT: Montana State University.

Blakeslee, A. Clements, E., Ellis, C., Knight, K.E., McLane R., Osterloth, K., Powell, C., Saverud, A. Sherstand, A., Talcott, A.K., Young, K (2018).   

Full Article