Addressing Mental Health: A Call for Trauma-Informed Graduate Education

• In Event: Across the Lifespan: Psychosocial Influences on Development

Abstract

Neoliberalism, or the rapid financialization in the political era of austerity, has brought on the zombification of higher education, which prioritizes profit over the education and wellbeing of scholars. This dynamic has resulted in the mental health crisis of graduate students by prioritizing the personal responsibility of graduate students, rather than the institutional responsibility of universities for the injustice and trauma occurring within higher education. This scholarly paper addresses the crisis from a trauma-informed perspective, with an understanding that this crisis is a symptom of the larger problems caused by neoliberalism. Thus, we propose a model of trauma-informed graduate education, following the principles of safety, transparency, peer support, mutuality, empowerment, and cultural/historical justice.

Authors

• Thomas Brooks, New Mexico Highlands University

• Sarah Rodriguez, Texas A&M University - Commerce

• Rosemary J. Perez, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Laura Lee Smith, University of Michigan