The emotional impact of supporting others
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
The Emotional Impact of Supporting Others guides, developed in partnership with Thrive LDN, with funding from the Mayor of London, are now live.
The Emotional Impact of Supporting Others guides, developed in partnership with Thrive LDN, with funding from the Mayor of London, are now live.
The guides have been created for people working in education and community settings who are often supporting others through distress, uncertainty, trauma, crisis or change.
There are two versions available: one for educators and pastoral teams, and one for community workers, volunteers and peer supporters.
Both guides focus on the emotional impact of supporting others. They offer practical tools to help people notice emotional strain, stay steady in difficult moments, set boundaries, build in recovery time, and think about what support they may need around them.
Supporting others can be meaningful work, but it can also be demanding. In schools, emotional moments often happen outside formal pastoral structures: in corridors, classrooms, playgrounds, staff rooms, or in brief conversations at the beginning or end of the day.
In community settings, support can happen just as informally: after a group session, in a message, over a cup of tea, or in the moment someone feels able to share what they have been carrying.
The guides recognise that these moments matter, and that they can also have an impact on the person offering support.
They are designed to help people keep doing meaningful support work in ways that are steady, boundaried and sustainable.
They sit alongside, not in place of, existing safeguarding processes, supervision, organisational support or specialist services. Their focus is the everyday emotional reality of support work: the conversations that stay with us, the responsibilities people carry between formal structures, and the small practices that help people remain steady, boundaried and supported in their role.
How the guides were shaped
The guides were shaped through conversations with people working in education, community and support settings across London, alongside Peace Collective’s wider experience of developing trauma-informed, practical resources for people supporting others.
Across these discussions, people spoke openly about what helps them stay steady in emotionally demanding roles, what can make the work feel heavy or isolating, and what they wish was better understood about the emotional load of this work. These insights shaped both the focus and tone of the resources.
The materials combine lived experience from education and community settings with trauma-informed principles, facilitation practice, and Peace Collective’s wider work around trauma, crisis, community support and emotional safety.
The result is a practical set of tools rooted in real contexts, designed to support people to recognise emotional impact, stay steady, build in recovery time and avoid carrying the work alone.
We’re grateful to the community organisers, volunteers, educators and practitioners who shared their time, insight and honesty during the development of these guides.
Their experiences helped ensure the resources reflect the realities of support work and offer tools that can be used in the moments that matter most.
The guides are available now through Thrive LDN:
How helping others affects us: https://thriveldn.co.uk/communications/toolkits-and-resources/how-helping-others-affects-us/
If your organisation is interested in developing a deeper understanding of trauma awareness, emotional safety, or supporting staff and volunteers in emotionally demanding roles, we’d be happy to talk.
Peace Collective offers training, workshops and facilitated learning on trauma-informed practice, emotional safety and sustainable support. Get in touch to learn more.
