Beyond Buzzwords: Why Psychological Safety Falls Short Without a Trauma-Informed Lens

Psychological safety has become a buzzword in modern workplaces—and for good reason. It’s rooted in robust research showing that when individuals feel safe to take interpersonal risks, they can access creativity, innovation, and meaningful collaboration. But we need to ask: is it enough?

While Carl Rogers introduced the concept in the 1950s as essential for creativity, and William Kahn in the 1990s explored it in the context of employee engagement, it was Amy Edmondson who solidified the definition: psychological safety is a shared belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. And it’s been linked to better learning, innovation, retention, and overall team performance.

But something is missing from the conversation: the nervous system.

We can’t create safety at the cognitive level if we don’t account for the body’s cues of unsafety. Psychological safety cannot be fully realized unless we also address physiological safety.

What Most Frameworks Miss: The Autonomic Nervous System

Your nervous system is like a surveillance camera, constantly scanning the environment for cues of threat or safety. When it senses danger—whether physical or emotional—it activates responses: fight, flight, freeze, shutdown, or fawn.

Fawn is especially relevant in the workplace: over-accommodating, people-pleasing, staying agreeable to avoid conflict. Many high-achieving professionals operate from fawn without realizing it—it looks like competence, but it’s rooted in fear.

And because the nervous system prioritizes efficiency, not accuracy, your body might interpret a raised voice or a facial expression as danger if it resembles something threatening from your past. Your heart rate spikes, your breath becomes shallow, your muscles tense—even when the threat isn’t real.

That’s why people can seem regulated outwardly and still be dysregulated internally. This internal incongruence is what today’s psychological safety practices often fail to capture.

What Psychological Safety Feels Like (and Doesn’t)

Instead of telling people to "regulate," we need to educate on what safety actually feels like in the body:

A regulated nervous system feels like:

• Jaw unclenched, shoulders down

• Breath low and full in the belly

• A sense of being present, not scanning or distracted

• Feeling grounded in your seat or feet

• Spaciousness in the chest

A dysregulated nervous system may feel like:

• Overthinking or spiraling

• Numbness or flat affect

• Shallow chest breathing

• Restlessness or fatigue

• People-pleasing or freezing under pressure

Employees can't access their full potential if their nervous systems are in survival mode.

Why Traditional Measures Fall Short

Organizations rely heavily on surveys, observations, and feedback channels. But these tools often miss what’s really going on:

• Surveys are subjective. A trauma-informed lens reminds us that people with unresolved trauma may perceive low safety even when it objectively exists. Why? Because their bodies have no proof the threat has passed.

• Observations miss internal realities. Fawning and high performance can mask deep fear or chronic stress.

• Feedback mechanisms are only useful if people feel safe enough to use them honestly—and many don’t.

What Needs to Change

If we want to make psychological safety actually effective, we need to integrate:

1. Physiological Education

Educate employees and leaders on what nervous system states feel like. Distribute visual tools or handouts on signs of stress versus safety. Normalize conversations around constriction, tension, numbness, and how they impact decision-making and connection.

2. Somatic Check-Ins Over Surface Dialogue

Instead of just open-door policies or anonymous feedback forms, build in somatic prompts:

• What are you noticing in your body right now?

• Where are you holding tension?

• Do you feel grounded or scattered?

Use these in 1:1s and team meetings. Safety isn’t just expressed verbally—it’s felt.

3. Trauma-Informed Leadership Training

Equip leaders to understand trauma responses like shutdown, fawning, or hypervigilance. Teach them how to respond with curiosity, not correction. Build team cultures that prioritize presence, validation, and co-regulation.

4. Track Real Indicators of Safety

Offer ways for employees to self-report nervous system shifts: heart rate variability, sleep quality, or even how often they feel safe to speak up. Let them opt into wellness tracking that honors privacy but gives the organization meaningful data.

5. Go Deeper Than "Mistake Tolerance"

Psychological safety is not just about encouraging risk-taking or tolerating errors. It’s about creating ecosystems where nervous systems can relax enough to be authentic. That means addressing chronic stress, workplace trauma, and culture-wide performance pressure.

Final Thoughts

Until we acknowledge that the mind cannot feel safe in a body that doesn’t, we will keep repeating the same top-down initiatives that don’t stick. Psychological safety is essential. But physiological safety is foundational.

Let’s build work cultures that regulate, not just accommodate. That educate, not just observe. That empower people to feel, not just function.

Curious how to bring this to your team or event? Let’s talk.