compose / team-based emotional resilience for pressured environments

A trauma-aware team resilience programme for public sector teams working under emotional pressure.

This programme helps teams build shared emotional regulation, strengthen co-regulation and reduce the emotional load of high-pressure work. It’s designed for teams who regularly encounter distressing material, public hostility or emotionally-charged decisions, but lack structured trauma-informed support.

Drawing on principles of trauma-informed practice, the programme focuses on building psychological safety, reflective habits and emotional steadiness across the team. It supports teams to stay composed under pressure, support one another without burnout, and embed sustainable habits that promote trust, clarity and connection.

The result is a more stable, connected and emotionally intelligent team, able to lead, respond and recover well in challenging environments.

    • Recognise and shift unhelpful internal states using body, breath and inner dialogue

    • Influence emotional dynamics in teams through presence, language and self-regulation

    • Support others effectively without taking on their emotional load

    • Embed simple practices and team habits that promote calm, trust and collaboration

    • A team that can handle emotional demands with greater resilience and composure

    • Practical tools to manage stress and emotional load, individually and collectively

    • Stronger self-awareness and relational insight to lead and collaborate with clarity

    • Shared habits that support emotional balance, trust and co-regulation in the moment

    • A foundation for deeper personal development and wider cultural transformation

  • Step 1 – GC Index Team View
    We begin by mapping the team’s energy and contribution styles using the GC Index. This shapes the programme to fit how the team naturally operates and highlights where emotional strain may be felt most.

    Step 2 – Full-day face-to-face workshop
    A practical, experiential day based on the Teamshaper’s Compose module.

    Step 3 – Monthly virtual drop-ins
    Facilitated 1-hour sessions to reflect, share challenges and reinforce habits of emotional awareness and co-regulation. Several facilitated sessions are often needed to embed the learning and build genuine team resilience. Over time, the team can continue these sessions independently.

  • 09:30 – Welcome and housekeeping
    Setting the tone for the day. Introducing the aims of the session and the importance of emotional regulation and team resilience in trauma-exposed environments.

    09:45 – Delegate and team objectives
    Exploring what participants want to get out of the day. Reviewing pre-course reflections to surface shared challenges and opportunities for growth as a team.

    10:00 – Emotional agility in action
    Understanding how internal states affect presence, tone and decision-making. Introducing the concept of emotional agility and how small, intentional shifts in body, breath and inner dialogue can support regulation and safety.

    10:45 – Reset and regulate
    Guided practice to move from stress to steadiness. Learning how to recognise early signs of dysregulation and apply simple tools to return to a grounded, responsive state, individually and together.

    11:30 – Break

    11:45 – Motivation under pressure
    Exploring what sustains or depletes us in emotionally demanding work. Mapping personal and team energy patterns to support sustainable performance and reduce emotional overload.

    12:45 – Lunch

    13:30 – Co-regulation and team dynamics
    Understanding how emotional states ripple through teams. Practising how to offer steadiness and containment without absorbing others’ stress. Building shared awareness of tone, presence and non-verbal cues.

    14:00 – Respond, don’t react
    Applying the day’s learning to real-world scenarios. Practising how to stay composed and intentional in high-pressure moments, especially when facing distress, conflict or emotionally loaded conversations.

    14:45 – Break

    15:00 – Integration in practice
    Bringing together the tools and insights from the day. Identifying shared language, habits and rituals that promote psychological safety, trust and emotional resilience in everyday team life.

    15:45 – Commitments
    Each participant and the team as a whole identifies what they will do differently from tomorrow. Agreeing how to keep this work alive and embed it into the team’s culture.

    16:30 – Close

Paul Ward, Associate Trainer at Teamshaper
Teamshaper's Compose training module