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The Sphere model:
Assessing the impact from trauma
Nicki Weld
Stand Children Services, Aotearoa, New Zealand
Relational trauma
The range of maltreatment, interpersonal violence, abuse,
assault, and neglect experiences encountered by children and
adolescents including:
• Familial- physical, sexual, emotional abuse.
• Community – peer, and school based assault, molestation,
and severe bullying.
• Severe physical, medical, and emotional neglect.
• Witnessing domestic violence.
• The impact of serious and pervasive disruptions in
caregiving as a consequence of severe caregiver mental
illness, substance abuse, criminal involvement, or abrupt
separation and traumatic loss.
(D’Andrea et al. 2012)
Whole of Person Impacts
Trauma affects the whole sphere of a person: mind, brain,
body, spirit, sense of hope and future, relationships with
others, and the ability to positively engage in community:
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Spiritual
Physical
Hope and sense of future
Emotions and thoughts
Relational
Engagement with wider environment
Spiritual
Physical
Hope
Perceive self as wrong,
damaged, bad or defective.
Lack of self-esteem and sense
of self-worth.
High sense of shame.
Self-blame and guilt.
Perceives self as a failure or
bad, useless, negative.
Distorted locus of control.
Low self efficacy.
Unable to name positive
aspects of their self.
Negative self-image.
Sleep difficulties.
Substance abuse and other
addictive behaviours.
Problems with concentration.
Sexualised behaviors.
Self-mutilation and selfharming.
Startle easily.
Eating and food issues.
Risk taking and impulsivity.
Difficulty with learning.
Intrusive or unusual physical
self- soothing behaviour.
Higher than average resting
heart rate.
Auto immune problems- skin,
respiratory, less resistance to
infection.
Headaches, stomach pains,
other pain.
Restless and relentless
physical activity.
Higher risk in later life of
chronic physical disease.
Foreshortened sense of
future.
Absence of meaning,
purpose, connection.
Loss of hope
Demoralised, pervading sense
of hopelessness.
Can’t name future goals or
hopes.
Short term reactive thinking –
long term thinking and
planning not so evident.
Emotions and thoughts
Relational
Engagement
Anxiety/fears
Helplessness
Sadness
Shame
Poorly controlled anger – highly
reactive.
Difficulty concentrating –
inattention, forgetfulness.
Depression
Dissociation
Catastrophising
Hyper-vigilance
Misguided sense of justice
Interference with normal memory
processing- too much, too little,
preoccupied by the past.
Intrusive thoughts.
Attention to threat while ignoring
less threatening but important
information.
Difficulties working through losses.
Obsessive or pre occupied
behaviours.
Suicidal thoughts or attempts.
Difficulties expressing emotions in
words.
Behavioral outbursts.
Attachment difficulties.
Reactive and defensive.
Expectation of harm or threat from
others.
Use of violence.
Lack of trust.
Lack of empathy.
Problems communicating needs.
Not recognising/responding to
danger or lack of safety.
Over interpretation of non-verbal
and facial cues.
Hypersensitivity to even minor
threat.
Difficulties resolving conflicts.
Impaired parenting –
intergenerational transmission of
trauma.
Control issues linked to sense of
helplessness.
Sexual risk taking.
High interpersonal conflict.
Difficulty parenting
Withdrawal/social difficulties
Lack of connection to wider
community.
Difficulty with group activities.
Difficulty in school and
employment.
Bullying and being bullied.
Seeking of belonging beyond the
family system.
Disrupted sense of morality - can’t
differentiate between right and
wrong.
Responds to many things as threat
to life – issues with aggression and
impulse control.
Lack of self-protective qualities.
Errors in judgment in interpersonal
reasoning leading to odd social
behaviours
Homelessness and transient
behaviour.
Criminal activities.
Sense of entitlement
The Three Houses tool for Children
House of
Worries
House of
Good things
Weld 2015
House of
Hopes and
dreams
The Three Houses well-being self
assessment - adults
Worries
Strengths
Spiritual
Spiritual
thoughts
Weld 2015
Aspirations
Goals
Future picture
Engagement
Emotions and
Relationships
Physical
Engagement
thoughts
Relationships
Emotions and
Engagement
Relationships
Physical
Spiritual well-being (sense of
self-worth, identity, values, selfesteem, self-efficacy).
Strengths
Worries
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Has a value around kindness.
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Low self-worth – sees self as ‘weird’ and dumb.
Can’t name strengths about himself.
Not clear about his culture or how this relates to his
identity.
In good physical health
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Lacks physical confidence
Uncomfortable in his body
Loses focus and has accidents.
Difficulty with team sports.
Self-soothing of skin picking

Physical well-being (physical
health, self-care, sleep, nutrition,
exercise).
Hope (sense of future, selfbelief, motivation, goals, and
strengths).
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Likes to draw, interest in maths.
Sense of humour.

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Can’t see a future, thinks he’ll be dead.
Low confidence and lack of goals.
Emotional well-being (thoughts,
feelings, mood).

Sometimes removes himself when stressed to his room.

Trouble with self –regulation- shouting, swearing,
running off, shoving other kids.
Loses focus and has trouble with concentration.
Sadness around his father dying.
Relational well-being
(relationships, family,
friendships, supports).
Engagement (sense of
connection, belonging, activities,
work, school).
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Cares about his Mum (empathy)
Sense of humour
Has made one friendship connection.
Can seek comfort and help.
Attends school and has a supportive teacher.
Good school attendance overall.
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Possible avoidant dismissive attachment disorder
linked to early childhood neglect and exposure to
violence.
Difficulty reading social cues – conversations and
physical boundaries.
No male role model
Few friends
Exposure to violence and unstable adult
relationships and the impact of this on his learning
about relationships.
Can be aloof and distant
No connection to his Dad’s family.
Socially isolated not well connected to community –
not in any social, sports, or activity groups.
Lacks confidence in his ability at school, mainly due
to his reading difficulty and trouble with physical
sports and activities.
Is often late to school.
Intervention - Being whole and well.
All aspects of our self need to be in balance and connected for us
to be whole and well. To do this we need to attend to well-being
and trauma recovery in the same six aspects that trauma
impacts:
SPIRITUAL
WELLBEING strengthen sense of
self- concept, build
new and positive
meaning and identity,
replace negative
narratives with
acceptance and
awareness. Increase
self-worth, identity,
culture, values,
beliefs, and traditions,
turangawaewae.
Weld 2015
Physical well-being –. diet,
sleep, self-care, exercise,
relaxation - support the
central nervous system and
impacts– integration, self
acceptance, appreciation,
balancing, attending to
hyper-arousal, reactivity,
addiction, and impulsivity.
Weld 2015
sense of Hope – sense of
future, self-belief,
motivation, goals, and
strengths, sense of purpose
– having meaning and
looking forward,
inspiration, motivation,
developing dreams, selfbelief, future safety.
Weld 2015
EMOTIONAL
WELLBEING –
having emotional
awareness, language
and management.
Working with loss,
fear, and anger.
Developing
mindfulness and
seeing the link
between thoughts,
feelings, and
behaviour, having
replacement
thoughts and able to
use self talk.
Weld 2015
RELATIONAL WELLBEINGrelationships, attachment, family,
friendships, having strong, safe,
and supportive relationships –
understanding ways to build
healthy connections and
communication with immediate
and extended family and others.
Attending to attachment issues
and building relational safety.
We.ld 2015
Sense of ENGAGEMENT - experiencing belonging
and social connection to community – school,
work, being able to contribute in positive ways,
teams, activities, service to others, helping, having
a support network of people from different places,
having purpose and meaning.
Weld 2015
Each aspect of the sphere connects - we
need to consciously assess and attend to
each of them to support well-being and
recovery from relational trauma.
Emotional
Hope
Relational
SPIRITUAL
Physical
Engagement
“Nicki Weld has written a clear, passionate and accessible
guidebook to help people along the road to recovery from
adversity and trauma. She recognizes that healing is not only
about the body or the mind, but about the soul as well.”
Sandra L. Bloom, M.D.
Available at : www. fishpond.co.nz
Nicki.Weld@standforchildren.org.nz