Department of Psychology

You are being invited to participate in a research study because you have lived experience of complex trauma and identify with having C-PTSD. Note, we are not requiring a formal diagnosis of C-PTSD because of the recency of the diagnosis and the difficulty in accessing a diagnosis. Self-identification is sufficient, although this also requires identifying that you have been exposed to complex trauma. This brief survey will determine your eligibility.

Principal Investigator: Colette Smart, Ph.D., R. Psych. Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Victoria
Address: PO Box 1700 STN CSC, Victoria BC V8W 2Y2
Phone Number: 250-472-4194
Email: smartlab@uvic.ca

Patient Partner Lori Herod, Ed.D., Founder/Administrator, Out of the Storm
Email: l.herod@yahoo.ca

Research Assistant: Nazanin Babaei, M.Sc., Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Psychology, University of Victoria
Address: PO Box 1700 STN CSC, Victoria BC V8W 2Y2
Phone Number: 250-472-4194
Email: smartlab@uvic.ca

Undergraduate Research Assistants: Eva Nabokov, Nikoo Amini, Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Department of Psychology, University of Victoria
Address: PO Box 1700 STN CSC, Victoria BC V8W 2Y2
Phone Number: 250-472-4194
Email: smartlab@uvic.ca

For this study, we are interested in individuals who identify as having complex PTSD. To be eligible, this means that you have to have had exposure to complex trauma.
We define complex trauma as prolonged, inescapable, and repetitive trauma that often occurs within relationships. Examples include (but are not limited to):
  • Child abuse or neglect, or other traumatic events in childhood
  • Abuse within a close relationship
  • Military service in a combat zone (not simply in an office environment) or serving as a first responder (police, paramedic)
  • Involvement in a political or religious cult
  • Forced migration due to political instability, conflict, or war
  • Systemic oppression and intergenerational trauma
We are recruiting individuals with lived experience of complex PTSD to participate in a study to better understand what mental healthcare you have received, what has worked, what has not, and how this may have contributed to your recovery.

Please note this study is intended as research and is not therapy or a therapeutic intervention. If you are in a mental health crisis currently, we do not recommend participation in this study.
What is Required to Participate?
If you are eligible and decide you want to participate, you will be asked to complete the following activities according to your availability (all done online via SurveyMonkey and Zoom, in your chosen environment).

60-minute questionnaire asking questions about basic demographic information (age, gender, race/ethnicity, etc.) as well as your current level of C-PTSD symptoms and the types of traumas you have been exposed to. We will also ask about your prior therapy experience, as well as what recovery means to you.

3-hour Expressive Arts-Based Focus Group on Zoom. Note that not all participants will be invited to the group, participants will be selected by the research team based on specific study characteristics. During the focus group,you will meet with other survivors to address the questions regarding the meaning of recovery from/with C-PTSD. These will be arts-based groups and require about 3 hours of participation. The groups will be led by the Principal Investigator and one of the trained research assistants from our lab. Note that you do not need any artistic ability, talent, or interest whatsoever to participate in expressive arts, and instructions will be given about how to participate.
Do You Have to Take Part?
You are free to choose to participate or not. By consenting, you have not waived any rights to legal recourse connected to research-related harm. If you do decide to participate and then change your mind later, you can withdraw without any consequences or explanation. If you do withdraw from the study, we will ask you if we can still use the information you have contributed up until that point or if you prefer we destroy it. Note that it will not be possible to return your data to you.
Location of Project Activities
The first portion of the study, the completion of questionnaires, will take place remotely at the location and time chosen by the participant via SurveyMonkey. The second portion of the study, if you are eligible and are invited to participate, will be conducted virtually, via Zoom. We will be using the UVic version of Zoom, which meets the same security standards as Zoom for Healthcare (i.e., it is compliant with the BC and Canadian federal guidelines for privacy/security regarding healthcare information). More detailed information about Zoom can be found here: https://www.uvic.ca/research-services/ethics-and-compliance/conducting-research-virtually/
Will You be Paid for Taking Part?
For the survey portion, you will be offered $20 CAD for your participation. If you are interested in the focus group and are selected to participate, you will receive a $40 CAD gift card to purchase art supplies, as well as a $25 CAD honorarium for attending the group. If only the survey portion is completed (even partially), you will receive $20. For the focus group, if you already spend less than $40 CAD on the art supplies, you are welcome to keep the rest. If you decide to leave the group early for some reason, you will keep the $40 CAD for art supplies but will forfeit the $25 CAD for group participation.

Please note that because of issues with bots and scammers, compensation for study participation is not automatic. We will need to verify your responses before you receive compensation for this study. We have multiple ways of checking the validity of your responses. Up to 20% of participants may be asked to participate in a video call to verify their identity before being compensated. Be advised that wrongfully participating in a study for which you are not eligible, or by giving false responses, is considered fraud and means that compensation (payment) will not be provided.
What are the Possible Risks or Inconveniences of Participating?
If you are eligible, you may be exposed to the following risks and inconveniences:

a) Participants may fatigue from answering the questions. Although participants are asked to report on current trauma symptoms, we do not ask for any details of your trauma story, and so we believe this should reduce level of distress or psychological reactions in terms of trauma history. Participants may also experience some mild distress thinking back on the types of therapies they have had and whether they were helpful or not.

b) Participants could experience both fatigue and stress during the group. Although the questions and discussion prompts are generally positively oriented, reflecting on these topics may draw attention to how you have not had access to such positively framed experiences in the past. Discussing barriers to recovery-oriented care may be stressful for participants, potentially leading to increased stress levels.

c) Participants may fear that disclosing their challenges could lead to negative stereotypes or assumptions being made about them, and feelings of social isolation/exclusion in a group, even if their identity is kept confidential.

d) There is a small risk of security and confidentiality using Zoom. This is adequately addressed through policies regarding the UVic iteration of Zoom.

To reduce these risks, the following steps will be taken:

People with expertise in this field have collaborated to design a protocol that would minimize harm while promoting dignity and autonomy. More specifically, the protocol and procedures are designed with a trauma-informed lens in mind. The PI (Dr. Smart) is an expert in trauma-informed practice and has worked extensively with trauma survivors, including complex PTSD. She is also trained in expressive arts facilitation and has previously used this methodology with complex PTSD survivors.

The current mitigation steps are as follows:

a) We will provide information about the possibly difficult nature of the content of the research and allow you to choose to stop participating at any point during the study.

b) Participants will be offered compensation for their time in acknowledgement for their efforts. Participants will also be reminded that their efforts are part of a bigger effort to help other people in the community, thereby lending meaning and purpose to their participation.

c) Participants will receive an information sheet regarding mental health resources and self-regulation techniques at the end of the survey.

d) We will provide you with the interview guide ahead of time so that you can prepare and not feel ‘blindsided’.

e) During the group you are free to take breaks and the group will be scheduled for a time that works in your schedule.

f) The topics of the group are generally positive, talking about recovery-oriented care. Nevertheless, we will take time to start and end the group in a good way.

g) We will not query you directly about disturbing events that happened to you during the group; this is to avoid opening up potentially traumatic material, which is not necessary for the purposes of this study. That said, sometimes people who have experienced trauma or adversity (whether in your former group or elsewhere) are keen to share their stories with a kind and empathic listener, and things come out without meaning to. Because the group is research and not group therapy, and to keep this contained and avoid 'opening up' someone where it is not an appropriate time to disclose, the group leaders are trained to reflect and redirect participants back to the present moment and the focus of the interview.

h) Finally, participants will be offered a small honorarium for their time in acknowledgement for their efforts. Participants are also reminded that t
What are the Possible Benefits of Participating?
The possible benefits of your participation include:

a) Allowing you to contribute to research that will help other people like you, going through something similar. This may help you find meaning and purpose in your experience.

b)Allowing you to contribute to improvements in mental healthcare, that can affect both clients and families.

c)Allowing you to contribute to scientific research, and our understanding of how to promote recovery for people with complex PTSD.

Please note: Since this study does not involve talk therapy, we will not offer psychotherapy, and there may not be an immediate benefit from participating.
Researcher’s Relationship with Participants

If, over the course of the project, it becomes known that a member of the research team has a prior relationship with you as a participant, and this makes it difficult for you to participate in the project, you are invited to discuss this with the research team. Likewise, you are free to withdraw at any time.

Dr. Smart is a Psychology professor at the University of Victoria. If you are a Psychology student at the university, you may know them. To help prevent any relationship with Dr. Smart from influencing your decision to participate, and to avoid any seeming pressure to participate, you will not be eligible to participate in the study.

Additionally, Dr. Smart is a registered (clinical) psychologist who sees adult clients with trauma-related concerns. If you are a current or past client of Dr. Smart, you are not eligible to participate in the study to protect your confidentiality and avoid any ethical conflict. Similarly, if you intend to pursue clinical services with Dr. Smart in the future, it is likewise recommended that you decline from participating in the study.
Confidentiality & How Your Personal Information Will Be Used
The following information will be collected from you (and later analyzed):

Online survey responses (via SurveyMonkey) – will be stored on secure servers located in Canada and will be removed from servers as soon as data collection is completed.

Individual discussion responses – the 3-hour groups will be conducted over Zoom and recorded for transcription. The recording will be uploaded to a secure UVic server, and once transcription is complete, it will be deleted. Responses during the discussion may be labelled with your study code so that we can track the demographic characteristics of our group, but your name will not be included. The research assistants assigned to this project may have access to your audio recording for the purpose of transcription. As students within a Psychology research lab, they are bound by our ethical code and also the maintenance of confidentiality. All research assistants working under Dr. Smart’s supervision are required to sign confidentiality agreements as part of their position.

Individual artwork and journal prompts – we will be analyzing your art and journaling as part of our study data. We will ask you to send photographs of these. When we share the results, we will use a group summary of characteristics of the group (e.g., 5 women/3 men, ages ranged from 32-67, etc.) but we will not link individual characteristics to your responses.
Limits to Confidentiality
As registered (clinical) psychologists or psychologists in training, members of the research team are required to report certain information regarding the safety of yourself or others. As such, they would need to report disclosures of child or elder maltreatment, or if you have imminent intention to cause serious harm yourself of others. Because this study is being conducted online across different countries, we ask that you do not disclose personal/specific details about the abuse of minors or elders (e.g., in your former group). If you have any concerns about a child at risk or would like to report any incidents of child abuse or maltreatment, please contact your local Child Protective Services or the police in your area.

Also, if you attend the group, due to the nature of group activities, we cannot guarantee confidentiality. This is on an honor basis with all group members. We ask you not to share information about the group or its participants outside of the group, and we will remind all participants about this at the start of the group.
Future Use of Data
In future, we hope that the findings of our study can be used to improve mental healthcare for complex trauma survivors/people with complex PTSD. This might involve conducting more research in the future. The findings from this study will be made anonymous and will simply refer to you as a “participant”. This means it will not be possible to find out who you are from the information we make public. This will protect your privacy and confidentiality. This information will be retained for 5 years after study completion. Only anonymized questionnaire data and anonymized audio transcriptions will be stored in UVic Microsoft Teams, and future use of the data will be governed by the current PI, Dr. Smart.

Disposal of Data
Any information you provide in this study will be disposed of in the following manner:

1) Digital documents will be permanently destroyed (double deleted). These will be retained for 7 (number) years after study completion. This is required by our department/profession.

2) Paper notes/data will be confidentially shredded immediately following transcription. Interview notes will be confidentially shredded immediately following transcription.

Sharing of Study Results
It is anticipated that the project results will be used in theses/dissertations/class presentations; published in scientific journals; and presented to scientific audiences at scholarly meetings. We also aim to have knowledge translation materials to educate the general public and healthcare providers, available on our websites. Additionally, if you attend the group, the research team may decide to make a small documentary film on the topic of recovery, in which we may share excerpts of your writing or artwork. Similar to a scientific presentation or publication, you will not be personally identifiable based on your writing or artwork.

Please note: study data is only for research purposes and not for diagnosis, as such researchers are unable to provide participants with their individual research data.

Who Should You Contact if You Need More Information About the Study?
The contact information for the Principal Investigator are provided on the first page of this Informed Consent Form. You can also contact Nazanin Babaei, MSc, Graduate Research Assistant.

Contact for Complaints
For complaints about your rights as a participant, please contact the University of Victoria Human Research Ethics Board in Victoria at 250-472-4545 or email: ethics@uvic.ca.
CONSENT
My affirmation below indicates that:

1. I understand the requirements, potential risks, benefits, and responsibilities of participating in the research project.
2. I understand how my information will be accessed, collected and used.
3. I understand that I can withdraw any time. If I withdraw, my data will still be used anonymously after leaving the project.
4. All of my questions have been fully answered by the researchers.
5. I understand that by participating in this project, my anonymous contributions may be used for future research and guidelines.

Question Title

Affirmation of Consent (Required.)

Below are some questions to determine your eligibility to participate. You will receive immediate feedback on whether or not you qualify to participate.

If you are currently in a mental health crisis and need support, please follow this link: https://www.crisisgroup.org
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