This blog post is a continuation of reflections on developing a culturally grounded, trauma-informed model for onboarding and training staff using the Cultural Effectiveness Training (CET) framework. This past week, I had the opportunity to walk alongside a new hire through his first days on the job. It affirmed what I know to be true: when we model integration, we build safety. And when we build safety, we invite transformation.
Why the First Week Matters
The first week of onboarding is more than an introduction—it’s the beginning of attachment.
As trainers, supervisors, or administrators, we often think our job is to orient people to policies, procedures, and roles. And while those are important, what’s even more foundational is establishing relational safety. In the CET model, we refer to this as building a secure base—a consistent and attuned presence that signals, “You belong here. You’re safe to grow here.”
In my first meeting with our new hire, I approached the conversation not as a task, but as a relationship. I consciously chose to lead with vulnerability and self-awareness, not performance. I shared parts of my professional journey—my missteps, my reflections, my values—not to perform transparency, but to model integration. This is key in CET: how we show up matters more than what we say.
What Is Cultural Effectiveness Training (CET)?
CET is a developmental, trauma-informed model I’ve created to help therapists, supervisors, and organizational leaders integrate cultural humility, emotional attunement, and consciousness into their practice. CET proposes that human development—and healing—unfolds across five stages of consciousness:
- Being – our essence, presence, and identity prior to external influence.
- Survival – our reactive, protective responses to trauma or disconnection.
- Psychology – our beliefs, narratives, and coping systems.
- Systems – our social, institutional, and historical conditioning.
- Soul – our deepest level of wisdom, integration, and interconnection.
We move through these layers not in a linear way, but fluidly—depending on our environment, relationships, and inner work. CET holds that effective leadership must recognize these stages within ourselves and others, particularly during transitions like onboarding or supervision.
When we orient to CET as a framework, we stop viewing people in isolated terms (e.g., “employee,” “clinician,” “trainee”) and begin seeing them as complex, culturally situated human beings whose nervous systems, stories, and identities are actively developing within the workplace. That’s the heart of CET: to honor the wholeness of the person, and to develop consciousness in community.
Modeling Integration Through Leadership
In CET, integration means being able to recognize, respond to, and hold space for the full spectrum of human experience—from core identity (Being), to protective survival strategies (Survival), to psychological patterns and beliefs (Psychology), to social and systemic influences (Systems), and finally to our deeper wisdom and purpose (Soul).
For example, in training this new hire, I knew I wasn’t just orienting him to job duties (Systems); I was welcoming a full human being who was likely experiencing nervousness (Survival), forming internal narratives (Psychology), and carrying personal and cultural history into this space (Being and Soul).
By occupying Soul-level consciousness, I was able to model what integration looks like in real-time:
- Presence over perfection
- Attunement over authority
- Responsiveness over reactivity
When I say I led with vulnerability, I don’t mean I dumped my life story. I mean I made intentional disclosures that reflected my values, my growth edges, and the importance of showing up authentically. In doing so, I extended an invitation: “You can bring your whole self here.”
Creating Collective Containment
What was even more powerful than my one-on-one interaction with the new hire was watching the team step in to support him. One by one, colleagues made themselves available for questions, normalized the awkwardness of being new, and shared stories from their own onboarding experiences. Even our agency’s owner took time to connect with him.
In CET, this is what we call collective containment: the idea that healing and integration don’t just happen in the therapy room—they happen in systems that embody safety and responsiveness. When safety is embedded in the organization’s DNA, new hires don’t have to earn belonging—it’s extended to them from the start.
Training as Secure Attachment
This experience also reaffirmed a truth I’ve long held: training and leadership are not just technical roles. They are relational roles. In CET, we consider training an opportunity to rebuild attachment systems through consistency, compassion, and co-regulation.
A new hire is like a child entering a new environment—they are learning how to adapt, relate, and succeed within unfamiliar surroundings. As a trainer, my job is to serve as an emotionally attuned base, not just a performance evaluator. When we hold that awareness, our job changes. We don’t just correct behavior; we nurture development.
In that way, trauma-informed training is not about leniency—it’s about consciousness. It’s about understanding that our staff are also navigating their own survival systems, psychological wounds, and systemic pressures. And if we want them to hold clients with care, we must first hold them.
The Invitation: Lead from Soul
What CET ultimately teaches is this: to lead others, we must first lead ourselves. If we haven’t integrated our own experiences—if we haven’t examined our survival responses, our social conditioning, and our cultural histories—we risk recreating harm in the systems we manage.
But when we do that work, we become different kinds of leaders. We become safe havens. Mirrors. Guides.
So, here’s what I learned from my first week onboarding this new hire:
- Vulnerability builds trust.
- Attunement creates safety.
- Integration is the invisible structure from which transformation unfolds.
And maybe most importantly:
When we lead from Soul, we create systems that heal.
Sir Aaron Mason
Training Coordinator, Contract Specialist, and Executive Assistant
Sir Aaron Mason is a trauma-informed therapist, leadership consultant, and educator who helps individuals and organizations grow through conscious connection, cultural awareness, and nervous system integration.