IAE a peer support specialist?

I just went through training and got my certification today (yay!). Someone in the class, all day long, during each day of training, kept suddenly telling really graphic stories (gun violence, bloody, etc) and gave me no time to prepare. To me, after a certain point, it was oversharing. Even the instructor asked her later to be mindful of what she shares, but backtracked after calling out this student in front of this student and feeling bad when the student shut down.

I remained somewhat outspoken, and self-advocated, and said I was starting to get uncomfortable as some of the stories were starting to bring things up for me after enduring all these stories for so many days in a row. I generally have good coping mechanisms, but too much is too much.

A third fellow classmate in the room with an SU background (which I don’t have) said I need to handle my own triggers because that’s how peers will talk someday. I told her it’s different with peers because I can mentally prepare for it before coming to work. She said that’s on me and that nobody should have to prepare ahead of time and should be ready to hear it at all times.

What are your thoughts? Is this your experience? Do you think I should be ready to hear any kind of triggering information at any point in time? Or should I also be able to pick times when I can compartmentalize more effectively? Should a room full of other peer support specialists be a safe place where I can say I’ve hit a limit in how much I can handle?

She made it sound like I can’t do this work at all if I can’t not get triggered.