Many people live with the overwhelming and ongoing effects of past and present trauma. Trauma Informed Practice recognises the prevalence of trauma and creates an understanding and responsiveness to the impact trauma has on the emotional, psychological, and social well-being of individuals and communities. Keeping the possibility of trauma on our radar means keeping the sensitivities and vulnerabilities of people who may be trauma survivors in mind. It also means acknowledging, understanding, and respecting a person’s story and further, changing the mindset from ‘what is wrong with you’ to ‘what may have happened to you’ when supporting a person.

Having a basic understanding of how stress can affect any of us can certainly help the support relationship. Knowing this will make us less likely to fuel other people’s levels of distress. This means remaining aware of how we engage, support, and interact with people and being curious around what helpful support looks like for each person, individually. It is important to understand that positive experiences in our support relationships can help us heal and negative experiences can sometimes make our emotional and psychological issues worse.

Trauma informed practice creates opportunities for people who have lived through trauma to rebuild a sense of control and empowerment in their lives and sometimes this can involve learning more helpful and self-serving strategies to cope with the everyday realities of life.