Trauma-informed care (TIC) is a framework that foregrounds the diverse impact of trauma and adverse experiences on people and communities and promotes the adoption of its five key principles.[1] These are: safety, trustworthiness and transparency, peer support, collaboration, empowerment, and humility and responsiveness.[2] TIC recognises that the way people communicate in different social situations and settings is partly informed by their past experiences.

It is an approach that helps us to understand why people respond in different ways to shared interactions, experiences, and life events. People can have various responses to, for example, receiving criticism in social settings: one person may respond with behaviour that challenges, someone else may cry, and another person may not respond at all. Trauma-informed care focuses on how a person’s past and present experiences of adversity and trauma inform and shape how they communicate in social and professional environments.

Safety

• Am I able to navigate my workplace in a way that all people feel welcome?
• Can I create a non-threatening environment where everyone feels safe?
• Do I communicate in ways that provide reassurance and security to people when they need it?

Trustworthiness and transparency

• Am I able to maintain relationships that are built on transparency and trustworthiness?
• Can I communicate assertively, concisely and directly when needed, and can people rely on me to support them?
• Do I communicate clearly and effectively, and do I continue to build and maintain trust?

Peer support

• Am I part of someone’s wider support network, in social settings or at work?
• Can I support and empower people safely in ways that build trust?
• Do I enable people to live fulfilling lives in ways that are meaningful to them, and in ways that are reflective of how their past experiences influence how they communicate?

Collaboration

• Am I able to work collaboratively with people in ways that empower them to perform their activities of daily living independently and in ways that are meaningful to them?
• Can I adapt my working practices to empower others to work in ways that reflect their needs and wants?
• Do I enable the personal growth and development of my peers through my personal and working practices?

Empowerment

• Am I a person who validates and recognises the experiences of others?
• Can I empower people to make informed choices about how they live and work, mindful of their journeys of healing and recovery?
• Do I work in ways that emphasise a person’s capacity and right to make informed decisions about their ways of working?

Humility and responsiveness

• Am I able to reflect on how my communication may be received in diverse ways by different people?
• Can I use this reflection to improve my ways of working going forward?
• Do I respond to criticism in constructive ways and reflect this in my language and ways of communicating?

Trauma-informed care (TIC) is important because all people have the right to feel a sense of belonging in various welcoming environments where they feel safe and secure. By working collaboratively, according to principles of humility, respect, trust, and safety, people are empowered in ways that build resilience and promote their health and wellbeing in ways that are meaningful to them.

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[1] Trauma-informed care (TIC) is a term first coined by researchers Maxine Harris and Roger Fallot in 2001. It is an umbrella term that draws on the history of critical and psychiatric trauma studies across the 20^th century to express their collective implications for how people who have lived experience of adversity and trauma can be better supported in ways that promote their emotional, personal, psychological and social growth.

[2]  Trauma-Informed Care Implementation Resource Center, “What is Trauma-Informed Care?” https://www.traumainformedcare.chcs.org/what-is-trauma-informed-care/ [Accessed: 11/08/2025]