Trauma-informed framework

This framework incorporates an understanding about the impacts of trauma, including vicarious and cumulative trauma on supervisees and the need for trust with their supervisor and the broader organisation. It recognises that when staff feel consciously or unconsciously unsafe, the brain–body response interferes with decision-making and self-regulation.

The aim of supervision is to reduce stress and the impacts of vicarious and cumulative trauma on supervisees. Supervision can contribute to building supervisee resilience. Trauma-informed practices, underpinned by the principles outlined above, help with these aims.

By normalising practitioner reactions to the challenges of working with traumatised people, shame is reduced. Supervisors can make a difference by acknowledging supervisee strengths and the emotional toll of the work. They can do this in a way that is compassionate, empathic and understanding, rather than blaming or pathologising.

This framework is sometimes criticised for being too individualistic, even though it includes the concept of trauma-organised cultures. This is where chronic stress and adversity leads to subtle adaptations that eventually rob an organisation of basic interpersonal safety, trust and health.^[1] This includes the risk of parallel processing, whereupon the practitioners, agency and system mirror the characteristics of the traumatised ‘client’ population, such as chaos and fragmentation. This can negatively affect interpersonal dynamics when working with clients, colleagues and team culture.

Trauma-informed frameworks are often a part of a broader model (for example, the Sanctuary Model) for creating an organisational culture that can more effectively provide a ‘cohesive context’ within which healing from traumatic experiences can occur.^[2] Like any cultural change process, becoming a more trauma aware, sensitive, responsive and, ultimately, informed organisation requires attention and time.^[3]