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What does trauma-informed mean?

Content note: This page talks about childhood sexual abuse and its impacts. It is not graphic, but it may be distressing. Please take care of yourself while reading, and step away whenever you need to. The Quick Exit bar at the bottom of this site will close this page at any time.

You will see the phrase trauma-informed across our website and throughout the support sector. Here is what it actually means, and what it should look like in practice.

A simple definition

A trauma-informed approach recognises how common trauma is, understands how it affects people's minds, bodies, behaviour and relationships, and responds in ways that prioritise safety, trust, choice, collaboration and empowerment. Most importantly, it works to avoid re-traumatising people, that is, it never forces someone to relive or disclose their trauma in order to receive support.

Trauma-informed is different from trauma-specific. Trauma-specific services, like trauma therapy, directly treat the effects of trauma. Trauma-informed practice is broader: it is how any service, workplace or community can operate so that people affected by trauma are safe and respected within it. Ideally, survivors experience both.

The principles we work by

At Left Write Hook, our facilitation is built on seven applied trauma-informed principles:

  • Understanding trauma: recognising how common trauma is, and how it shapes people's responses, bodies and relationships.

  • Safety: physical and emotional safety come first, in the space, the language and the structure of everything we do.

  • Trustworthiness: clear expectations, consistency, and doing what we say we will do.

  • Collaboration and mutuality: working with people, never doing things to them. Healing is relational.

  • Empowerment: a strengths-based approach that backs people to grow, lead and contribute.

  • Autonomy: choice and control sit with the participant, always.

  • Transparency: openness about how and why we do things, because transparency is a form of care.

Why it matters for survivors

For survivors of childhood sexual abuse, power and control were taken away. Services and communities that are not trauma aware can unintentionally repeat that harm, through pressure, disbelief or lack of choice. A trauma-informed environment does the opposite: it hands power back. Being believed, supported and given control is critical to recovery. The Blue Knot Foundation, Australia's National Centre of Excellence for Complex Trauma, is leading the work of building a trauma-informed world where communities understand trauma and empower survivors to recover.

What trauma-informed looks like at Left Write Hook

Trauma-informed practice runs through everything we do:

  • Every participant receives a one-on-one intake with a qualified mental health professional before starting.

  • Everything in our sessions is opt-in. Participants always choose what they share and how they take part.

  • Our boxing is non-contact and delivered by trauma-informed coaches.

  • Consent comes first. Facilitators always ask before any physical corrections or adjustments in boxing, and participation in every activity is a choice, never a pressure.

  • Participants are encouraged to listen to their bodies, set their own pace, and take a break or step out of the room whenever they need to.

  • Programs are peer-led, designed and delivered by people with lived and living experience.

  • Sessions include grounding tools and supports for self-regulation, and participants receive self-care and support resources to use between sessions.

  • Our facilitators are supported too, with professional debrief sessions with a psychologist during every program and weekly reflective practice.

Being survivor-led is part of this. At Left Write Hook, survivor-led means valuing lived and living experience as expertise and positioning survivors as leaders, within clear structures and boundaries, because boundaries are protective and part of trauma-informed practice.

Questions you can ask any service

If you are considering a program, service or practitioner and want to gauge how trauma-informed they are, it is completely reasonable to ask questions like: Will I have choices about how I participate? Can I take breaks or step out if I need to? Do I have to talk about what happened to me? Who can I speak to if something does not feel right? A genuinely trauma-informed service will welcome these questions.

Learn more

Explore What is complex trauma? , read about how our program works , or visit the Blue Knot Foundation for resources on building a trauma-informed world.

Sources: LWH Trainer induction pack (trauma-informed principles, facilitation guidelines and points for positive practice); Blue Knot Foundation (building a trauma-informed world); LWH FY25/26 annual report (intake model, opt-in design, grounding supports); leftwritehook.org (Our program).