Six trauma-informed principles for safe-enough care
Centring the body, relationships and systems simultaneously.
When it works, trauma-informed practice is adaptive, co-designed, and alive to the role that systems and structures play in perpetuating violence. It’s also a field crowded with variation: a brief Google search demonstrates that there is pseudoscience, maybe-science, and definitely-science woven through dominant frameworks.
Increasingly, it is accepted that the most useful approach to trauma-informed practice is one that holds the body, relationships, and systems in view at the same time. To be truly effective, trauma-informed practitioners also have to be willing to turn the mirror towards themselves: understanding our own histories, biases, and challenges is crucial when working in trauma-exposed settings.
Unfortunately however, many mainstream trauma trainings pay minimal attention to the body, and often neglect the role of systems, structures and power entirely. When it comes to self-reflective practice and turning towards oneself, this aspect of trauma-informed practice is even rarer in training curriculum.
The principles below have been drafted through years of service delivery and applied practice. They are body-based in orientation, because even in systems and structures that are deeply disembodied - psychiatric wards, involuntary settings, schools - nervous system regulation and resourcing are primary tools for safety and recovery.
These principles overlap slightly with our Eight Principles for Care-Centred Workplaces, because several ideas are central to both, including trust and disability justice.
Note: These principles are Part 1 of a two-part understanding of trauma-informed practice, and represent the relational approach and commitment of TI work, as opposed to the inner work required of practitioners. The deeper, self-reflective and self-accountability work will be discussed in the second part of this series.
Six Trauma-Informed Principles for Safe-Enough Care:
Survivors are resilient and capable
Trauma-informed practice starts from the assumption that behaviour is adaptive. People's responses, including shutdown, overwhelm, or withdrawal, are understood as meaningful survival strategies that deserve respect. Trauma-informed practitioners honour and hold space for people's resilience, creativity, and capacity as they navigate risk, recovery, and connection on the healing journey.
Embodiment is a human right
Every person has the right to experience their body as a place of agency, safety, and expression (Gray, 2017). Systemic violence and trauma can affect a person's nervous system, brain, and hormonal systems, creating a flow-on effect to physical health, mental health, and social relationships. Structural and cultural violences such as transphobia, ableism, racism, and misogyny can make it unsafe for people to live fully embodied lives.
Trauma-informed practice aims to create the conditions for people to rebuild internal safety and connection through nervous system awareness, psychoeducation, relational support, and systemic change.
Expect difference, not sameness
Beginning with an expectation of difference (Ortiz, 2012) means recognising and normalising diverse access and inclusion needs as a baseline. Disability, chronic illness, and chronic pain are frequently co-morbid with trauma. Trauma-informed practitioners are committed to co-design and person-centred practice that expects and welcomes difference.
In practice, this involves anticipating variation in: physical accessibility, sensory preferences, cultural contexts, definitions of safety, and engagement and learning styles.
Move at the pace of trust
Body-based practice is built on trust - trust in self, trust in others, and trust in the systems and services people are engaging with. That trust cannot be rushed, forced, or demanded (brown, 2017). Bodies hold stories, memories, and protective responses that may not be ready to shift immediately. Trauma-informed practitioners offer invitations and options where possible. Trust grows naturally over time through slowing down, honouring hesitation, and celebrating small moments of connection
Relational repair is a shared responsibility
Trauma often occurs in the context of relationships, through neglect, abuse, exclusion, or systemic harm. When relating with survivors, trauma-informed practitioners model attunement, boundaries, and responsiveness as humans in a shared space (Emerson, 2015; Siegel 2009). Mistakes are accepted as part of the work, and practitioners stay open to repair. Safety is a relational dynamic built together.
Commitment to systems-level safety, dignity and justice
Trauma-informed work extends beyond individual healing into changing the conditions that make healing necessary. This means naming and addressing systemic violence, institutional harm, and the ongoing legacies of colonisation, racism, poverty, and neglect
Trauma-informed practitioners advocate for policies, practices, and cultures that uphold the dignity and safety of survivors at every level, in the room and in the systems people must live and work within.
References and further reading:
brown, a. m. (2017). Emergent strategy: Shaping change, changing worlds. AK Press.
Emerson, D. (2015). Trauma-sensitive yoga in therapy: Bringing the body into treatment. W. W. Norton & Company.
Gray, A. (2017). Continuum dance lecture [Lecture]. Yoga for HumanKIND.
Ortiz, N. (2012). Disability justice. https://disabilityj.blogspot.com/
Siegel, D. J. (2009). Mindsight: The new science of personal transformation. Bantam Books.