What Does It Mean To Be Trauma Informed?

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A trauma-informed approach means that everything I offer is shaped by an understanding of how emotional trauma impacts the mind, body, and nervous system.

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Rather than seeing behaviours, thoughts, or emotional patterns as problems to fix, I view them as intelligent responses to past experiences. When we look through this lens, what once felt confusing or “wrong” begins to make sense.

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Creating a space that feels emotionally safe, supportive, and non-judgmental is central to my work. I believe healing happens most naturally when a person feels respected, understood, and met exactly where they are.

 

My interest in trauma-informed work is both personal and professional. I am deeply committed to ongoing learning through training and personal study, with a particular focus on nervous system regulation and healing. From this perspective, our thoughts, emotions, and behaviours can be understood as reflections of how safe or overwhelmed our nervous system feels in any given moment - an understanding informed by Polyvagal Theory.

 

My work is influenced by respected leaders in the field of trauma, including Dr. Gabor Maté, Dr. Stephen Porges, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Dr. Peter Levine, and Dr. Daniel J. Siegel.

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What Is Trauma?

 

Trauma is not defined by what happened, but by how an experience was processed by the nervous system. A simple way to understand trauma is this:

Trauma occurs when something feels too much, too fast, or too soon for our system to handle - especially when we don’t feel supported or able to resolve it.

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Trauma doesn’t only come from major or life-threatening events. It can also develop from ongoing emotional stress, unmet needs, or experiences of not feeling seen, heard, or supported - particularly when these experiences happen repeatedly or in isolation.

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As Dr. Gabor Maté explains, "trauma is not what happens to you; it's what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you." It’s the imprint left behind when our system doesn’t feel safe enough to fully process what occurred.

 

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk and Dr. Daniel J. Siegel both describe trauma as an experience that overwhelms our ability to cope. Dr. Peter Levine best explains it as:

 

“In short, trauma is about loss of connection – to ourselves, to our bodies, to our families, to others, and to the world around us. This loss of connection is often hard to recognize, because it doesn’t happen all at once. It can happen slowly, over time, and we adapt to these subtle changes sometimes without even noticing them. These are the hidden effects of trauma, the ones most of us keep to ourselves. We may simply sense that we do not feel quite right, without ever becoming fully aware of what is taking place; that is, the gradual undermining of our self-esteem, self-confidence, feelings of well-being, and connection to life.

 

Our choices become limited as we avoid certain feelings, people, situations, and places. The result of this gradual constriction of freedom is the loss of vitality and potential for the fulfillment of our dreams.”

 

 

How Trauma Affects A Person

 

Trauma can shape how we see ourselves, how safe we feel with others, and how we relate to the world. Its effects are different for everyone and may be subtle or show up years later as anxiety, numbness, overwhelm, or feeling “stuck.”

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Trauma lives in the body. When the nervous system can’t complete its natural response to stress or danger, it may remain in survival mode through patterns of fight (tension or defensiveness), flight (avoidance or restlessness), freeze (numbness or shutdown), or fawn (people-pleasing to feel safe). These are not failures, but protective responses that can become limiting over time.

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Healing gently supports the nervous system to release stored stress and restore a sense of safety, allowing the body to move out of survival mode and back toward balance, connection, and ease.

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Are You Experiencing Any of These Feelings?

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You may notice feelings such as:

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Anxiety, overwhelm, confusion, frustration, nervousness, irritability, anger, numbness, shutdown, hopelessness, disconnection, or feeling stuck or alone.

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If any of these resonate with you, it’s important to know that change is possible. You may have already tried to feel better and found yourself returning to familiar patterns. This is not a personal failing - it reflects how the nervous system works. With the right support, your body has an innate capacity to heal and reorganise itself.

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"Trauma involves a lifelong pushing down, a tremendous expenditure of energy in not feeling the pain. As we heal, that same energy is liberated for life, for being in the present. So the energy of trauma can be transformed into the energy of life." - Dr. Gabor Maté

 

 

The Trauma Informed Approach

 

“The trauma-informed approach seeks to discover the root cause of why you are not able to move forward. Without a trauma informed approach, all you’re focusing on is symptom management.”

- Mastin Kipp

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A trauma-informed approach looks beneath symptoms to understand their origin. Instead of asking “What’s wrong with me?” we begin to ask, “What happened to me?”

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Because trauma is held in the body and nervous system, healing requires more than talking or thinking our way through challenges. Lasting change comes from gently working with both the mind and the body to release stored emotional energy.

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In my work, I use safe, supportive, and compassionate practices that honor the whole person -mind, body, emotions, and inner experience. The pace is always guided by what feels safe and manageable for you.

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At the heart of trauma-informed healing is the experience of being seen, heard, and understood. When a person feels safe enough to express their truth without judgment, the nervous system begins to soften, and healing can unfold naturally.

 

"Underneath the traumatised persona is the healthy individual who has never found expression in this life because they were never given the relationships in which they could give their all, in which their authentic self could be expressed." - Dr. Gabor Mate