Trauma Informed

Our Mission

We inspire caring professionals in behavioral health and criminal justice to foster healing, resilience, and transformation to help people thrive in the face of trauma, professional distress, and other suffering.

Our Vision

We envision a world where behavioral health and criminal justice professionals understand the psychological effects of trauma, professional distress, and suffering, recognize past experiences of adversity and hardship as potential sources of strength, resilience, and personal growth, and feel equipped to respond well to their own suffering and that of the people they work with and serve.

About Us

Who We Are

We are a team of educators and practitioners with decades of experience in the addiction and criminal justice fields and expertise in workforce wellbeing, positive psychology, and posttraumatic growth. We balance creativity with attention to detail to craft inspiring and informative learning experiences and program designs that ignite positive change. Our work is guided by social science, shaped by practical experience, and informed by lived experiences of trauma, addiction, and criminal justice involvement.

We are passionate about making a positive difference, and we're obsessed with one question: How do people grow and flourish in behavioral health and criminal justice systems, despite, or even because of, painful experiences, traumatic histories, or work that exposes them to dangerous or heartbreaking circumstances?

In the world we aim to help build, there is more balance, between avoiding pain and trauma and cultivating renewal and personal growth, and between caring deeply for others and attending to our holistic needs so we can thrive too. People are free to share painful stories authentically and make meaning from their experiences on their own terms, don't feel their futures are limited by their pasts, and are equipped with scientific information and research-backed tools to support their personal and professional journeys.

Our Work

What We Do

We help organizations and professionals understand trauma, burnout, and other forms of professional distress and adopt strategies that build resilience, growth, and wellbeing in themselves and the people they serve. We share practical strategies to foster wellbeing and catalyze growth in both professionals and the people whose lives they touch.

Training

Applying principles of trauma-informed care, positive psychology, and posttraumtic growth to help people thrive after trauma and other painful experiences.

Programs

Practicing research-backed strategies for cultivating wellbeing and mitigating professional distress in criminal justice and behavioral health.

Consulting

Partnering to understand your organization's strengths and opportunities to build on them with practical strategies, tailored training, or custom programming.

How We Work

People and organizations in our field are busy, and working in addiction, mental health, or criminal justice is already stressful, especially in times of uncertainty. We uplift people we work with while fitting in thoughtfully with the work of each organization or group.

Through our training, workshops, and consulting, we simplify science to shape the way people think about and do their work, rather than trying to introduce new policies and procedures without getting to know your context.

Ready to Go. We offer thoughtfully crafted, ready-to-go trainings and workshops that we've tailored for the addiction and behavioral health fields. With these training and workshop options, we can move quickly and book simply, scheduling one of our ready-to-go offerings for addiction, mental health, or criminal justice organizations.
Customized for You. We work together to craft highly contextualized custom training, consulting, or programs that suit your needs and fit your team. We assess your needs and create a solution from scratch, for example, or we tailor our products for organizations or professionals adjacent to our core focus areas (e.g. other health and human services, immigration, education, family services).

Work With Us

We make it easy to get started.

Let's talk about it.

Email us at info@traumapolicy.org.
Click here to schedule a conversation.

Ready to schedule.

Click here to book training.
Click here to book a program or workshop.

Key Concepts in Our Work

Trauma

A threat to a person's cognitive or psychological integrity, trauma disrupts a person's worldview and personal narrative. Trauma stems from extreme experiences that overwhelm an individual's capacity to cope and impair their normal brain function. Trauma can result in both short- and long-term physical or psychological effects. However, trauma is not determinative—people survive, recover, and often grow stronger from it.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual used by clinical professionals to diagnose mental health disorders, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health disorder that occurs when traumatic stress responses lasting longer than one month are severe enough to interfere with a person’s ability to function normally.

Posttraumatic Growth

Posttraumatic Growth (PTG) refers to positive psychological changes experienced as a result of struggling with highly challenging life circumstances, such as trauma, grief, or other forms of acute adversity. Individuals experiencing PTG report positive changes like greater appreciation of life, personal strength, new possibilities for their future, deeper relationships and connections with others, and spiritual and philosophical change.

Trauma-Informed Care

Trauma-informed care (TIC) is a set of principles for professionals to create an environment that recognizes and responds to the needs of those who have experienced trauma in a sensitive and supportive manner. TIC requires professionals to understand the prevalence and impact of trauma on individuals and the ways it can manifest in physical, psychological, and behavioral changes. Trauma-informed care principles include 1) safety, 2) trustworthiness and transparency, 3) empowerment, voice, and choice, 4) mutuality and collaboration, 5) peer support, and 6) cultural, historical, and gender issues.

Professional Distress

A broad term encompassing various forms of psychological distress often experienced in behavioral health and criminal justice fields. These include burnout, secondary posttraumatic stress, vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and moral injury. While each is unique, they share overlapping causes and can lead to disengagement, reduced performance, and significant distress for individuals and organizations impacted by them.

Growth-Oriented Trauma Responsiveness

A comprehensive framework that integrates trauma-informed care principles with positive psychology, positive organizational scholarship, and posttraumatic growth research to empower professionals to foster healing, resilience, and growth—both for themselves and those they serve. By changing narratives, cultivating mindful attention, and creating relationships grounded in strengths, trust, and mutual appreciation, GOTR emphasizes the cultivation of wellbeing, growth, connection, and meaning in the face of adversity.