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Working with Care in Design & Research

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Trauma-Aware Design & Research

Practical skills for individual practitioners working with complexity, uncertainty and emotionally charged human experiences

Design and research often bring us close to the parts of people’s lives that do not always surface in words. Stress, overwhelm, shutdown, emotion and activation show up quietly in body language and tone, and sometimes very clearly in co-design sessions, interviews, workshops and lived-experience conversations. Most practitioners were never taught how to navigate these moments safely or sustainably. Yet these moments directly shape:

how safe people feel in our sessions

the depth and quality of insights

the emotional load we carry home

our confidence and clarity in complex situations

our capacity to work with care, dignity and presence

This practitioner cohort offers grounded skills, shared language and a supportive learning space to help you work with greater steadiness, attunement and ethical clarity. It helps you meet the moment well, without losing yourself in the process.

Why Trauma-aware practice matters

Design and research sit at the intersection of people, systems, histories and lived experience. Stories of identity, health, family, care, money, discrimination, loss and hope often emerge in our work. Some tensions are obvious. Others sit quietly under the surface.

Practitioners often tell me they struggle with:

sessions where someone becomes distressed or shuts down

interviews sliding into therapy-like territory

emotional load after difficult conversations

unclear boundaries or expectations

feeling unsure how to navigate power and positionality

burnout and nervous system fatigue

pressure to stay composed while moving quickly

complex lived-experience contexts

These challenges do not mean you are doing anything wrong. They mean the work is human, layered and complex. Trauma-aware practice gives you grounded tools and a steadier internal compass so you can respond with clarity rather than urgency, care rather than overwhelm and presence rather than reactivity. This is not therapy. It is humane, practical practice for complex human work.

What you will learn

By the end of the program, you will be able to:

  • Recognise signs of stress, activation and shutdown in yourself and others
  • Respond to distress with clarity, calm and attuned care
  • Facilitate and interview in ways that feel safer and more grounded
  • Use language that supports dignity, choice and psychological safety
  • Navigate power, positionality and cultural dynamics with more awareness
  • Reduce emotional fatigue and burnout
  • Work more sustainably in complex or sensitive contexts

You will leave with practical tools you can use the very next day.

Program structure

Five sessions – two hours each

This small practitioner cohort offers spaciousness, trust and embodied learning.
 We move gently, creating room for reflection, practice and integration.

You can also add an optional advanced module on sensemaking in complexity if you want to deepen your ability to work in ambiguous, layered or systemically complex environments.

The core modules

1

Trauma and Stress in Design Practice

  • Trauma as experience rather than event
  • How stress, activation and overwhelm show up in sessions
  • Why “difficult behaviour” is often a nervous system response
  • Reflection: noticing patterns in your own practice

2

Nervous System Literacy for Design and Research

  • Plain-language physiology of stress responses
  • Activation, shutdown and how they shape behaviour
  • Micro-practices for steadying yourself in real time
  • Co-regulation as a quiet, powerful facilitation skill
  • Simple embodied exercises for grounding

3

Trauma-Aware Communication and Consent

  • Language that supports safety, clarity and dignity
  • Consent as a relational rhythm rather than a checkbox
  • What to say when someone becomes distressed
  • How to pause or reset a session without losing trust
  • Scenario-based practice

4

Power, Privilege and Positionality

  • Rank, identity and relational influence
  • Cultural safety and humility
  • Working well across lived-experience contexts
  • How power moves in the room
  • Reflection: where you hold influence, and where you feel its impact

5

Sustainable Practice for Complex Work

  • Burnout, nervous system fatigue and emotional load
  • Rhythms and rituals that support sustainable practice
  • Boundaries that protect both care and clarity
  • Debriefing without retraumatising
  • Practical strategies for staying steady in the work

Optional add-on module

Sensemaking in Complexity (System Sensing)

For practitioners working in ambiguous, layered or emotionally charged environments

Design and research often involve competing stories, systemic pressures and multiple truths in the room. Cognition alone is not enough to navigate this.

This module strengthens your deeper sensing capacity.

You will explore:

  • how complexity reveals itself in human behaviour
  • why the body is essential for navigating ambiguity
  • subtle cues for sensing tension, patterns and possibility
  • system sensing: reading what is present and emerging
  • collective sensemaking tools
  • distinguishing trauma-driven impulses from grounded intuition
  • working wisely when many histories and dynamics are at play

Outcome: clearer decisions, steadier facilitation and deeper insight in complex environments.

Who this training is for?

This practitioner cohort is for people who work closely with others, especially in moments of stress, sensitivity or uncertainty. It is ideal for:

  • recognise signs of stress, activation and shutdown in yourself and others
  • respond to distress with clarity, calm and attuned care
  • facilitate and interview in ways that feel safer and more grounded
  • use language that supports dignity, choice and psychological safety
  • navigate power, positionality and cultural dynamics with more awareness
  • reduce emotional fatigue and burnout
  • work more sustainably in complex or sensitive contexts
You do not need prior trauma training to join.
Testimonials

What practitioners say

“Steady, spacious and grounding. I left with clarity and tools I use every week.”
“Helped me navigate difficult interviews with far more confidence and care.”
“My whole practice feels steadier.”
“Jax’s approach is warm, practical and deeply respectful.”
Manager and staff in funky business attire talking in front of a glass window post it notes on it.

Delivery

Small cohort for depth and safety

Usually 8–15 practitioners

Interactive, embodied and relational

  • Five live two-hour sessions
  • Optional sensemaking module
  • Reflection prompts and practice tools
  • Scripts and phrases for difficult moments
  • Embodied grounding practices
  • Optional integration session

Investment

Core trauma-aware program (five modules)

$550–$750 AUD per practitioner

(price depending on cohort size; you can set the final rate)

Core trauma-aware program (five modules)

$550–$750 AUD per practitioner

(price depending on cohort size; you can set the final rate)

Join the next cohort

If you would like to learn these skills in a warm, supportive community of practitioners, you are welcome to join the next public intake.

Learn more and register
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