Trauma-Informed Design & Research Training
Build the skills, language and practices your team needs to work ethically, safely and sustainably
For people who work with people.
Stress or distress does show up in research or co-design sessions. When teams aren’t equipped to handle these moments, it can lead to loss of trust, ethical risk, disengagement, and unnecessary emotional strain on staff.
What teams receive
This program supports teams to build the capacity to stay present, responsive and connected when work is complex, pressured or emotionally charged.
Trauma-informed practice provides a practical, non-clinical framework for strengthening psychological safety, collaboration and ethical decision-making, without adding more to already stretched teams.
Teams learn to recognise stress and activation in professional settings, design safer engagement processes, and respond with clarity and care when distress arises. Learning is applied directly to the team’s own context through co-creating a shared practice charter.
Teams finish with practical tools they can apply the next day.
Outcomes for teams
- Recognise early signs of distress in real situations
- Respond rather than react, with clarity and care
- Design engagement processes that respect dignity and autonomy
- Strengthened team resilience and psychological safety
- The beginnings of a charter to guide team practice
- Less risk of unintentionally upsetting or re-traumatising participants
- Less emotional load being carried silently by researchers and facilitators
- Team planing and reflection tools suited to your team’s specific practices and context
Teams report feeling more confident, responsive, and connected in workshops, research and stakeholder engagement after this training.
After this program, teams are better able to stay present, think clearly, and work collaboratively when things are complex, pressured, or emotionally charged.
What teams say after the training
“One of those rare workshops that actually changed how we show up in our work.”
— David Evans, Beyond Blue
Why is this important?
- Distress often shows up in workshops, interviews and co-design sessions, whether teams plan for it or not
- Without shared language and practice, teams can respond by speeding up, shutting down, or avoiding
- This increases risk for participants, researchers and organisations
- Trauma-informed practice helps teams work ethically, confidently and sustainably
This training helps teams work better together in complexity.
Program structure
Small cohorts support spaciousness, trust and embodied learning.
We move slowly enough for people to feel safe, reflect deeply and practise new skills. Can also be delivered face to face upon request.
Four online modules
2-2.5 hours each
For cohorts up to 15
The modules
Foundations of Trauma-Informed Practice
- What trauma-informed practice is (and is not)
- Safety, consent, choice, and ethical responsibility in professional contexts
- Why “difficult behaviour” is often a nervous system response
- Team reflection: how might we work in more trauma-informed ways?
This module introduces the foundations of trauma-informed practice and why it matters in professional, research, and engagement contexts. Participants explore how safety, power, consent, and choice shape people’s experiences at work, and how trauma-informed practice differs from clinical or therapeutic approaches..
Participants explore how stress, pressure, and power dynamics can shape behaviour and decision-making at work, and why trauma-informed practice is relevant beyond clinical settings.
Key focus:
Trauma, Stress and the Nervous System at Work
- Common patterns of activation, withdrawal, and over-drive in teams
- Team wellbeing and risks of secondary trauma
- Nervous system responses in everyday work situations
- Micro-practices for steadiness and clarity
- The role of presence, tone, and pacing in shaping group dynamics
This module builds practical understanding of how stress and nervous system responses show up in workplace behaviour, communication, and group dynamics.
The focus is on recognising patterns of activation without blame or diagnosis, and understanding why these responses are adaptive rather than personal failings.
Key Focus:
Designing Trauma-Informed Research and Engagement
- Trauma-informed approaches to research, design, and engagement
- Planning for safety across the engagement journey
- Language, materials, and facilitation choices that reduce strain
- Designing for care, dignity, and sustainability rather than urgency
This module explores how trauma-informed principles can be applied to research, design, and engagement practices.
Participants examine how everyday methods, processes, and assumptions can unintentionally cause harm, and what can realistically shift within organisational constraints.
Key focus:
Navigating Distress and Integrating Practice
- Guiding principles for responding to moments of distress
- Referral, and appropriate organisational responses
- Optional grounding and somatic practices for professional settings
- Reflecting on learning and identifying practical practice changes
- Developing a simple trauma-aware engagement or distress protocol
The final module supports teams to respond when distress arises and to integrate learning into their real work context.
Participants are introduced to guiding principles for responding with care and clarity, alongside optional, consent-based grounding practices and tools for planning next steps.
Key focus:
“If there’s one thing to invest in this year, it’s this.”
— Nataliya Senytsya, Strategic Service Designer
Who is this training for
This program is designed for:
- Design researchers
- Service designers
- UX, CX and content designers
- Innovation and strategy teams
- Public sector design and transformation teams
- Community and lived-experience engagement
- Evaluation and insights teams
- Any team working with people in moments of stress, sensitivity or uncertainty
This training is not designed as a wellbeing program or a one-off inspiration session.
About your facilitator
Jax Wechsler is a trauma-informed strategic designer and facilitator with over 20 years’ experience working in change, complexity and systems. She supports design, research and change teams to work more ethically, clearly and humanely when engaging with lived experience, power and uncertainty.
Jax brings around 15 years of experience teaching innovation and change in university and organisational settings, alongside the past five years focused specifically on trauma-aware and nervous-system-informed practice. She has trained over 800 practitioners globally and contributed a chapter to Designed with Care: Creating Trauma-Informed Content.
“Design and change work always shapes human experience. Trauma-informed practice helps teams stay attentive to power, impact and care while working inside complex systems.”
Our change partners
Testimonials
What people are saying
What's included
- Four live 2.5 core sessions
- Resource sheets and reflection prompts
- Practical tools, scripts and guided practices
- Space for team discussion and reflection
- Beginnings of a cocreated charter to guide practice
Investment
Core trauma-informed program (four modules)
Ideal for teams working in high-ambiguity, emotionally charged or systemic contexts
Team-based pricing reflects the collective nature of the learning and supports shared practice change rather than individual attendance.
One cohort of up to 15 staff
$AU 5,500 + GST
* In-person delivery or tailored formats are available upon request.
For larger teams
Get in touch for bespoke pricing.
Bring this to your team
Why is Trauma Informed practice important?
What is Trauma?
Download Jax’s book chapter published in the book:
