Trauma-Informed Practice for Design & Research Teams
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 recieve
This program supports teams to build shared understanding and practical skills for working in trauma-informed, ethical, and sustainable ways.
Without trauma-aware practices, teams can unintentionally cause harm, lose trust with communities, and carry more emotional load than they realise.
Teams will learn to recognise stress and activation in professional settings, design safer engagement processes, respond appropriately when distress arises, and apply trauma-informed principles to their own work context through co-creating a 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.
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
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 deep experience working with teams navigating complexity, power and lived experience.
She specialises in nervous system literacy, trauma-aware practice and experience design, helping professionals create safer, clearer and more human-centred services. Jax has trained over 800 practitioners globally and contributed to the book Designed with Care: Creating Trauma-Informed Content.
“I’ve spent years teaching trauma-informed practices to designers and change-makers, and I’ve seen how powerful this work can be — for individuals, teams, and whole systems.”
Our change partners
Testimonials
What people are saying
Delivery information
Number of participants
Small cohorts for depth and psychological safety
- Up to 15 participants per organisational cohort
- Larger teams delivered across multiple cohorts
Delivery options
- Live on Zoom
- In-person available on request
What’s included
- Four live 2.5 core sessions
- Resource sheets and reflection prompts
- Practical tools, scripts and guided practices
- Optional integration session
- Optional trauma-aware service review
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
Delivered as a facilitated four-module online program
Suitable for teams of up to 15 participants
For larger teams
The program is delivered across multiple small cohorts.
Additional cohorts are priced at $AU 5,500 + GST per cohort.
In-person delivery or tailored formats are available upon request.
Optional additional support
Available by arrangement. Pricing discussed based on scope.
Integration or reflection session
Bespoke Modules
Trauma-Informed Process Review
Bring this to your team
If your team works in complex, people-centred contexts and wants to strengthen how it handles difficult moments, this training may be a good fit.
We can talk through whether it’s right for your team.
Are you an independent practitioner?
Trauma-Informed Design & Research
For individual practitioners
If you are not part of a team booking, you can join a public practitioner cohort.