Foundation
Awareness for all employees
What trauma-informed practice means in everyday work: language, assumptions, small adjustments and how to respond when a colleague is struggling.
Capability area
Trauma-informed practice
Practical trauma-informed learning for whole organisations: awareness for everyone, applied capability for leaders with clear boundaries, and organisational work on culture, policy and ways of working.
- All employees
- Leaders & managers
- Organisational strategy
What we mean
Understanding experience and responding with care
Laura Rigden
IAP founder, lead consultant and facilitator.
Meet Laura and the IAP CrewTrauma-informed practice in a workplace is not about diagnosing anyone or delivering treatment. It's about recognising that people bring histories and experiences with them, that work itself can be distressing, and that how an organisation responds either helps or compounds it.
Our starting principles are practical: safety, trust, choice, collaboration, empowerment and cultural awareness — translated into things people can actually do in meetings, in policies, in a difficult conversation and in a crisis.
Three levels
Awareness, applied leadership and organisational change
Capability
Applied learning for leaders
How to hold difficult conversations, manage performance humanely, handle disclosure and respond to incidents — with an explicit boundary: leaders are not therapists.
System
Organisational strategy & action planning
Reviewing culture, policies, systems, communication, leadership and ways of working through a trauma-informed lens, then agreeing what changes.
Boundaries
Being clear about the limits of the role
- Leaders and colleagues offer human support and clear routes — not clinical intervention.
- No forced disclosure, ever. Sessions are designed so nobody has to share their own history.
- Clear escalation and signposting so people aren't left carrying something alone.
- Support for the supporter: those who hold difficult conversations need support too.
- Honest about when the right answer is professional help, not a manager conversation.
How it runs
A typical route through the work
- 01
Scope
What's driving the need — sector, incidents, workforce experience or a wider culture programme.
- 02
Awareness
Shared language across the organisation so leaders aren't the only ones changing.
- 03
Leader capability
Applied practice, scenarios and boundaries for those holding the hardest conversations.
- 04
Review of policy & practice
Where current processes unintentionally re-traumatise or exclude people.
- 05
Action planning
Agreed, owned changes to systems, communication and ways of working.
- 06
Embed & review
Follow-up, reflective practice and revisiting what actually shifted.
Connected work
Where this fits
Trauma-informed practice sits alongside psychological safety, psychosocial risk, suicide prevention and neuroinclusion. These areas overlap. Leaders benefit from practical skills, clear boundaries and support in applying them.
Let's talk about your organisation
Tell us what's happening and we'll be honest about what would help most — whether that's a single session or a longer programme. The first conversation is free and there's no obligation.