What Is Trauma-Informed Care (TIC)?
Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) is a systems approach to offering services that are responsive to the needs of people who have endured adverse childhood events (ACEs) and trauma. Trauma-informed systems REALIZE the pervasive impact of trauma and ACEs; RECOGNIZE the signs of trauma in those served; RESPOND by applying the principle of TIC to all areas of the system; and RESIST RETRAUMATIZATION by providing services that heal rather than makes things worse (SAMHSA, 2014).
We at the Traumatic Stress Institute (TSI) envision a world where all professionals working in organizations and service systems fully embrace and embed trauma-informed care so that all trauma survivors who enter their doors heal and thrive.
25+ Years of Risking Connection
TSI has been a global leader in trauma-informed care training for the past 26 years! Sign up for our newsletter to gain access to our 25th anniversary Risking Connection® Sampler Sessions! Start your trauma-informed journey today.
The Six Principles of Trauma-Informed Care (TIC)
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAHMSA) has pioneered an approach to trauma-informed care practices by defining the following six principles:
Safety
Service professionals create an environment where clients and consumers feel physically and psychologically safe.
Collaboration and Mutuality
Power is shared between staff and those served to encourage an environment of collaboration, where mutuality is prioritized over authority.
Peer Support
Peer-to-peer support — practiced through personal relationships between people with shared lived experience — helps to establish safety and hope in an environment of recovery by centering the expertise of the people harmed, while promoting trust, collaboration, and solidarity.
Cultural, Historical, & Gender Issues
Trauma-Informed Care professionals offer culturally affirming services to provide a setting which both respects and celebrates all forms of diversity including racial, ethnic, gender, sexuality, ability, and age differences.
Trustworthiness and Transparency
The foundation of relationships between professionals and those served is developed through consistent transparency, which builds and maintains trust.
Empowerment, Voice and Choice
Service professionals prioritize the voices and choices of those served to ensure they feel empowered to communicate and make decisions that promote their well being.
Where is Your Organization on the Path to Trauma-Informed Care?
This short, simple tool helps you reflect on your organization’s trauma-informed care journey. Where do you fall? How can you become a leader within your organization of trauma-informed culture change?
Training Courses to Try Out Trauma-Informed Care at Your Organization
TSI’s client organizations have access to webinars, other training, and coaching designed to deepen their trauma-informed implementation. Introductory trainings, however, are open to everyone. Sign up for our next Risking Connection Basic training to explore whether our trauma-informed model could be the right fit for your organization.
Risking Connection (RC) Basic
March 10-12, 2026, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. ET (check local time here)
This is a virtual event.
The Risking Connection (RC) Basic training is an 18-hour foundational trauma training. It is a centerpiece of the Traumatic Stress Institute’s Risking Connection Change Model that organizations and service systems can adopt to implement and sustain trauma-informed care. RC has been used to train tens of thousands of staff worldwide, provides a philosophy and framework for understanding and addressing severe symptoms and behaviors, managing crises, addressing vicarious trauma, and achieving lasting healing.
This virtual training is open to all – whether you want to see if RC training is a good fit for your agency, to provide trauma training for a core team of staff, or are already an RC client agency and want to get additional staff trained. We offer this training three times per year.
Please Note:
Participants in RC Basic training that are NOT affiliated with an organization within our Risking Connection community can use the training to enhance their own or a staff team’s professional knowledge about trauma. They are not permitted to teach Risking Connection at their agency or as a stand-alone training. Learn more about TSI’s Risking Connection Change Model here.
Please Note:
Participants in RC Basic training that are NOT affiliated with an organization within our Risking Connection community can use the training to enhance their own or a staff team’s professional knowledge about trauma. They are not permitted to teach Risking Connection at their agency or as a stand-alone training. Learn more about TSI’s Risking Connection Change Model here.
Seeking More Trauma-Informed Care Resources?
Visit our books or helplines pages – or see below for more ways to learn more.
Connect with Us
Like what you’ve seen so far? Curious about trauma-informed care? Ready to ask questions about systems change?
