Case study: Trauma-Informed Training for Facilitators
ARTD Consultants work across research and evaluation projects involving people with diverse and often complex lived experiences. As a lived experience consultant in disability and mental health, I worked with William Ward-Boas to develop and deliver trauma-informed training for ARTD’s lived experience facilitators. The training responded to a practical need: helping consultants recognise and respond safely when distress, disclosure or unexpected events arise during consultation, interviews, workshops and other facilitated activities.
Objective
The objective was to build practical confidence and capability, rather than simply increase theoretical knowledge about trauma. The training aimed to help facilitators understand their own responses, build safety into activities before they begin, recognise when someone may be becoming distressed, respond appropriately to disclosure, and know when to pause, proceed cautiously, contain harm or escalate support.
Execution
Will and I co-designed the approach, with Will taking preparation and inclusion. I facilitated an interactive session grounded in lived experience and practical facilitation, with a focus on crisis intervention. I explored five commitments for creating safer spaces, preparation and available supports, recognising what might be coming up for participants, and a simple Stop · Pause · Proceed with caution · Keep going framework for making decisions in the moment.
The training also addressed what happens after an incident: decompression, recovery and protecting facilitators from vicarious trauma. The session combined practical tools, reflection, discussion and lived experience to make trauma-informed practice something facilitators could use in their work.
Results
The training gave ARTD Consultants a shared language and practical framework for responding to unexpected and emotionally charged situations. It strengthened facilitator awareness of prevention, early intervention, appropriate escalation and recovery, while reinforcing that creating safety is an active part of good facilitation — not something that can be left until a crisis occurs.
For ARTD, the work translated our lived experience expertise into practical professional capability for their team. For me, it demonstrated my capacity to co-design and facilitate complex, sensitive learning with professional audiences, bringing together lived experience, facilitation expertise and practical tools without losing sight of the people in the room.
Client testimonial
“In our work in evaluation at ARTD Consultants, we often encounter trauma – among those we are engaging with (not only people participating in programs, accessing services or intended beneficiaries of strategies, but staff and other stakeholders) and our own (hearing the stories of others can bring up our own experience), as well as the risk of vicarious trauma.
In working with people with disability, this experience is common.
It means we need a trauma informed and responsive approach. It’s one thing to know this in theory and another to know it in practice, particularly when you do actually need to ask people about their experiences to understand if something is working to make a positive difference.
Thanks to the fabulous William Ward-Boas and Rebekah Lambert for designing trauma informed training for real world engagement. For reminding us about the importance of warmth with boundaries, checking ourselves if we are responding in a way that is about us not the other person, paying attention to who needs us most as we can’t be everything all at once, and being kind to ourselves.
If you are looking for trauma informed training, connect with these two.”
Jade Maloney, Partner and CEO, ARTD Consultants