Trauma Informed Approaches

Humankind recently spoke to Jenny Winfield, a friend of Humankind and experienced design researcher about her 'trauma-informed' research practice.  

Trauma - defined as 'an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as harmful or life threatening’ - is now a well-established term in our collective vocabulary. But as Jenny sees it, 'trauma-informed' approaches are still considered too niche – and applied mainly in contexts where the subject matter deals explicitly in 'trauma(s)'. 

Yet, we live in a traumatised society. According to PTSD UK, 50-70% of people will experience a trauma at some point in their life and 1 in 10 people in the UK are expected to experience PTSD at some point in theirs. 

Therefore, as Jenny so aptly reminded us, many of the people engaged in any kind of research will likely have faced a traumatic experience.  

Traumatic experiences have the potential to shape how someone responds to the research set-up, the researcher, and - inevitably - the brand, comms, product/service one might, for example, be helping a client explore.  

So, across any project, designing research with trauma-responsiveness in mind can help to set you up for success. With a little extra care and sensitivity, it’s something any researcher can adapt to. 

Often, this demands that we thoughtfully consider how to balance their needs with commonly held theories on best practice. For example, we might share topics and questions in advance to help people feel safer and more empowered, putting concerns around ‘priming’ to one side. Sometimes, it'll require greater time and effort - say, in designing research in a genuinely collaborative way. Frequently, it’ll mean consulting participants and even ceding certain controls (without relinquishing responsibility to lead the engagement). 

Ultimately, 'trauma-informed' research is all about thinking carefully about how research will be experienced by the participant. 

At Humankind, we are led by an intentionally inclusive and participatory research philosophy, so we were enthused to learn how central this is to 'trauma-informed' approaches, and to Jenny's work. 

Across ours, we've been using a simple framework to guide our research design: CHATS (Collaboration, Hope, Agency, Transparency, Safety). CHATS offers a friendly familiarity vs. the often anxiety-inducing language of 'interview', and each letter stands for a different governing principle. 

• ‘C’ for working in genuine collaboration with our participants by co-designing solutions that work for all. For example, sharing designs for feedback and cocreation. 

• ‘H’ for framing participant involvement to positively shape a relevant service/product in the future, instilling hope; especially important as traumatic experiences are often associated with feelings of hopelessness. 

• ‘A’ for genuinely empowering participants where they might have formerly been stripped of agency. Jenny proposes offering small choices about their participation, ceding controls to even the uneven power dynamic.  

• ‘T’ for communicating transparently about research aims to firmly establish a trusted dynamic - capturing informed consent as an essential part of the research process, for example. 

• ‘S’ for fostering the conditions that make participants and researchers feel safe. Jenny mentioned the merit in asking participants for words or phrases to avoid, or breaking sessions up with grounding exercises. 

Not only were we buoyed by the overlap between ours and Jenny's underpinning philosophies, but we were also inspired by her determination and approach to usher 'trauma-informed' approaches into the research mainstream.  

Find out more about Jenny's excellent work here: https://www.jennywinfield.co.uk