Trauma Informed Care Workshops
These workshops are designed to support trauma-informed care in health, education,
counselling and mental health settings. Being trauma-informed is crucial when working
with children, teens, adults and families, and involves acknowledging the profound impact
of trauma on wellbeing for an individual and their family while working in safe, sensitive,
respectful, collaborative ways to empower clients.
Workshops:
Working Safely with Families and Trauma (2 days)
Beyond Awareness: Practical Strategies for Trauma-Informed Care (1 day)
Creating Trauma-Informed Strength-Based Schools:
Where Neuroscience & Psychology meet Pedagogy (1 day or 3 - 4 sessions)
Trauma-Informed Care for Midwives (2 days)
Trauma-Informed Care in the Emergency Department (1 day)
Introduction to Trauma-Informed Care (3 hours)
Working safely with families and Trauma:
A Neurobiological to Trauma Stabilization and Family Therapy
Families affected by traumatic events can often break down as each family member struggles in their own way to come to terms with what has happened. Understanding distress reactions and their effect on family dynamics can help the family to cope better. If family members don’t understand each other’s experience, then misunderstandings, communication breakdowns and other problems can result. This is often because unresolved traumatic symptoms fuel behavioural and emotional problems and family conflict, and/ or the family interactions can maintain or exacerbate the pain of traumatic memories.
Most practitioners have by now heard the message that trauma treatment must begin with an emphasis on safety and stabilisation, otherwise "working through" will be re-traumatising. Yet it is often very difficult to know exactly how to begin to help the trauma client stabilise. As practitioners, we can easily get so caught up in the roller coaster ride of crises, suicide attempts, hospitalisations, addiction relapses, and self-destructive acting-out that we ourselves start to feel out of control! This workshop integrates a neurobiologically informed understanding of trauma, dissociation, and attachment within framework of family therapy. As with any teaching paradigm, the practitioner needs educational models and tools. For trauma stabilisation work, the most important tools are: psychoeducation, therapist modeling of attention to safety, skill-building, and empowering the client by teaching them how to take charge of the therapeutic process.
The workshop will demonstrate how to:
-
teach clients about trauma symptoms: how to recognise them, how to anticipate them, what they mean, how to manage them
-
decrease the client's shame, confusion, and sense of being overwhelmed
-
mobilise the strengths of families to amplify healing and change
Additionally, the practitioner also performs an important modeling function, ideally this beginning at the very first contact with clients. Practitioners need to model their constant concern and interest in the client's safety and self-care. As it indirectly teaches the client new skills and it directly offers the client an experience of safety.
This workshop will demonstrate the skills needed by trauma clients in order to stay stable include the following:
-
understanding that many of their trauma symptoms are memory equivalents
-
grounding and centering techniques
-
coping strategies for dealing with individual and interpersonal distress
-
contracting for safety with themselves and others
-
how to anticipate stressful or triggering events
-
learning how to calm the body and mind
-
distinguishing past and present reality and how to stay "in the present" along with recognising and making better use of dissociative abilities
-
working with the impact of trauma on identity, and redefining the client's role from that of victim to that of survivor
Weaving a range of unique interventions adapted from a number of cutting-edge therapeutic approaches, including sensorimotor psychotherapy, family systems, mindfulness-based therapies, and EFT. This workshop provides a practical approach to trauma treatment in family systems, communicated in straightforward language accessible to both clients and practitioners. Participants will leave with a solid grasp of therapeutic approaches to trauma stabilisation, working with dissociative symptoms, integrating brain-based treatment methods, and much more. Most of all, they will come away with tools for helping clients create an internal sense of safety and compassion.
To arrange this workshop for your organisation, please contact Dr Leonie White at drleoniewhite@gmail.com or 0401002544.
To attend a public event, please search the Compass Seminars Australia website at https://www.compassaustralia.com.au/
Beyond Awareness: Practical Strategies for Trauma-Informed Care
In today’s healthcare and education settings, understanding trauma is essential—but knowing how to integrate trauma-informed care into daily practice is where real change happens.
This dynamic, interactive one-day workshop is designed for professionals across all sectors who want to deepen their understanding of trauma and enhance their ability to support individuals and families with care that fosters safety, trust, and empowerment. Whether you work in healthcare, mental health, allied health, or education, this workshop will equip you with practical strategies to create environments that promote healing, resilience, and engagement.
Through real-world insights and examples, hands-on techniques, and reflective discussions, you’ll explore:
-
The impact of trauma on the brain, body, and behavior
-
How trauma manifests in healthcare and educational settings
-
Key principles of trauma-informed care and why they matter
-
Practical strategies for fostering trust, collaboration, and choice
-
Simple but powerful techniques to enhance regulation and resilience
-
How to apply trauma-informed approaches in diverse cultural and professional contexts
The day will conclude with guided reflection and practical steps to integrate trauma-informed principles into your unique work setting.
Join me for an insightful, skills-focused workshop that will transform the way you support individuals and families—while also strengthening your own professional resilience.
To arrange this workshop for your organisation, please contact Dr Leonie White at drleoniewhite@gmail.com or 0401002544.
Introduction to Trauma Informed Care
This three hour presentation is an abbreviated form of "Beyond Awareness: Practical Strategies for Trauma-Informed Care" designed as an introductory workshop for professionals in any setting who are interested in becoming trauma informed.
To arrange this workshop for your organisation, please contact Dr Leonie White at drleoniewhite@gmail.com or 0401002544.
Creating Trauma-Informed Strength-Based Schools:
Where Neuroscience & Psychology meet Pedagogy
This one day workshop is designed for educators including childcare, primary and secondary school, who are interested in becoming trauma informed and taking a strength-based approach to support student wellbeing and academic resilience.
This workshop covers:
-
Trauma psychoeducation for school staff based on the latest understandings from neuroscience
-
Adverse Childhood Experiences, Simple and Complex Trauma, Intergenerational Trauma and Resilience
-
The impact on young people (brain and body, emotions and affect dysregulation, shame, self-concept, learning, cognitive capacity, memory, language, need for control, attachment and relationship difficulties) and how this plays out in school settings
-
Polyvagal theory in the school; understanding what happens to a young person’s nervous system and what to do to support student regulation and relational engagement
-
-
Strategies to enhance engagement and learning
-
Understanding the window of tolerance, what this looks like in the classroom, and strategies for widening the window
-
Creating safety, including relational safety, for calm, engaged learning environments using neurobiology, mentalizing, and a PACEful approach
-
Creating contagious calm using understandings from neuroscience, attachment theory and family therapy
-
Responding to dysregulation in helpful ways that support the development of relationships and resilience
-
Providing positive, trauma-informed behaviour support
-
-
Strength-based approach
-
Understanding the healing power of the classroom and school
-
Knowledge and understanding to support young people to develop psychological resources and growth-oriented ways of thinking
-
-
Vicarious Trauma and Self Care
-
Understanding the impact of working with young people impacted by trauma
-
Individual and collective self-care, including hacks for educators for harnessing the power of their own nervous system
-
This workshop can be broken down into a series of smaller workshops to fit in with school professional development schedules.
To arrange this workshop for your organisation, please contact Dr Leonie White at drleoniewhite@gmail.com or 0401002544.
Trauma Informed Care for Midwives
This two day workshop is designed for staff working in maternity services, including nurses, midwives and obstetricians.
This workshop seeks to support health workers in their patient centred care, and to develop and amplify existing trauma-informed care by promoting trust, safety, collaboration, and choice to help individuals and their families cultivate a sense of resilience, empowerment, and control.
This workshop will cover:
-
Overview of essential Trauma knowledge for anyone working in the health industry.
-
Practical skills, strategies, and considerations when working with clients affected by trauma.
-
The importance of the working relationship/alliance between health worker and client.
-
What is Family Therapy and Systemic Practice and how does it apply to maternity services?
-
How can information regarding Trauma and Family Systems be of benefit to pregnancy and growing families?
-
How to apply these ideas to a collaborate practice framework.
-
These two days are interspersed with practical trauma-informed activities to practice, along with helpful ways of working with clients during pregnancy from a holistic and relational position.
To arrange this workshop for your organisation, please contact Dr Leonie White at drleoniewhite@gmail.com or 0401002544.
Trauma Informed Care in the Emergency Department
This one day workshop is designed for staff working in the Emergency Department including nurses, doctors, and allied health practitioners.
This workshop seeks to support health workers in their patient centred care, and to develop and amplify existing trauma-informed care by promoting trust, safety, collaboration, and choice to help individuals and their families cultivate a sense of resilience, empowerment, and control. And to appreciate that this approach should be adapted to the context, culture, and uniqueness of each individual, family and community.
This workshop will cover:
-
What is trauma?
-
Implications for you as a health professional.
-
Trauma Education – Core Knowledge.
-
Trauma-Informed Care in Medicine.
-
Trauma-Informed Care techniques and strategies.
-
Wind down and reflection.
To arrange this workshop for your organisation, please contact Dr Leonie White at drleoniewhite@gmail.com or 0401002544.