THW Continuing Education

Trauma-Informed Peer Support Practices

Understanding Trauma, Creating Safety, Sustaining Yourself

Trauma is not what happens to you — it is what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you. As a Traditional Health Worker, you sit with people whose lives have been shaped by experiences that overwhelmed their nervous systems, relationships, and sense of safety in the world. Some of them know they carry trauma. Many do not. And often, your own story sits beside theirs, informing both your insight and your vulnerability.

This course gives you a working understanding of trauma and its effects on the brain and body, introduces SAMHSA’s six principles of trauma-informed care, builds practical skills for creating safety and responding to trauma responses in the people you support, and equips you to recognize and care for the cumulative weight you carry from this work.

“Trauma is not what happens to you; it’s what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you.”

— Dr. Gabor Maté