Learning from Lived Experience in Trauma-Informed Practice

An Educator's Guide for Schools, Communities and Beyond
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-032-64675-6
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 232 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 453 g

This book explores the impact of trauma in educational contexts, drawing on lived, learned and professional experience to rethink how we can design and deliver our services for the better.

The book takes readers on a journey to understand trauma, its prevalence and the impact it has on children and young people, on teachers and on the education system as a whole. Chapters examine what trauma-informed practice really means and consider how trauma-informed thinking can be embedded into educational policies. With lived experience at its heart, it explores the power of relationships, as well as the difference educators can make by implementing small changes and gaining a holistic picture of each learner. The book advocates for a change in our thinking, emphasising the crucial role schools can play in creating an education system that truly understands the impact of trauma on educational and societal outcomes.

With examples from practice and reflection opportunities throughout, this book is valuable reading for senior leadership teams and all educators wanting to further understand journeys through trauma and to make meaningful changes to their practices and settings.

Zielgruppe

Professional Practice & Development

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ahmed-Poole, Shumela

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Schulen, Schulleitung Weiterführende Schulen
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Teildisziplinen der Pädagogik Sonderpädagogik, Heilpädagogik
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Schulen, Schulleitung Schulleitung, Schulentwicklung
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Schulen, Schulleitung Grundschulen, Hauptschulen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

A Note of Caution

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

Part 1. The Roots and Branches of Trauma

Chapter 1. What is Trauma?

· Definition of Trauma

· Types of Trauma

· The Drivers of Trauma

· The Prevalence of Trauma

· Trauma's Legacy- 'We've Been Here Before'

Chapter 2. When Trauma Enters Our Lives

· The Impact of Trauma- A Public Health Message

· The Developing Young Person

· Health Implications of Trauma

· Epigenetics: Rethinking 'Nature vs Nurture'

· The Impact of Trauma on Our Access to Services

Chapter 3. Trauma's Gift

· A Deficit-Based View: Changing the Narrative

· A Wider Lens

· A Journey of Learning, Healing and Recovery

· Therapeutic Healing

Part 2. Rethinking Practice, Systems and Relationships

Chapter 4. What is Trauma Informed Practice?

· An Alternative Approach?

· An Alternative Future?

· But What is TIP Really?

· This is Everyone's Business!

· Once Example of Many

Chapter 5. Trauma Informed Organisations, Systems and Processes

· What Does TIP Really Mean and How Can it Help Us?

· Understanding Trauma-Informed Organisations, Systems and Processes:

- In Education

- In Care

- In Problematic Substance Use

- In Justice System

- In Homelessness

· And So What?

Chapter 6. Relationships, Reflection and Reframing

· Relationships: And the Power They Hold

· The Power of Relationships

· Why are Relationships so Important?

· 'Transforming Trauma' Through Social Entrepreneurship: The Power to Change Through Relationships

Part 3. Realities, Recontextualising and Realisations

Chapter 7. Contextualising Lived Experience and Trauma

· Learning from Lived Experience

· The Role of Lived Experience in Embedding/Implementing TIP: 'When Trauma is at the Table'

· Listening to Lived Experience

· Why Do We Need Lived Experience Input?

· The Reality and Impact of Lived Experience Work

· Teaching and Lived Experience

· The Impact of Trauma on Education Staff

· How Can We Prevent Vicarious Trauma, Compassion Fatigue and Burnout?

· Workforce Wellbeing: It's Important for Us All (Lived Experience of Trauma or Not)

· Influencing Change: The Real Power of Lived Experience

Chapter 8. Learning Lessons

· Learning from Trauma Informed Practice

· The Wisdom of Lived Experience

· Learning Still to Do

· Structural Factors

· Cultural Factors

· A Message (and Journey) of Hope and Resilience

· A Final Reflection

· A Message to Those Who've Made a Difference Along the Way

References

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Shumela Ahmed-Poole is the co-founder and managing director of Resilience Learning Partnership (RLP), a lived experience led organisation. As an adult returner to education, she pursued a career in community education and cofounded RLP in 2018. Shumela understands the role trauma-informed practice has for those who have experienced complex trauma in overcoming many of the barriers that exist in finding meaningful ways to learn and experience education.

Resilience Learning Partnership is a training and education provider with a dual purpose, and they work across the health, social care, education, housing and criminal justice sectors. They specialise in trauma-informed practice and lived experience and inform policy and strategy through their work, ensuring that lived experience is at the heart and start of all public policy-making decision areas.

RLP’s activities focus on ensuring the voice of lived experience is authentically and meaningfully embedded in service and organisational policy and practice design and is valued as much as any other evidence-based framework or approach.