Practice 9 Trauma-Informed Care

Abstract

This chapter enhances cultural empowerment and trauma-informed care by centring cultural identities and relationality, culture-centred ways of knowing, and resources and strengths embedded in cultural communities. Melissa, Sandra, and Gwendolyn emphasize the important distinctions between trauma-informed care and trauma-centred practice. Trauma-informed care begins with understanding trauma in the context of sociocultural oppression and marginalization. Historical trauma (as ongoing colonial violence) and intergenerational trauma, for example, result in complex posttraumatic stress for Indigenous People and communities. Other marginalized populations suffer the effects of political violence, including legalized racism. The authors caution that trauma and retraumatization can lead to a loss of cultural identity and relationality, which sometimes manifests in internalized oppression and lateral oppression. Gwendolyn uses the metaphor of a thick fog to describe the impacts of living with historical trauma. Melissa, Sandra, and Gwendolyn position trauma-informed listening as essential to cultural empowerment. Fostering cultural safety, trust, and care requires therapist relational presence and openness. The authors foster mind–body–Spirit–heart strength by honouring client voice and offering tools to foster safety and grounding.

Melissa and Sandra have integrated practice illustrations by the following co-authors:

• Joanna Gladue (Bigstone Cree Nation) opens the chapter with a Smudge, inviting readers into an ethical space in which Indigenous and western knowledge systems are both honoured.
• Judy Chew draws on feminist therapy practices (e.g., collaboration, informed consent, power-sharing, power-analysis) to illustrate how to support clients struggling with internalized oppression to find their own voice.
• Zuraida Dada continues her story of apartheid in South Africa as a political and economic strategy grounded in racism and cultural oppression, attending specifically to its intentions and lasting impacts.
• Helen Ofosu speaks to the importance of being trauma-informed in the context of the work-place trauma of Black women through persistent or repeated marginalization. She raises awareness of racialized trauma resulting from noninclusive organizational cultures and leadership.
• Ruth Strunz critiques the use of applied behavioural analysis in working with autistic clients through the lens of relational trauma. She describes how the intersection of trauma and systemic barriers impacts clients and limits their access to empathetic care.
• Aaron Wong unpacks the legacy of racial discrimination within his own family history as Chinese immigrants who faced decades of government oppression. He reflects on the impact of intergenerational loss and trauma on this own health.
• Gina Wong joins Sandra and Melissa in speaking to retraumatization as helping professionals. They share examples below of grounding rituals and energy-centred transitions help them maintain personal well-being while staying present in the therapeutic space.

Co-Authors

Melissa Jay (she/her), PhD, RPsych, is a cisgender nehiyaw (Cree) member of the Métis Nation of Alberta and lifelong student of yoga philosophy. She is a cisgender, able-bodied woman who moves through the world with white-passing privilege. She is a psychologist and associate professor at Athabasca University. Her work is centred in reciprocity and relationship, decolonized healing, anti-oppressive practices, and the integration of ancient wisdom and psychology. Her intention is to share trauma-informed, culturally responsive care, alongside her ongoing collaborative research exploring relational accountability, Indigenous methodologies, and ethical engagement with community.

Sandra Collins (she/her), PhD, is a co-editor of this book. She writes from the perspective of a feminist, lesbian, cisgender, woman with an invisible disability, who is a white, retired professor, and inhabits a privileged social class. Over the 25 years of her academic and professional career, she focused her research, writing, and teaching on cultural responsivity and social justice in theory, research, and practice. This is her fifth book on these topics, two of which were awarded the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Counselling biannual book award. She also received a silver medal for best e-book design by the Independent Publisher Book Awards. 

Gwendolyn Villebrun  (she/her), PhD, RPsych, is a Dene/Métis and a member of K’atl’odeeche Dene First Nation, Northwest Territories. She resides in Amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta), Treaty 6 territory. She is an assistant professor in the counselling psychology program in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta. As a registered psychologist since 2005, she serves predominantly urban First Nations, those impacted by the Indigenous Residential Institutions, and children who have experienced abuse.

Joanna Gladues (she/her), MC, CCC, is a proud Cree woman from the Treaty 8 Bigstone Cree Nation. She embodies a deep connection to her Indigenous roots. She works from a Two-Eyed Seeing approach, integrating western modalities including EMDR, somatic experiencing, trauma-informed yoga with a holistic collaboration of Indigenous Spirituality and Traditions. She uses a culturally sensitive, trauma-informed lens; provides inclusive, nonjudgemental therapy; and has experience supporting a variety of individuals from all ages. 

Judy Chew (she/her), PhD, RPsych, spent her career years (1992–2020) at the University of Calgary, Counselling Services where she held the positions of psychologist, tenured faculty member, associate adjunct professor, senior counsellor, and training director. In continuing her passion for lifelong learning, she is immersed in knowledge acquisition and writing on early Chinese immigration, sleuthing efforts into the unsolved mysteries of my ancestral background and the complex intertwining of lives with de(colonization), diversity themes, intersectionality, and social justice.

Zuraida Dada (she/her), MA, RPsych, CPsych, Registered Psychologist (South Africa), is South African by birth and lived under apartheid for most of her life. SheI was an anti-apartheid activist and was part of the first wave of IBAPoC “intelligencia” in postapartheid South Africa. She is the founder and president of Invictus Psychology & Consulting, an international psychology private practice. She is a seasoned psychologist with over 20 years of experience in South Africa and 16 years of experience in Canada, specializing in counselling psychology and industrial organizational psychology. She was the recipient of the Canadian Psychological Association’s 2021 John C. Service award and was recognized for her volunteer efforts by the Psychologists’ Association of Alberta as a Contributor of the Year in 2020.

Helen Ofosu (she/her), PhD, has practiced industrial and organizational psychology in the public and private sectors for over 20 years. In addition to career and executive coaching, her specialties include assessing and developing leadership skills and navigating the complex issues of workplace bullying, harassment, equity, diversity, and inclusion. She is one of the founding officers of the Section on Black Psychology, Canadian Psychological Association. an adjunct professor of psychology at Carleton University, and a member of the advisory board of Black Mental Health Canada.

Ruth Strunz (she/her), RP, CCC, is a registered psychotherapist and clinical supervisor in private practice, based in Ontario. She specializes in providing attachment-based psychotherapy to autistic and neurodivergent individuals and their families. She also provides consultation on neurodivergence to a wide range of audiences including clinical practices, schools, universities, as well as fostering and adoption support organizations. She is a peer mentor with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario and the former clinical director of Never Too Late. Her book, Neurodiversity-Affirming Psychotherapy: Clinical Pathways to Autistic Mental Health was published 2024.

Aaron Wong (he/him), ND, MTC, BASc, is a straight cisgender Canadian man of Chinese descent. His family legacy spans six generations and over 140 years in Canada. He is an advocate for mind, body, emotion, and spirit approaches to healing, which include honouring a symbiotic integrated relationship with nature, the earth, and our cohabitants. He is a long-standing clinic faculty in naturopathic medical education, and he teaches counselling skills, anti-racism, and anti-oppression to both naturopathic physicians and counsellors. He is the co-founder of a passion project, The Conscious Clinician Movement, where they support healthcare professionals in doing their personal work to confront their biases so they can show up fully for their patients and as a means of working toward more sustainable balanced practice.

Gina Wong (she/her; they/them), PhD, RPsych, is a psychologist, researcher, writer, and a perinatal mental health certified (PMH-C) clinician. She is dedicated to increasing literacy, focus, and successful treatment for maternal mental health illness in Canada, particularly for women of colour. She co-founded and served as the vice-president of the Postpartum Support International-Canada. She has authored or edited three books related to mothering: : Moms Gone Mad: Motherhood and Madness Oppression and Resistance; Mothering in East Asian Communities: Politics and Practices ; and Maternal Infanticide and Filicide: Foundations in Maternal Mental Health Forensics.

Citation

Jay, M., Collins, S., Villebrun, G., Gladues, J., Chew, J., Dada, Z., Ofosu, H., Strunz, R., Wong, A., & Wong. G. (2025). Practice 9 Trauma-informed care: Centring choice and connection. In S. Collins and M. Jay (Eds.), Decolonizing health, healing, and care: Embodying culturally responsive and socially just counselling (Chapter 4.2). Counselling Concepts. https://doi.org/10.71446/hs57131297