Abuse & trauma-informed training
& programme delivery
Look beneath behaviour. Respond with curiosity, not blame. Build safer, more intentional practice.
Practical, abuse and trauma-informed training and programme delivery for teams who encounter people affected by abuse and trauma, grounded in lived experience and delivered with care.
Why this training
Frontline staff and volunteers regularly encounter people affected by abuse and trauma, and some participants may also bring their own lived experience into the room. Many trauma-awareness sessions explain the theory. This training adds lived understanding and practical application, helping teams connect what they know with how they respond in real situations. It looks beneath visible behaviour, questions assumptions, and gives teams a shared, memorable way to respond more safely and within their role.
5 years
running a survivor programme, Building From Broken Pieces
TEDx & Lords
speaking experience across national and community platforms
Non-clinical
trauma-informed, within clear professional scope
Ways to work together
For frontline staff and volunteers who encounter people affected by abuse and trauma but are not specialist practitioners: housing officers, student welfare teams, pastoral teams, council customer services, charity volunteers, HR and line managers. Your team will know what to say in the first sixty seconds of a disclosure, what not to say, where their role ends, and how to look after themselves afterwards.
Half day, Responding Well: what abuse and trauma do to how someone thinks, speaks and behaves; why survivors minimise, delay or return; handling the first sixty seconds of a disclosure; what not to say and why; knowing where your role ends; and staff wellbeing afterwards.
Full day, Responding Well Extended: everything in the half day, plus scenario practice using anonymised situations agreed with your organisation in advance, boundaries and role clarity in depth, spiritual abuse and coercive control in faith settings where relevant, building a team response, your organisation's approved safeguarding and referral pathways incorporated into the training, and responding appropriately when a colleague discloses abuse or shows they may need support.
Included with both: a scoping call before delivery, a Referral and Response Toolkit for every attendee, a slide deck and handouts to keep, certificates of attendance, and a post-training summary for your safeguarding lead.
For teams who have already had generic trauma training and found it did not change much, and strong for student audiences and volunteer inductions. This session answers the questions staff are often too awkward to ask a textbook: why she did not leave, why she went back, why she seemed so calm, why her story changed. It is delivered knowing that some of the people listening are survivors themselves, and structured so that it never puts them on the spot.
For charities, councils, universities and churches who want to offer a structured group programme to their own service users, students or congregation, without building one themselves. Delivered by me as a series of small-group sessions, online or in person, adapted from The Foundation Framework™ for your setting. Organisational delivery and future licensing options are available to discuss on a call.
A speaker with the lived understanding and professional boundaries to handle sensitive subjects with care. Ideal for conferences, awareness days, staff and student events, church gatherings, White Ribbon Day, International Women's Day, and safeguarding conference slots. Delegates leave with clearer understanding, more appropriate language, and practical points for reflection.
Included: a pre-event call to shape the talk to your audience, an agreed content warning and signposting slide, a promotional pack with headshot, bio and session description, and a post-event resource list for delegates.
Looking specifically for a conference keynote, panel contribution or awareness-day speaker? Explore Speaking.
Learning outcomes
Training supports staff to respond more confidently within their role. It does not replace safeguarding training, supervision, or specialist services.
Adapted to your sector
Every session applies The Foundation Framework™, adapted to the people your team actually meets. Training can be shaped for any of the following settings.
Commissioner assurance
The Foundation Framework™ is trauma-informed and non-clinical. It supports reflection, education, coaching, boundaries and rebuilding. It does not provide clinical treatment. Here is how it is delivered responsibly.
No participant is required to disclose personal trauma or tell their story. People may pause, skip an exercise, or choose not to take part in a prompt.
Reflective work is paced. There is no reward for pushing through overwhelm. Grounding, breaks and appropriate support are normalised as responsible practice.
Work can focus on a belief, pattern or feeling without recounting events. Group delivery avoids exercises that pressure people to reveal personal histories.
The Framework does not diagnose, treat mental illness, process complex trauma clinically, provide crisis intervention, or replace specialist services.
Where there is serious distress or risk, specialist and statutory support takes priority over any exercise. Referral is framed as responsible practice, not failure.
Curiosity replaces blame. The Framework avoids language that romanticises trauma, and never uses faith or culture to excuse harm or pressure forgiveness.
The practitioner supports the build. The Builder retains ownership.
About Raj
Raj Holness brings together lived experience, professional coaching practice, and more than two decades of speaking and advocacy. Her work is rooted in surviving abuse, forced marriage, trauma and spiritual harm, and in the long process of rebuilding identity, safety and self-trust. From 2017 to 2022 she created and ran Building From Broken Pieces, a six-month programme for survivors of trauma, abuse, forced marriage and trafficking, which attracted National Lottery funding in its later years. The Foundation Framework™ grew out of that work, built on a central truth: you cannot build a strong future on a false foundation.
Also available
Alongside live training, Breaking Free Within is a self-paced online course for individuals who have experienced abuse, coercion, or long-term emotional harm. It is educational, reflective, and trauma-informed, a gentle way to build understanding at your own pace. It can be a helpful resource to share with those you support, or for individuals within your organisation.
£97
Bring this work to your team
Every commission begins with a conversation, so the training reflects your organisation, audience, context and objectives. Fees are discussed and confirmed in a written proposal, with limited charity and community rates available for eligible small organisations, subject to scope and capacity.
A full commissioner pack, including formats and fees, is available on request.