Trauma-Aware Practice: Safe Support and Professional Boundaries

7 Oct 2026
Online
9:30 am - 12:30 pm

Staff, trustees, and volunteers are the backbone of the health, social care, and voluntary sectors, often meeting people on their hardest days. While they bring immense empathy to their roles, they frequently encounter persons they support who are carrying significant, unresolved trauma.

Without the right framework, the desire to help can quickly lead to over-involvement, blurred boundaries, and burnout.

This introductory training bridges the gap between deep compassion and professional safety. The core premise is simple: you do not need to be a trauma specialist to be trauma-aware, and maintaining strong professional boundaries is the most trauma-informed action you can take. This workshop provides the essential vocabulary and practical scripts needed to support safely, redirect compassionately, and leave the work at the door.

This 3-hour interactive online session provides a foundational understanding of trauma-aware practice. The training focuses heavily on practical application for everyday roles across the sector.

Session content

  • The “Window of Tolerance”: Understanding why the persons you support may suddenly escalate into anger or shut down entirely over minor frustrations.
  • Role Clarity: Defining the exact boundaries of your specific role and letting go of the pressure to fix systemic issues.
  • Managing Over-sharing: Recognising when sharing becomes unsafe for both parties (trauma dumping).
  • Scripting the “Pivot”: Using exact, ready-to-use phrases to gently interrupt, validate, and redirect a person you support back to the immediate task at hand.
  • Navigating Guilt: Addressing the inherent guilt often felt when saying “no” or drawing a boundary.
  • The “De-Rolling” Routine: Step-by-step strategies to mentally and physically transition out of the support role at the end of a shift or meeting to prevent moral distress.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this 3-hour workshop, participants will be able to:

  1. Recognise the signs of a dysregulated nervous system in the persons they support.
  2. Differentiate between healthy context-sharing and trauma dumping.
  3. Deploy respectful, boundary-setting scripts to keep interactions safe, focused, and professional.
  4. Identify the personal signs of vicarious trauma, burnout, and moral distress.
  5. Implement a personalised “de-roling” practice to protect their own wellbeing and longevity in the sector.

Who should attend

This training is aimed at all of those working in the community and voluntary sector and includes Not for Profits, Charities, Voluntary run agencies and social enterprises. 

How to register

  • You can book places for yourself and/or colleagues by clicking the button below.
  • This event will take place on Zoom.
  • Closed Captions can be enabled by attendees.
  • Please email [email protected] if you have any special requirements or accessibility needs.

Your speaker/trainer

A person with straight brown hair, glasses, and blue eyes wears a green shirt and a green patterned bandana. The background shows large windows with a blurred view outside.
Speaker: Maighréad Kelly Management Consultant

Maighréad Kelly

Maighréad Kelly is a Management Consultant and a trainer, specialising in Trust in Care Investigations, Safeguarding Inquiries, Governance Reviews, Management Support, Compliance and Risk Management. Maighréad has been a Company Director since 2014 and is both experienced & knowledgeable in the area of governance and assessing governance compliance within companies.

Testimonials

"We found Maighread very knowledgeable and experienced in the field of risk mitigation and good governance when setting up the Great Care Co-op. Her approach was collaborative which was crucial for our culture as a worker cooperative. She assisted us with policy development and quality assurance and provided a mix of completed policies and also practical tools so that we had a framework in place to drive the quality of work ourselves after the period of consultation."

Aoife Smith - CEO, The Great Care Coop

"From having worked with Maighread over the last few years, we are able to say that Maighread is professional, conscientious, and available to provide assistance and support whenever we needed help. In addition, it is also evident that Maighread is very knowledgeable about the care industry and genuinely believes in the provision of high-quality care for people."

David Piggott - Owner, Local Homecare Services

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7 Oct 2026 9:30 am - 12:30 pm