Healing Spaces for adults is trauma-informed training for practitioners and anyone working with refugee and asylum-seeking adults in the UK. It supports staff and volunteers in developing inclusive and nurturing spaces. Taking a deep dive into trauma, its impacts and how to work in a trauma-responsive way, participants leave with a new understanding of trauma and effective strategies, including trauma-informed responses and psychosocial support, to create healing communities in their settings.
It draws on decades of research and evidence from IRC programmes in over 40 countries and is adapted from the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) trauma-informed care framework and contextualised to the UK. Sessions are practical and interactive, tailored to your organisation and led by a facilitator with lived experience of displacement. This is training in trauma-informed practice, not trauma treatment.
Get in touch to book a session for your team
At a glance
- Who it is for: practitioners and anyone working with refugee and asylum-seeking adults
- Built around: four principles: safety, choice and voice, culture and community, and trust and transparency
- Duration: one full day (5 hours including breaks, with 4 hours of training) or, online, two 2-hour sessions on separate dates
- Format: in person or online, on any day of the week including evenings and weekends
- Price: based on the context of the session and the size of the group. Get in touch to discuss your requirements
- Language: English or Arabic
- Group size: no maximum. In-person sessions need at least 10 participants, and online sessions have no minimum
- Every participant receives: a certificate, the digital handbook (PDF), the session slides, access to the free resource bank and one-to-one follow-up support
Who is it for?
Healing Spaces for adults is ideal for community organisations, accommodation providers, local authorities and anyone supporting adult refugees and asylum seekers. It suits frontline staff, caseworkers, support workers, managers and volunteers.
What you will learn
The course is built on the four Rs of trauma-informed care (TIC). By the end, participants are equipped to embed them in their work.
- Realise: that trauma affects displaced people through three major causes, in both the past and the present
- Recognise: the ways someone may show signs of trauma
- Respond: with trauma-informed approaches
- Resist re-traumatisation: for yourself and others, by reflecting on processes
Course content
The course opens with myths and misinformation about refugees and asylum seekers, then works through four principles of trauma-informed care adapted from SAMHSA, and closes with a reflection activity.
Safety
- Introduction to trauma and toxic stress
- The triple trauma paradigm
- Impacts and signs of trauma
- The window of tolerance
- A de-escalation framework
- Do no harm
Choice and voice
- Learned helplessness
- The circle of control
- Self-efficacy
- Co-creation
- Choices you can offer in your service
Culture and community
- Culture shock and marginalisation
- Psychosocial support
- The bonds, bridges and links framework
- From cultural competence to cultural humility
Trust and transparency
- Systemic trauma
- Trauma-informed interviewing and sensitive conversations
- Boundaries
- Compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma
Closing reflection
What participants will stop, start and continue to do, personally and within their organisation.
How do I book?
Every session is tailored to your organisation. Sessions run in person or online, on any day of the week including evenings and weekends.
1. Get in touch. Contact us with the version you are interested in, your organisation and roughly how many people would attend. If you do not sign off training yourself, we are happy to speak with the person who does.
2. Complete the training requirements form. Once we have been in touch, we send a short form covering your services, region, who will attend and what you want from the session. We use it to tailor the session to your work.
3. Agree the date and format. We ask for one month's notice. Choose a full day, in person or online, or two shorter online sessions.
4. Take part and keep learning. After the session you receive your certificates, the handbook, slides and resource bank access, plus follow-up calls with us as you need them.
Questions about this course
Is prior training needed?
No prior training needed.
What will participants take away from the session?
Participants learn to understand why someone may be reacting the way they are, stay calm and help a tense situation settle, talk with people in a way that builds trust, and keep healthy boundaries in their role. They leave with strategies they can use straight after the session.
Is there a version for children and young people?
Yes. Healing Spaces for children and young people is for people supporting refugee and asylum-seeking children and young people. Read about Healing Spaces for Children and Young People.
