Trauma-Informed Higher Education: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Trauma-informed higher education (TIHE) refers to an approach that acknowledges the widespread impact of trauma on students, faculty, and staff and seeks to create learning environments that are safe, supportive, and empowering. Recognizing and naming how trauma and adversity impact the adult learner generates a critical brain-based perspective and lens through which the college builds upon skills of resilience to orient pedagogy, support services, and holistic institutional practices, encouraging academic access and success for all students. TIHE involves integrating knowledge about trauma and resilience into policies, procedures, pedagogy, and campus culture. It emphasizes safety, trust, empowerment, and equity—especially important in the diverse, open-access environments of community colleges.
Trauma-informed higher education (TIHE) is not a clinical or diagnostic intervention: faculty and staff are not diagnosing students, classrooms are not sites for group therapy, and students are not patients. This common misperception evolves from trauma’s primary historical location in clinical and therapeutic fields, and while counseling and therapeutic services are key supports on college campuses, trauma-informed educational practices are not diagnostic or treatment modalities.
Many students and staff may have experienced trauma that affects their ability to learn, teach, or engage. Trauma-informed practices help reduce re-traumatization, promote resilience and mental well-being, and contribute to equity and inclusion by addressing systemic and interpersonal harm.
Community colleges in particular serve a wide range of students, many of whom face significant stressors, such as:
- First-generation college experiences
- Economic hardship, including food, housing, and transportation insecurity
- Balancing work, caregiving, and school
- Marginalization based on race, gender identity, disability, or other factors
- A history of gate-keeping and exclusionary practices embedded in institutions of higher education
Faculty and staff are often the most consistent points of contact, making their trauma-awareness vital.
- Missed classes or abrupt changes in attendance
- Difficulty concentrating or staying engaged
- Inconsistent academic performance
- Discomfort with authority figures or institutions
- Withdrawal or avoidance as a coping mechanism
Students may experience:
- Racial, gender, LGBTQ+, disability, or body-based discrimination that can occur both in the community as well as on campus
- Pre-college educational experiences of bullying
- Community violence
- War, displacement, or refugee experiences
- Pandemic-related stress and loss
- Housing, food, or transportation insecurity
- Sexual violence or harassment
- Childhood abuse or neglect
Trauma can impair concentration, memory, emotional regulation, and trust in others. Students may:
- Miss classes or assignments
- Seem withdrawn or hyper-vigilant
- Exhibit frustration, anxiety, or apathy
- Struggle with deadlines and executive functioning
Researchers such as Education Northwest describe how trauma-related behaviors can be misperceived as students not being serious or motivated, thus affecting possibilities for large numbers of students.
In your role as faculty or staff, you are not being asked to single-handedly solve personal crises nor systemic issues such as poverty and racism. Trauma-informed education is not therapy. Rather, it’s an educational framework that seeks to reduce harm, increase access, and support learning. Faculty and staff are not expected to be therapists, but should recognize signs of trauma and respond with compassion and referrals when needed.
Being trauma-informed means staying within your professional role at the college and:
- Listening non-judgmentally
- Being patient and supportive
- Connecting students to counseling, financial aid, disability services, or basic needs resources
- Setting boundaries and practicing self-care
Self-care is a term that, like resilience and trauma, has been used so often and deployed so widely that it has been emptied of meaning. Further, it can often feel like yet another task that already overburdened professionals must undertake at their own expense. Understanding what self-care means to you represents critical knowledge for your own well-being and for the work you do. Correspondingly, institutions themselves can be allies in prioritizing self-care through simple practices such as creating 10-minute breaks between scheduled meeting times.
- Listen, thank them, and avoid judgment
- Don’t ask for details or act as a therapist
- Share confidential support resources
- Let them know you care and that they are not alone
- Be aware of and follow any required reporting obligations (e.g., Title IX)
- Establish clear expectations and practices such as providing rubrics
- Establish consistent and predictable classroom structures to scaffold academic rigor
- Offer flexibility and choice when possible
- Build safety and trust through respectful and consistent communication, including email
- Encourage reflective practices and peer support
- Provide content warnings for potentially triggering material
- Where appropriate, allow alternative ways to participate or demonstrate learning
- Awareness of the prevalence of trauma, adversity, violence and also resilience in any community
- Provide or attend ongoing trauma-awareness trainings and professional development
- Build inclusive syllabi and policies
- Refer students to appropriate campus resources
- Take care of their own well-being and set boundaries
- Ensure front-line staff (admissions, financial aid, advising) are trained in de-escalation and empathetic service
- Avoid re-traumatizing bureaucratic barriers (e.g., punitive deadlines or excessive documentation)
- Foster a campus culture of care, not compliance
- Safety – Physical, emotional, and psychological safety
- Trustworthiness and Transparency
- Peer Support
- Collaboration and Mutuality
- Empowerment, Voice, and Choice
- Cultural, Historical, and Gender Responsiveness
(Adapted from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s “Guiding Principles of Trauma-Informed Approach.”)
- Conduct campus-wide assessments
- Establish a trauma-informed task force
- Review and revise policies (e.g., discipline, attendance)
- Provide ongoing training for all staff and faculty
- Prioritize mental health and wellness infrastructure (accessible to faculty, staff, and students)
- Trauma-informed approaches to campus safety and policing
- Include trauma-informed as a strategic priority
- Include trauma-informed as a desired qualification for hiring
What are examples of trauma-informed policies at the institutional level?
- Flexible attendance policies that account for crises
- Streamlined access to food pantries, mental health care, and emergency grants
- Investing in campus-based mental health professionals, case managers/community resource navigators
- Restorative justice approaches to student code of conduct, grade appeals, Satisfactory Academic Progress committees, Medical Leave policies
- Training for all employees—not just student services or counseling
- Input from students and marginalized communities in decision-making
Trauma-informed practices are equity practices. Many forms of trauma are rooted in systemic inequality—racism, poverty, ableism, and more. A trauma-informed lens helps identify and interrupt these patterns, making education more accessible and just for all students.
- Your campus’s counseling or wellness center
- Basic needs coordinators or equity offices
- Professional development from organizations like ACCT, AACC, or state community college boards
- Trauma-informed pedagogy books, workshops, and webinars tailored to community college faculty
- See our list of resources and trainings here.
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The Institute receives ongoing support from MassBay Community College and, from 2019 to 2024, received federal support via the Title III grant program. Additionally, proceeds from Dr. Tietjen’s honoraria are directly allocated to support the Institute’s work. If you are interested in supporting the Institute’s work, please contact Dr. Jeanie Tietjen at jtietjen@massbay.edu.