Resources focused on trauma &
neuro-affirming practice
This space brings together a range of practical resources, reflections and tools to support wellbeing, understanding and connection.
These materials are designed to be accessible and flexible — offering ideas you can explore at your own pace, whether you are seeking support for yourself, your family, or your work within organisations and communities.
Organisations
Trauma Informed Practice
Trauma Informed Care and Psychologically Informed Environments (Homeless Link)
An accessible overview of how trauma‑informed principles can shape safer, more compassionate services. This resource highlights practical ways to create environments that support regulation, dignity, and trust.
Wellbeing
Staff Wellbeing in Homelessness Services (Homeless Link)
This resource explores the unique pressures faced by homelessness workers and offers practical strategies for building supportive, wellbeing‑focused organisational cultures.
Resisting Burnout — Vikki Reynolds
A powerful perspective on collective care, solidarity, and resisting burnout through connection, ethics, and shared purpose rather than individual self‑care alone.
Working With Clients Who Have Experienced Trauma (PDF)
A clear guide for frontline practitioners on understanding trauma responses and adapting practice to promote safety, choice, and empowerment.
Supervision
Trauma Informed Supervision
A practical guide outlining key principles, structures, and conversations that support reflective, compassionate supervision in trauma‑exposed settings
Reflective Practice
Reflective Practice Starter Kit (ACE Hub Wales)
A beginner‑friendly toolkit offering simple frameworks and prompts to help teams build regular, meaningful reflective practice into their work.
Reflective Practice in Homelessness Services (Homeless Link)
A resource exploring how reflective practice strengthens resilience, improves decision‑making, and supports trauma‑informed organisational cultures
Trauma Informed Leadership
Trauma Informed Leadership
A clear introduction to what trauma‑informed leadership looks like in practice, highlighting the importance of safety, transparency, and relational connection.
The Importance of Trauma Informed Leadership in the Workplace
This video explores how leaders can create environments where staff feel valued, regulated, and supported — essential foundations for effective trauma‑informed care.
Behaviours and Actions of Trauma Informed Leaders
A practical summary of the attitudes, behaviours, and everyday actions that help leaders foster trust, wellbeing, and psychological safety.
Roadmap for Creating Trauma Informed and Responsive Change (NHS England)
A structured, step‑by‑step guide for organisations seeking to embed trauma‑informed principles across policies, culture, and practice.
Schools & Education
Influencing School Behaviour Policy: Trauma Informed Webinar
A webinar exploring how schools can develop relational, trauma‑informed behaviour policies that prioritise connection, safety, and emotional regulation.
Trauma Informed Education: How Trauma Impacts the Learning Journey
An accessible overview of how trauma affects attention, behaviour, and learning — and how educators can create supportive, regulated classrooms.
Individuals
Stabilisation Pack – Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB
A collection of gentle, practical self‑help guides created by service users and psychologists to support people experiencing the effects of trauma. The pack offers grounding techniques, emotional regulation tools, and clear explanations to help individuals understand their reactions and build safety and stability in daily life.
Window of Tolerance and Emotional Regulation
This video explains the “Window of Tolerance,” a simple but powerful model for understanding how the nervous system responds to stress. It helps viewers recognise when they’re calm and regulated, when they’re overwhelmed, and what it looks like to shut down. A great starting point for anyone learning about trauma, emotional regulation, or nervous system health.
ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) Impact on brain, body and behaviour
This short film introduces the ACEs study, which explores how early adversity affects long‑term health, behaviour, and emotional wellbeing. It’s an accessible overview of how childhood experiences shape adult patterns — and why healing and support matter at every age.
Trauma and the Brain
This animated video breaks down how trauma impacts the brain’s structure and functioning. It explains survival responses, memory, and emotional regulation in a clear, compassionate way. Ideal for anyone wanting to understand the science behind trauma responses.
Flipping Your Lid- Emotional Regulation
Based on Dr. Dan Siegel’s “hand model of the brain,” this video shows what happens when we become overwhelmed and “flip our lid.” It’s a simple, memorable explanation of emotional dysregulation and how the thinking brain goes offline during stress
Nervous System – Deb Dana’s Beginner’s Guide
This guide introduces Polyvagal Theory in an accessible, practical format. It helps readers understand their autonomic states — safety, mobilisation, and shutdown — and offers gentle strategies for returning to regulation. A foundational resource for trauma‑informed wellbeing.
Coping Cards – Breathing and Grounding
These printable coping cards offer quick, easy‑to‑use grounding and breathing exercises. Perfect for keeping in a wallet, on a desk, or in a therapy folder, they provide simple reminders for calming the body and mind during moments of stress.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) – GetSelfHelp
This resource introduces ACT, a therapeutic approach focused on acceptance, mindfulness, and values‑based action. It includes practical worksheets and explanations that help users build psychological flexibility and move toward a more meaningful life
RAIN: A Practice of Radical Compassion
RAIN is a simple, four‑step mindfulness tool developed to help people meet difficult emotions with presence and kindness. It guides us to pause, recognise what’s happening inside, make space for the experience, and respond with self‑compassion. Tara Brach’s teaching makes this practice accessible and grounding, offering a gentle way to navigate overwhelm, shame, fear, or stress.
The Safe Place Meditation: Compassion Focused Therapy
A 10-minute exercise to help create a place in your mind that could give you the feeling of safeness and calmness.
Self Compassion – Soften, Soothe, Allow
This guided practice teaches a gentle, three‑step approach to working with difficult emotions. It encourages self‑kindness, grounding, and emotional presence, offering a compassionate alternative to self‑criticism or avoidance.
Nonviolent Communication (NVC) Model
This handout outlines the core steps of Nonviolent Communication: observations, feelings, needs, and requests. It’s a practical tool for improving communication, reducing conflict, and expressing needs with clarity and empathy
Free DBT Course – Skills, Worksheets, Videos
A comprehensive, free online course covering all major DBT skills: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. Includes videos, worksheets, and step‑by‑step lessons — ideal for self‑guided learning or supplementing therapy.
Families
Introduction to the Circle of Security – Videos for Parents
These introductory videos offer a simple, compassionate explanation of the Circle of Security approach, helping parents understand children’s emotional needs and attachment patterns. They illustrate how caregivers can provide both a secure base for exploration and a safe haven for comfort, supporting stronger, more connected relationships. It’s an accessible starting point for anyone wanting to nurture secure attachment in everyday parenting.
Hand Model of the Brain — Dr. Dan Siegel
Dr. Dan Siegel’s hand model offers a simple, memorable way to understand how the brain works during stress and emotional overwhelm. By using the hand as a visual metaphor, he explains how the “thinking brain” and “feeling brain” interact — and what happens when we “flip our lid.” It’s an accessible tool for teaching emotional regulation, especially helpful for parents, educators, and anyone learning about the nervous system.
ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences)
This short film introduces the ACEs study, which explores how early adversity affects long‑term health, behaviour, and emotional wellbeing. It’s an accessible overview of how childhood experiences shape adult patterns — and why healing and support matter at every age.
PTMF Threat Responses – Adapted for Young People (PDF)
Based on the Power Threat Meaning Framework, this handout helps young people understand their “threat responses” — the ways their mind and body react to difficult situations. It reframes behaviours with compassion and emphasises meaning, context, and personal strengths.
The Three R’s – Beacon House (Regulate, Relate, Reason)
Based on Dr. Bruce Perry’s work, this resource explains why children need to be regulated and connected before they can learn, think, or problem‑solve. It introduces the simple sequence Regulate → Relate → Reason, showing how calming the nervous system and building relational safety creates the foundation for reflection and learning. A practical guide for anyone supporting children affected by stress or trauma
PBS UK – Positive Behaviour Support Resources
PBS UK provides a wide range of practical, evidence‑based tools for understanding and supporting behaviours that challenge. Their resources help practitioners identify unmet needs, reduce restrictive practices, and create compassionate, person‑centred support plans. It’s a comprehensive hub for anyone working within Positive Behaviour Support frameworks.
Anna Freud – Resources
The Anna Freud Centre’s resources page provides a wide range of free, evidence‑based materials to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people, their families, and the professionals who work with them. Resources are organised by audience and age, including early years, children and young people, parents and carers, and schools. Topics include emotional wellbeing, self‑care, trauma, neurodiversity, learning difficulties, relationships, and accessing support, with many resources co‑produced alongside young people and families.
Gwent Attachment Service – Pyramid of Need (Expanded)
The Gwent Attachment Service’s expanded Pyramid of Need is a trauma‑ and attachment‑informed framework designed to help carers and professionals understand children’s emotional and behavioural needs in context. The model describes stages of need from feeling safe, through relationships and co‑regulation, to reflection, identity, and resilience, alongside examples of what children may show at each stage and how adults can respond. It is commonly used to guide formulation, planning, and prioritisation of support for children who have experienced developmental trauma.
ABC Chart – Humber NHS
The ABC Chart resource from Humber NHS is a practical tool used to record and understand behaviour by focusing on Antecedents (what happens before), Behaviour (what is observed), and Consequences (what happens afterwards). It supports parents and professionals to identify patterns, triggers, and possible functions of behaviour over time, and is often used as part of positive behaviour support and formulation‑based approaches.
Motivation Assessment Scale II (MAS II)
The Motivation Assessment Scale II (MAS‑II) is a structured questionnaire designed to help identify the possible function of behaviours that challenge. It supports caregivers and professionals to consider whether behaviours may be motivated by sensory experiences, escape or avoidance demands, seeking attention, or access to tangible items or activities. The tool is commonly used as part of functional behaviour assessment to inform more targeted and supportive intervention planning.
CAMHS North Derbyshire’s Videos and Webinars
This page offers a range of free, short psycho‑educational videos for parents and carers, developed by Learning Disability CAMHS. The resources cover everyday topics that support children and young people’s wellbeing, including relaxation, anxiety, sleep, positive behaviour support, puberty, siblings, and learning disabilities. The videos are practical, accessible, and designed to be helpful whether or not a child has a formal diagnosis, aiming to build understanding and everyday skills that support emotional wellbeing and quality of life.
BILD Positive Behaviour Support
This video explores the concept of Positive Behaviour Support for people with Learning Disabilities. It examines how anxiety, overwhelm, and unmet needs can drive behaviours that adults may find challenging. It develops the idea that a functional behaviour assessment and a positive behaviour support plan can help reduce the behaviour of concern, and increase quality of life.