The TRUST Framework: Creating Truly Safe, Trauma-Informed Spaces

This framework is free to use in community, education, care and support settings.

Please credit Deborah J Crozier & A Positive Start CIC when sharing or delivering.

Many spaces say they are trauma-informed because they use gentle language, display wellbeing posters, or follow safeguarding procedures. But a trauma-informed environment is not created through policy or terminology.

It is created through presence.

Trauma-informed practice is felt — in the nervous system — before it is understood in the mind.

It is relational, embodied, and based in how we show up, not in what we say.

This is the foundation of the TRUST Framework, developed through lived experience, practice, relational repair, nervous system science, and person-centred values.

It is a way of being with people.

At A Positive Start CIC, we understand trauma-informed support as relational, embodied, and grounded in presence.

It cannot be rushed.

It cannot be forced.

It cannot be faked.

Safety is not stated.

It is felt.

This is why we use the TRUST Framework — a relational model for creating spaces where people feel grounded, emotionally safe, seen, and held.

The TRUST Framework

Letter	Meaning
T – Trigger Recognition	Noticing signs of activation in ourselves or others.
R- Reassurance	Offering steady, grounded co-regulation when emotions rise.
U- Understanding	Exploring with curiosity rather than judgement or analysis.
S – Safety	Creating a space where the nervous system can soften, pause, and breathe.
T- Truth	Congruence: our tone, words, pace, and presence align.

We do not apply TRUST — we embody it.

Tick-Box Trauma-Informed vs Authentic Trauma-Informed

Many spaces now use the language of trauma-informed practice — but language is not enough.

Tick-Box Trauma-Informed Sounds Like:

“We are trauma aware.”
“This is a safe space.”
“We understand.”

But the body feels:

Pressure
Performance
Emotional hurry
The sense that your feelings have a time limit

Words without presence do not create safety.

Authentic Trauma-Informed Practice Feels Like:

Slowness
Softening
Permission to pause
No pressure to speak
A steady nervous system you can lean into

Most people can feel the difference immediately, even if they cannot explain why.

This is Neuroception — the nervous system constantly scanning:

“Am I safe here?”

“Is this person safe?”

“Can I soften?”

Safety is felt first.

Understanding comes later.

We are energy before language.

Safety and truth are experienced first in the body, not in the mind.

We may smile politely in response to someone’s words,

but the nervous system recognises when the emotional tone does not match the language.

We feel congruence.

And we feel when something is out of alignment.

The body is always telling the truth — long before the mind knows how to articulate it.

If we are unaware of our own nervous system state as practitioners, therapists, or facilitators, we may genuinely believe we are offering safety, empathy, and presence — while our tone, body language, or energy communicates something very different.

A dysregulated or defended nervous system can say all the right things yet still transmit unease.

When we are not connected to ourselves, others cannot feel fully safe connecting to us.

This is often why a person may appear calm, kind, or professional — yet something still doesn’t feel right.

It isn’t about fault or intention.

It’s about regulation, awareness, and congruence.

The nervous system reads authenticity faster than words.

This is why self-awareness and regulation are at the heart of trauma-informed practice —

because the body knows whether safety is genuine.

When Trauma Leaves Us Unanchored

For those who live with Post Traumatic Stress or complex trauma:

The body may feel unsafe even when nothing is wrong.
The world may feel unpredictable.
The self may feel distant.

It can feel like:

being adrift at sea without a raft, without land, without a horizon.

In those moments, asking someone to “self-regulate” is not only unrealistic — it is unkind.

This is where Co-Regulation Matters

We lend our calm.

They borrow our safety.

The body remembers through us.

We do not regulate others by instruction.

We regulate others by presence.

This is why how we are inside ourselves matters more than anything we do externally.

Rebuilding Trust — Slowly, Gently, Over Time

Trauma interrupts trust:

Trust in others
Trust in the world
Trust in oneself

Trust is not restored by being told it is safe.

It is restored by experiencing safety, again and again, in small, repeated, dependable ways.

There was once a guiding principle in youth rehabilitation that young people would learn emotional regulation, dignity, and citizenship through consistent contact with attuned, respectful adults modelling regulation and relational repair.

Where that principle was practiced with compassion and presence, young people gained something invaluable:

A nervous system shaped by gentle, stable co-regulation.

We learn safety inside safe relationship.

Honouring Worth — Our Own and Others’

Trauma often teaches a person:

to apologise for existing
to quiet their needs
to believe they are “too much”
to shrink themselves to take up less space

A trauma-informed space restores:

dignity
permission
presence
voice

Honouring worth means:

Your feelings make sense.
Your needs are valid.
You do not have to earn belonging.

And equally:

We honour our own worth by being boundaried, steady, and human — not self-sacrificing.

No one has to disappear for another to be held.

Person-Centred Foundations: The CUE Principles

TRUST is rooted in Carl Rogers’ Person-Centred Approach, based on the three core relational conditions required for growth:

Principle	Meaning	Why It Matters in Trauma-Informed Work
C -Congruence	Being real, honest, and present	The nervous system recognises authenticity before words
U-Unconditional Positive Regard	Valuing the persons inherent worth	Worth is often the deepest injury trauma leaves behind
E -Empathic Understanding	Understanding experience from inside the person’s world	Trauma is not healed through explanation, but through being felt with

These are not skills — they are ways of being.

When CUE is present:

The breath deepens.

The body softens.

The self returns.

This is Safety.

This is Truth.

This is TRUST.

Remember;

Without truth – there can be not trust,

Without trust – there can be no emotional safety,

Without safety – healing doesn’t happen.

Free Resource: Trauma Informed TRUST Framework
Download at:

https://apositivestart.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Free-Resource-Trauma-Informed-TRUST-Frameworkpdf.pdf

Facilitator Preparation: Begin With Yourself

Before holding others, ask:

Am I grounded?
Do I have space inside myself today?
Can I allow silence?
Can I stay present if emotion rises?

If not — we pause.

Regulation comes before facilitation.

Free Resource: TRUST Facilitator Worksheets

Download at:

https://apositivestart.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/TRUST-Facilitator-worksheets-pdf.pdf

A Closing Word

Trauma-informed practice is not about knowing the right language.

It is about offering the right presence.

When we slow down, remain steady, and hold truth gently —

the nervous system finds safety

the self comes home

and healing becomes possible.

This is TRUST.

This is relational care.

This is trauma-informed practice at its core.

With warmth, steadiness, and compassion 🙏