Trauma Informed Practice

Trauma Informed Practice frameworks have been an established methodology in disciplines such as medicine and journalism for many years. The archival sector has also recognised the need for Trauma Informed Practice frameworks to support staff whose role may require them to read and describe distressing content, and to liaise with clients who may be the subjects of records.

This page aims to provide links to resources, training, tools and articles which have been used in the implementation of Trauma Informed Practice at Archives & Special Collections. Please note that external content is not approved or endorsed by the University of Melbourne.

Immediate Needs Support

Training course

PROQOL Wellbeing Survey

Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) is intended for any helper - health care professionals, social service workers, teachers, attorneys, emergency response, etc. Understanding the positive and negative aspects of helping those who experience trauma and suffering can improve your ability to help  them and your ability to keep your own balance. You can add your data to the international data set or delete at the end of your session.

The free ProQOL (5.0) Self-Score Measure asks 30 questions and provides a self score (and its relation to High, Mid or Low ranges) in the following categories:

  • Compassion Satisfaction
  • Burnout
  • Secondary Traumatic Stress

Extensive resources are available for individuals and supervisors, including:

  • Core Concept - Handouts: Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, Compassion Satisfaction, Moral Distress, Perceived Support, Secondary Traumatic Stress.
  • Fundamental Skills for Self Care - Handouts: Better Sleep, Boundaries, Breathing, Intentional Focus

Articles and Presentations

  • Battley 2023, Brining our organisation onboard an inadvertent case study. Presentation at Trauma Informed Practice (New Zealand) - Community of Practice, Feb 2023
  • Caswell & Cifor 2016, From Human Rights to Feminist: Radical Empathy in the Archives
  • Charles A et al. 2022, Typology of content warnings and trigger warnings: Systematic review
  • Douglas et al 2022, These are not just pieces of paper: Acknowledging grief and other emotions in pursuit of person-centered archives
  • Huebner & Marr 2019, Between Policy and Practice Archival Descriptions Digital Returns and a Place for Coalescing Narratives
  • Laurent & Wright 2020, A trauma informed approach to managing archives: A new online course 
  • Laurent & Wright 2023, ICA Trauma and Archives Survey 
  • Mayhew 2023, Summit Series: A Vicarious Trauma Guide
  • Mathieson 2023, A Trauma-Informed Approach to Archives [at Amnesty International Archives]
  • Regehr et al 2022, Humans and records are entangled: Empathic engagement and emotional response in archives 
  • Sentence n.d., Racist Material in Archival Collections: How to Provide Access Without Causing Harm 
  • Thorpe n.d., The dangers of libraries and archives for Indigenous Australian workers: Investigating the question of Indigenous cultural safety 
  • Tropea & Ward 2021, Fierce-Compassion and Reflexivity Transforming Practice at the UMA 
  • Weintraub 2018, Haunted by History: How the sufferings of one generation are passed on the next 
  • Wright & Laurent 2021, Safety, Collaboration, and Empowerment: Trauma-Informed Archival Practice
  • Wood et al 2014, Mobilizing records reframing archival description to support human rights 
  • Seo, ‘‘We are all unwell’: a scholar’s radical approach to health’, The Guardian, March 2024