Foundations of Trauma & Trauma-Informed Care: Understanding Harm, Healing, and Resilience

This foundational training offers participants a grounding in the core principles of trauma and trauma-informed care. We’ll explore what trauma is, how it shows up in people’s lives and bodies, and the profound ways it can shape behavior, relationships, and access to services. Participants will gain insight into the different types of trauma, including acute, chronic, and complex trauma, and how adverse experiences across the lifespan can impact survivors.

In addition to understanding individual trauma, the training will explore the broader context of systemic and collective trauma—including racism, poverty, ableism, and other forms of structural harm. Together, we’ll examine how systems that are meant to offer support can instead perpetuate trauma, particularly for historically marginalized communities.

Throughout the session, we will center the importance of resilience—both individual and collective—as a powerful counter to trauma. Participants will leave with practical strategies to apply trauma-informed principles in their work and with a deeper appreciation for the role of trust, safety, and empowerment in supporting healing.

This training is ideal for advocates, service providers, and organizational leaders who are newer to trauma-informed approaches or looking to revisit the fundamentals through an equity-centered lens.

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Speaker

Robyn C. Sordelett is the Survivor Center Director at the Prosecutors Alliance and a nationally recognized speaker on sustainable advocacy and survivor-centered best practices. A clinical social worker by training and a 2026 Office of the Virginia Attorney General Unsung Hero Award winner, she has built her career across the criminal justice system, community-based organizations, and policy spaces, always centering trauma, resilience, and systemic change. At the Prosecutors Alliance, she leads efforts to center survivors in conversations about justice and reform while supporting victim advocates’ psychological and emotional well-being, exploring vicarious trauma, burnout, and the conditions that foster resilience and shared power. A frequent national presenter, Robyn is regularly consulted on organizational wellness and trauma-responsive advocacy, with a core focus on reconnecting justice workers with the purpose that brought them to the field. She is also deeply interested in work that advances collaborative, trauma-responsive approaches to domestic and sexual violence and innovative responses to gender-based violence beyond traditional systems. Robyn was appointed by Governor Abigail Spanberger to the Criminal Justice Services Board in 2026, serves on the National Organization for Victim Advocacy’s Public Policy Committee, and stays up far too late reading mystery novels. Robyn holds a B.A. in English and Sociology from the University of Richmond and an M.S.W. from the University of Southern California.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​