Our Evidence Community and Place-based Care Community teamed up to host an all-day in person event in July on trauma-informed practice and vicarious trauma. This is the first of two blogs exploring insights from our community events on this topic.
We were joined by Dr Tegan Brierley-Sollis, a lecturer in policing, criminology and trauma-informed approaches at Wrexham University.
Tegan explored how supporting people who have experienced trauma can impact social care practitioners:
“Vicarious trauma occurs through a transference of emotional residue from those who have experienced trauma on to those who engage them in an empathic relationship. Imagine your inner world view is like a stained-glass window. Vicarious trauma is when repeated exposure to others' trauma slowly cracks or distorts that glass. It can erode your sense of trust, safety, and meaning - shaping thoughts like ‘I can’t help,’ or ‘The world isn’t safe’.”
As part of the session, we reflected on the importance of a trauma-informed approach and reminded ourselves of the five core values of trauma-informed practice as outlined by Harris and Fallot (2001).
Tegan has worked on a research project with North Wales Police to explore the value of peer-to-peer support to help improve well-being. One participant in the study who took part in regular peer supervision said:
“I know assuredly there will be a space for me to say what I want to say and have that safe space for me to talk it through with someone…so it was a real source of comfort”.
Many social care practitioners who attended our event said they’d like to have a similar focus on peer supervision within their teams. People reacted very positively to the animated film Navigating the storm, which Tegan shared as part of this presentation. Many participants felt it would be a useful resource to share for training purposes within their organisations.
We asked participants to think about potential challenges and any lightbulb moments they’d had during the day. We called these markers ‘anchors’ and ‘lighthouses’. Although an anchor can be used as a positive and grounding symbol, we’ve used it here to refer to things that can hold us back, keep us stuck and stop us moving forward.
Here are some 'anchors' (challenges or barriers) people shared:
Whilst some of these difficulties were discussed during the session, others were more complex.
Some people may find it useful to visit the guide we’ve produced to help support building a positive culture for those who access and deliver social care services: Guide: supporting positive cultures - Social Care Wales - Research, Data & Innovation.
There were many illuminating and positive insights shared. We’ve noted some of our favourite ‘lighthouse’ comments.
One individual commented on their plan to suggest well-being breaks in their workplace and others talked about trying to create more safe spaces that could be used for more open discussions in work.
Ultimately participants acknowledged that if practitioners are better looked after and are more informed on the topics of vicarious trauma and trauma-informed practice, this will translate into better outcomes for the people they support.
If you’re interested in joining a similar event take a look at our regularly updated Events page.
If you want to be a part of one of our fantastic communities, take a look at our Join a community page.
As well as the links we’ve included in this blog, you may find these resources and references useful:
ACE Hub Wales/Traumatic Stress Wales, Trauma-informed Wales framework, available at Trauma-Informed-Wales-Framework.pdf (accessed: 10 September 2025).
Cordis Bright and Taylor-Collins, E. (2024) Trauma-informed approaches: an evidence summary, the Insight Collective, Social Care Wales, available at https://insightcollective.socialcare.wales/evidence-summaries/trauma-informed-approaches (accessed: 10 September 2025).
Harris, M., and Fallot, R. D. (eds.) (2001) Using trauma theory to design service systems, Jossey-Bass/Wiley.
Social Care Wales (2025 ) Your health and well-being, available at https://socialcare.wales/resources-guidance/health-and-well-being-resources (accessed: 10 September 2025).
Community manager
insightcollective@socialcare.walesI look after our Place-based Care Community. My role is to create and nurture a space for people to learn together, connect and support each other. My previous experiences include developing support pathways in the criminal justice and substance misuse systems and project management.
Community manager
insightcollective@socialcare.walesI manage our Evidence Community, which aims to make research and evidence more accessible and bring it to life for busy practitioners.
I’m passionate about making social care research and evidence accessible and easier to use in practice. I’m a qualified social worker and have a background in local authority children’s services. I also spent many years in the third sector working therapeutically with children, focussing on the topics of sexual exploitation, harmful sexual behaviour and developmental trauma.
Just before joining Social Care Wales, I worked for a regional safeguarding board, coordinating adult and child practice reviews and developing their quality assurance strategy.