Design practice that helps not harms

[NB Due to requests from overseas participants, I am re-running this course at https://events.humanitix.com/trauma-informed-design-research-4]

Trauma is common within society at large and is particularly prevalent amongst vulnerable populations, First Nations peoples and people with Lived Experience of mental health issues. Trauma informed practice is a strengths-based framework that supports responsiveness to the impact of trauma, enabling physical, psychological, and emotional safety for both providers and survivors.

Jax Wechsler, as part of her human-centred design practice, often conducts research with people who have lived experience of trauma. She strongly felt that she needed to become more trauma informed in her design practice and completed a Certificate in Trauma Informed Care so that she can conduct her Design Research, Service Design and Co-design practice in a way that helps not harms.

In this class you will learn about the five guiding principles of trauma informed practice; safety, choice, collaboration, trustworthiness and empowerment and learn how to apply them within design contexts. You will learn some mindsets and practices you can apply within your own practice when working with people who may have experienced trauma. Together we will reflect on how we can make our practice more trauma-informed. Join the conversation!

About Jax Wechsler

Jax Wechsler is a strategic designer and change maker based in Sydney Australia. She has over 15 years design related experience and is passionate about systems change and enabling better futures for people and the planet. Jax has a Masters by Research in Design (UTS) and her academic research explores the enabling and mediatory roles of design artefacts for organisational transformation.

Jax consults as Sticky Design Studio where she draws on multiple influences in her practice such as Human-centred Design, Systems Thinking, Futures Thinking and Community Development approaches. Professionally, Jax is passionate about change doing, learning and capability building or sharing. She teaches and mentors people interested in social design and change practices, and has founded two communities of practice, Social Design Sydney in 2013 and more recently the Systems Change Salon aimed at supporting change makers to do social and systems change work. Learn more about Jax’s projects and publications at jaxwechsler.com or on LinkedIn.