Teaching with Care: A Trauma-Informed Approach to Higher Education

Introduction

College students today face unprecedented mental health challenges. Data from the Center for Collegiate Mental Health reveals that nearly half of students who attended counseling services in 2023 reported having experienced trauma. In a University of Alabama at Birmingham survey of over 39,000 students across 332 higher education institutions, college students report Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) diagnoses have more than doubled since the pandemic, jumping from 3.4% to 7.5%. In 2022, the American Psychological Association declared that students across the United States are experiencing a mental health crisis.

These statistics underscore the reality that a large portion of students is struggling with the lingering effects of traumatic experiences. For students to be successful in each course and throughout their collegiate experience, it is necessary for anyone teaching in higher education to understand trauma, its impact on learning, and how educators can respond.

Understanding Trauma in Educational Contexts

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) describes individual trauma as an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that result in physical, emotional, and/or life-threatening harm and has lasting adverse effects on one’s mental, physical, social, emotional, or spiritual wellbeing. However, trauma responses vary significantly from person to person. While some individuals appear to move forward without visible difficulty, others may struggle with lasting impacts that affect daily functioning. Understanding trauma means focusing not on the traumatic events themselves, but on how individuals adapt and cope with their experiences.

These adaptations can directly impact learning. Students who have experienced trauma may struggle with emotional regulation, exhibit heightened vigilance, have difficulty trusting authority figures, experience persistent negative thought patterns, or navigate social interactions in confusing ways. For example, a student who seems disengaged may actually be experiencing hypervigilance, while one who appears defiant might be protecting themselves through established survival mechanisms.

The fundamental principle of trauma-informed education is that students cannot learn effectively when they feel disconnected or psychologically unsafe.

When educators create environments that foster connection and safety, they dramatically improve students’ capacity to learn and succeed.

What Trauma-Informed Teaching Means

Trauma-Informed Teaching and Learning (TITL), also known as Trauma-Informed Pedagogy (TIP), is a holistic approach to education that centers on ensuring individual safety by minimizing the risk of triggering past trauma, creating new traumatic experiences, or causing secondary trauma through exposure to traumatic narratives. Particular fields are more prone to discuss triggering content, including nursing, social work, psychology, criminal justice, history, ethnic studies, women’s and gender studies, literature, film studies, and education. When courses address potentially triggering content, instructors should take deliberate steps to support students. This includes checking in with students after emotionally charged discussions of topics such as violence, discrimination, mental health conditions, self-harm, or suicide; maintaining availability for individual conversations; and providing clear pathways to support resources. Language matters immensely in these contexts, requiring careful attention to avoid pathologizing or victim-blaming attitudes.

However, TITL extends far beyond managing sensitive content. Because educators will most likely not know which students have experienced trauma, trauma-informed pedagogy creates universally accessible learning environments that benefit all students, particularly those navigating precarious or unique circumstances. This proactive approach, similar to Universal Design for Learning, builds support and flexibility from the onset rather than waiting to respond to individual disclosures or crises.

By designing with care and attention to psychological safety, instructors create classrooms where all students can engage fully with learning, regardless of their personal histories.

Why This Approach Matters

Research shows that trauma impacts fundamental learning processes: Exposure can alter how the brain responds to threats and fear which leads to prolonged stress reactions even when no actual danger exists. This neurological impact diminishes students’ abilities to regulate emotions, build trusting relationships, and adapt to academic demands. In practical terms, this might mean a student struggles to focus during a lecture, has difficulty working in groups, or experiences anxiety about making mistakes.

The consequences of trauma extend throughout the college experience and beyond. Students with trauma face increased risks of dropping out, substance use problems, involvement in violence, or suicidal ideation. College represents a crucial developmental period when students are working to develop competence, manage emotions, establish independence, build mature relationships, form identity, discover purpose, and develop integrity. These developmental tasks unfold both inside and outside the classroom. When students navigate trauma without adequate support, their progress through these stages can be significantly disrupted. The encouraging news is that trauma-informed approaches benefit all students, not only those who have experienced trauma, through supportive and flexible learning practices.

Dispelling Misconceptions

Trauma-informed teaching is not about diagnosis or therapy. Educators should never attempt to diagnose students, force disclosure, or provide clinical treatment. Faculty must maintain appropriate boundaries while listening supportively and referring students to campus resources. This approach does not require teaching about trauma, nor does it demand instructors take on roles outside their expertise. It is an approach to course design that overlaps other research-based pedagogical practices. Importantly, trauma-informed teaching does not compromise high academic standards or robust learning objectives.

Six Core Principles for Implementation

The Trauma-Informed Teaching and Learning Principles (Carello, 2020) identifies six foundational principles that can be translated into classroom practices in various ways. Below we offer explanations of those six principles, as well as a number of practices that support your students and signal to them the safe community you are trying to foster for them to learn within.

1. Physical, Emotional, Social, and Academic Safety

Creating safety means establishing an atmosphere of respect, acceptance, and predictability where students feel safe from unexpected harm.

Practical strategies include: providing content warnings for distressing material; using low-stakes formative assessments; ensuring graded assignments mirror practiced activities; minimizing surprises like cold calling; and making yourself available after class for check-ins.

For more guidance on creating psychologically safe spaces when addressing sensitive topics, see our companion article: Creating Safe Spaces for Hot Topics: Successfully Teaching Delicate Issues.

2. Trustworthiness and Transparency

Trust develops when expectations are clear, consistency is maintained, and boundaries are respected.

Practical strategies include: writing clear policies and directions on the syllabus and each assignment; using rubrics for grading; responding to emails consistently; sharing the purpose behind activities; providing class outlines or weekly overviews; establishing clear discussion expectations; creating predictable deadlines or flexible due date policies; and developing classroom culture commitments collaboratively.

3. Support and Connection

Students may need access to resources that support their academic, personal, and professional success. Instructors play a vital role in connecting students to these resources and normalizing requesting assistance.

Practical strategies include: including resource information in the syllabus and discussing it on the first day to set the tone of the supportive environment; announcing campus, cultural, and community events for students to engage with the greater college campus; modeling appealing for support through open discussion and asking questions; and offering “warm handoffs” by asking, “Can I connect you with the writing center?”

4. Collaboration and Community

Trauma can create feelings of powerlessness and isolation. Trauma-informed teaching counters this by sharing power and fostering community, positioning classmates as allies rather than competitors.

Practical strategies include: providing voice and choice through options for group or individual work; encouraging students to do what they physically need to learn (i.e., standing or walking in the back of the room); offering choice in assessments; using grading systems that emphasize growth; involving students in creating policies or assignments; incorporating student-led activities; creating class agreements; conducting mid-term surveys regarding the instructor’s teaching practices; sitting with students rather than always standing; and encouraging students to step out briefly for self-care when needed.

5. Fairness

Students must know their unique experiences and identities are respected, requiring instructor attention to how bias operates.

Practical strategies include: examining how bias and inequity have shaped your discipline and addressing these dynamics explicitly; learning correct pronunciation of names and using preferred pronouns; selecting diverse course materials; and creating space for students to share perspectives without speaking for entire identity groups.

6. Resilience, Growth, and Change

A trauma-informed approach recognizes student strengths and frames feedback optimistically, emphasizing that growth and change are always possible.

Practical strategies include: using formative assessments throughout the semester; allowing multiple drafts; conducting one-on-one conferences; facilitating peer feedback sessions; soliciting course feedback from students; inviting students to reflect on their learning; providing feedback that identifies current achievement while suggesting next-level skills; and going beyond standard evaluations of class content to discussing growth and future directions for students to envision themselves as successful beyond your class.

Conclusion

Trauma-informed teaching shifts instructors’ perspectives from “What’s wrong with this student?” to “What might students have experienced, and how can I create conditions that support learning for all?” This approach acknowledges that today’s college students arrive carrying a wide range of experiences, some leaving lasting marks on their ability to engage academically.

The six principles of safety, trustworthiness, support, collaboration, fairness, and resilience provide a framework for designing courses that recognize student variability while maintaining academic excellence. These principles do not require instructors to become therapists or compromise learning objectives. Instead, they offer a way of thinking about teaching that centers student well-being as inseparable from learning.

As mental health challenges affect increasing numbers of students, trauma-informed teaching moves from a specialized approach to necessary pedagogy. By implementing these principles, educators honor the commitment to an exceptional education by creating learning environments where all students have the opportunity to thrive.

If you are considering making your classroom more accessible for all students, consider these other useful articles from the K. Patricia Cross Academy’s CrossCurrents blog library might help you to get started: