This guide was created by the National Center on Trauma-Informed Care as a technical assistance document to help make trauma-informed peer support available to women who receive or have received services in behavioral health or other human service systems. It is designed as a resource for peer supporters in these or other settings who want to learn how to integrate trauma-informed principles into their relationships with the women they support or into the peer support groups of which they are members. The goal is to provide peer supporters both male and female with the understanding, tools, and resources needed to engage in culturally responsive, trauma-informed peer support relationships with women.

The guide can be downloaded as a single file (8MB) or chapter by chapter through the links below.

Engaging Women in Trauma-Informed Peer Support

(Entire Document) (PDF, 9.60 MB)

• Front cover
• Acknowledgements and Introduction (PDF, 667 KB)
• Chapter 1. Introduction to Trauma and Trauma-Informed Practices (PDF, 983 KB)
• Chapter 2. Am I a Trauma Survivor? (PDF, 2.35 MB)
• Chapter 3. Peer Support Fundamentals (PDF, 912 KB)
• Chapter 4. Gender Politics and the Criminalization of Women (PDF, 987 KB)
• Chapter 5. Culture and Trauma (PDF, 1004 KB)
• Chapter 6. Religion, Spirituality, and Trauma (PDF, 1023 KB)
• Chapter 7. Trauma-Informed Peer Support Across the Lifespan (PDF, 1.01 MB)
• Chapter 8. Trauma and Peer Support Relationships (PDF, 1.01 MB)
• Chapter 9. Self-Awareness and Self-Care (PDF, 1.00 MB)
• Chapter 10. Organizational Context: Working in Systems (PDF, 9.60 MB)
• Chapter 11. Trauma-Informed Storytelling and Other Healing Practices (PDF, 937 KB)
• Chapter 12. Self-Inflicted Violence and Peer Support (PDF, 1.34 MB)
• Chapter 13. Reclaiming Power Through Social Action (PDF, 905 KB)
• Back cover (PDF, 3.10 MB)