Decolonizing Trauma-Informed Care: Pathways to Healing Racial Trauma

Marginalized communities, particularly those of color, are traumatized daily through the everyday hegemony of colonialism and white supremacy, yet trauma-informed care has yet to account for or address racial trauma. Through the lens of coloniality and slow violence, the present work reviews racial trauma and trauma-informed care. By decolonizing trauma-informed care, social workers can become better equipped to facilitate healing racial trauma. This work details our Stop, Start, Move framework to decolonize trauma-informed care for healing racial trauma so social workers can stop perpetuating Eurocentric knowledge and pathology, start embracing a holistic perspective and embodiment, and finally, move toward collective liberation and action.