This is exactly the question that I have been exploring for the past almost two years and there is lots of nuance to it. In other words I don’t know I can answer that well enough in really short format! In previous writing though I have talked about the goal of trauma-informed legal practice as essentially being to support lawyers (or others working within legal frameworks) to better understand how trauma may impact upon the people and contexts they are working within and learn strategies to ameliorate those impacts. I also personally really like this description from a Trauma Informed Care Glossary developed by the Los Angeles Department of Public Health which discusses trauma informed care as an opportunity for “…a renewed commitment to curiosity and empathy for another person’s life experiences.”
Whenever we think about trauma I think we have to take care not to over-generalise, because every person has their own story in terms of how trauma might impact them (or not) and it may also be different day to day. In general terms though, we know that trauma can have a range of impacts, physically, mentally, and more generally on the way people are able to engage with and process the world around them. Examples of the impacts trauma can have include difficulty processing information, emotional dysregulation, hyper vigilance and dissociation. When you think about these types of impacts, you can immediately see the relevance to legal work - when lawyers work with people, we are asking a lot of them – navigating a foreign process, sharing sensitive information and making big decisions and adding trauma to that mix can make things much more challenging.
I don’t think there is any clash between our obligations and the principles behind trauma informed practice, in fact I’d argue that part of competent lawyering is understanding trauma. We do however have to be very clear with our boundaries – being a trauma informed lawyer is not about being a therapist, and we need to understand and establish those boundaries in a kind and effective way.
For me there is a direct and important correlation. While every person’s story is different, these are the exact types of experiences that can cause trauma for those involved and often have long term impacts. What we do next in the workplace and in legal processes can also exacerbate that trauma and this is where applying a trauma informed approach can help. Trauma informed approaches can also help with understanding why people may be behaving or communicating in certain ways – and all of that matters, particularly in bullying and harassment contexts.
Holly explores these issues further in the programme Navigating Bullying and Sexual Harassment Allegations in the Workplace. on Wednesday, 17 June 2026.
Holly Hedley, Consultant, Dawn Legal
Holly is an experienced lawyer who has recently moved to sole practice after more than a decade at one of New Zealand's largest firms. Holly’s particular expertise sits at the intersection of health, employment, privacy and human rights. She works in the investigation space in both employment and health contexts and also has significant experience in the Coronial jurisdiction. Holly is currently the recipient of a Borrin Foundation Women Leaders in Law Fellowship, through which she is working on a project exploring trauma informed legal practice for Aoteroa. Holly is the Convenor of the NZLS Health and Disability Law Committe, has a Masters in Global Health Law (Georgetown USA) and is a previous NZLS Ethel Benjamin and Pegasus Scholar.