The Importance of Trauma-Informed Practice (TIP) Education and Training Across Canada

December 11, 2025

The Importance of Trauma-Informed Practice (TIP) Education and Training Across Canada

Hugues Hervé & Daniel G. Derksen  

Trauma-Informed Practice (TIP) has become a national priority across policing, child protection, victim services, healthcare, and justice sectors.^{1 2} While the overarching goal of TIP is to reduce harm to trauma survivors and prevent re-traumatization, the responsibilities placed on frontline investigators and interviewers have grown more complex. TIP today is not simply about understanding trauma in theory — it is about using that knowledge in real-world interactions where memory, safety, communication, and credibility often intersect.

This is especially critical in forensic interviewing, where trauma can shape how information is recalled, expressed, or withheld, and where misinterpretation can have life-changing consequences.

Trauma-Informed Practice in a Changing Canadian Landscape

In recent years, Canada has strengthened its commitment to trauma-informed services across systems. The Government of Canada’s 2025 systemic investigation into survivor experiences of sexual violence highlighted a number of persistent challenges within justice and policing responses, including survivors feeling dismissed, misunderstood, or unsafe during reporting and investigative processes.² Trauma-informed approaches — particularly those that improve communication, predictability, and emotional safety — are essential for building survivor trust and reducing systemic barriers to reporting.³

These national findings align with what frontline professionals have long recognized: trauma shapes how people remember events, how they present emotionally and behaviourally, and how they engage with investigators. TIP training must therefore prepare practitioners not only to understand these impacts, but to adapt their interviewing strategies accordingly.

Understanding Trauma’s Impact on Memory and Presentation

TIP education often covers the neurobiological effects of trauma — information that is essential for reducing bias and helping interviewers understand why a survivor’s recall may be fragmented, non-linear, or difficult to express.

This knowledge is foundational. Trauma can affect:

• Attention and memory encoding, leading to gaps in narrative memory reports.^{4 5 6}
  
  
• Retrieval, leading to narratives that are non-linear and difficult to organize.^{7 8 9 10 11 12}
  
  
• Emotion and physiology, leading to various bodily responses such as dissociation, “shutting down”, and/or hyper-arousal (e.g., increased or variable heart rate)^{13 14 15 16 17}
  
  
• Behaviours, leading to lack of emotional expression (flat affect), irritability or anger, laughter, inconsistent recall, or active avoidance.^{18 19 20 21 22 23}
  
  

Unfortunately, neurobiology-only approaches often leave practitioners thinking, “Now I know why this is happening… but what should I actually do?”

Effective TIP training must bridge this gap — supporting both understanding and practical skills that help interviewers create the safest conditions for accurate, reliable disclosure.

A Common Gap: Knowing the Science Isn’t the Same as Knowing How to Interview

Across Canada, TIP requirements vary provincially, territorially, and municipally, yet one challenge remains consistent: forensic interviewers often receive trauma education with insufficient corresponding skill development.

Without mastery of interviewing fundamentals — structure, question types, rapport strategies, and pacing — advanced TIP knowledge and skills can be difficult to apply. In our consultations with police and child protection partners, practitioners frequently report:

• Limited budgets for advanced or specialized training
  
  
• Inconsistent access to peer review or supervision needed to support skill development
  
  
• TIP programs that teach “what trauma does” but not “what interviewers can do differently”
  
  
• Compliance-driven “checklist TIP” rather than integrated interviewing practice
  
  

This gap can inadvertently reinforce uncertainty or misapplication, especially in cases involving sexual violence or vulnerable witnesses.

Provincial and Federal Standards Reflect Increasing Expectations

The RCMP’s The Way Forward II action plan,¹ initiated in response to concerns about unfounded sexual assault classifications and low reporting rates, has established trauma-informed approaches as mandatory for all RCMP members who interact with the public. This reflects a national recognition that TIP is not optional — it is central to ethical and effective policing.

Provincial and municipal requirements mirror this direction. For example:

• British Columbia mandates Trauma-Informed Practice Foundations Curriculum (or approved equivalent) for all front-line officers, supervisors, and Independent Investigations Office investigators, with mandatory TIP updates every three years, at a minimum.²⁴
  
  
• Saskatchewan’s Moose Jaw Police Service requires 40 hours of TIP training for victim services volunteers.²⁵
  
  
• New Brunswick’s Woodstock Police Force has updated sexual-assault investigation policies to ensure trauma-informed and unbiased investigative procedures.²⁶
  
  

As expectations rise, so too does the need for high-quality training that teaches both why trauma matters and how to adapt practice in real investigative contexts.

SPEC: A Practical Framework for Trauma-Informed Interviewing

A distinction of The Forensic Practice’s training approach

Most TIP programs focus heavily on the effects of trauma. Our approach emphasizes the equally critical dimension of what interviewers can do, grounded in the SPEC framework:

• Safety — Create physical, emotional, and procedural safety so the individual does not experience the interview as a threat.
  
  
• Predictability — Reduce uncertainty by explaining what will happen, why it will happen, and how the interview will unfold.
  
  
• Empowerment — Offer meaningful choice and control, supporting agency — especially critical for survivors of interpersonal violence.
  
  
• Compassion — Communicate respect and genuine care, reducing shame and supporting engagement without compromising neutrality.
  
  

SPEC addresses a critical gap in many TIP programs: the bridge between understanding trauma and knowing how to adjust one’s interviewing practice in real time. SPEC turns trauma knowledge into action. It is the foundation of our Trauma-Informed Practices seminar and is applied intensively throughout our 5-day StepWise 360^TM workshop for interviewing trauma survivors.

Our goal is to help agencies and practitioners meet TIP standards while developing the confidence, competence, and ethical interviewing skills required to support trauma survivors effectively.

References

1. Royal Canadian Mounted Police. (2022, May 4). The way forward II – An update on the implementation of the RCMP’s sexual assault review and victim support action plan. Retrieved from https://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/the-way-forward-ii-an-update-the-implementation-the-rcmps-sexual-assault-review-and-victim-support?wbdisable=true
2. The Office of the Federal Ombudsperson for Victims of Crime. (2025). Rethinking justice for survivors of sexual violence: A systemic investigation. Government of Canada. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/ofovc-ofvac/documents/sissa/OFOVC_Rethinking_Justice_Report_20251119
3. Haskell, L., & Randall, M. (2019). The impact of trauma on adult sexual assault victims. Justice Canada. Link to full text: https://soar.on.ca/sites/default/files/documents/Workshop%20%232%20The%20impact%20of%20Trauma%20on%20Adult%20Sexual%20Assault%20Victims%202019.pdf
4. Johnsen, G. E., & Asbjørnsen, A. E. (2008). Consistent impaired verbal memory in PTSD: A meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 111(1), 74–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2008.02.007
5. Petzold, M. B., & Bunzeck, N. (2022). Impaired episodic memory in PTSD patients—A meta-analysis of 47 studies. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13, 909442. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.909442
6. Scott, J. C., Matt, G. E., Wrocklage, K. M., Crnich, C., Jordan, J., Southwick, S. M., Krystal, J. H., & Schweinsburg, B. C. (2015). A quantitative meta-analysis of neurocognitive functioning in posttraumatic stress disorder. Psychological Bulletin, 141(1), 105–140. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038039
7. Bedard-Gilligan, M., & Zoellner, L. A. (2012). Dissociation and memory fragmentation in posttraumatic stress disorder: An evaluation of the dissociative encoding hypothesis. Memory, 20(3), 277–299. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2012.655747
8. Bedard-Gilligan, M., Zoellner, L. A., & Feeny, N. C. (2017). Is trauma memory special? Trauma narrative fragmentation in PTSD: Effects of treatment and response. Clinical Psychological Science, 5(2), 212–225. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702616676581
9. Engelhard, I. M., McNally, R. J., & van Schie, K. (2019). Retrieving and modifying traumatic memories: Recent research relevant to three controversies. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28(1), 91–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721418807728
10. Jelinek, L., Randjbar, S., Seifert, D., Kellner, M., & Moritz, S. (2009). The organization of autobiographical and nonautobiographical memory in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118(2), 288–298. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015633
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12. Davis, D., Hogan, A. A., & Hart, D. J. (2024). Myths of trauma memory: On the oversimplification of effects of attention narrowing under stress. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1294730. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1294730
13. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.)
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15. Ge, F., Yuan, M., Li, Y., & Zhang, W. (2020). Posttraumatic stress disorder and alterations in resting heart rate variability: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychiatry Investigation, 17(1), 9–20. https://doi.org/10.30773/pi.2019.0112
16. Nagpal, M. L., Gleichauf, K., & Ginsberg, J. P. (2013). Meta-analysis of heart rate variability as a psychophysiological indicator of posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Trauma & Treatment, 3(1), 182. https://doi.org/10.4172/2167-1222.1000182
17. Pole, N. (2007). The psychophysiology of posttraumatic stress disorder: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 133(5), 725–746. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.5.725
18. Frewen, P. A., Dozois, D. J., Neufeld, R. W., Lane, R. D., Densmore, M., Stevens, T. K., & Lanius, R. A. (2012). Emotional numbing in posttraumatic stress disorder: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 73(4), 431–436. Retrieved from https://www.psychiatrist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/13267_emotional-numbing-posttraumatic-stress-disorder-functional.pdf
19. Li, G., Wang, L., Cao, C., Fang, R., Chen, C., Qiao, X., Yang, H., Hall, B. J., & Elhai, J. D. (2020). An item-based analysis of PTSD emotional numbing symptoms in disaster-exposed children and adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 48(10), 1303–1311. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-020-00677-w
20. Zhan, N., Li, F., Fung, H. W., Zhang, K., Wang, J., & Geng, F. (2024). A symptom-level perspective on irritability, PTSD, and depression in children and adults. Journal of Affective Disorders, 367, 606–616.
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2024.08.213
21. Keltner, D., & Bonanno, G. A. (1997). A study of laughter and dissociation: Distinct correlates of laughter and smiling during bereavement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(4), 687–702. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.73.4.687
22. van Giezen, A. E., Arensman, E., Spinhoven, P., & Wolters, G. (2005). Consistency of memory for emotionally arousing events: A review of prospective and experimental studies. Clinical Psychology Review, 25(7), 935–953. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2005.04.011
23. Hetzel-Riggin, M. D., & Meads, C. L. (2016). Interrelationships among three avoidant coping styles and their relationship to trauma, peritraumatic distress, and posttraumatic stress disorder. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 204(2), 123–131. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0000000000000434
24. Government of British Columbia. (2025, May 29). Training to enhance service delivery to vulnerable communities. Province of British Columbia. Retrieved from
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25. Moose Jaw Police. (2025). Moose Jaw and district victim’s services.
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26. Woodstock Police. (2025). Sexual assault investigations policy.
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