CITR Colloquium 2026: The Sense of Safety Framework: a trauma informed and healing oriented approach for whole person care

AUT's Centre for Interdisciplinary Trauma Research (CITR) supports and conducts trauma research that contributes to the health and wellbeing of people living in Aotearoa New Zealand. CITR sponsors regular research colloquia.

For more information and to access the event link, see the event listing.

The Centre for Interdisciplinary Trauma Research (CITR) is hosting their 4th Colloquium in 2026. " The Sense of Safety Framework: a trauma informed and healing oriented approach for whole person care” will be presented by CITR Guest speaker Dr Johanna Lynch.

Across the disciplines, there is a growing awareness of the impact of trauma on health. This is enabling a paradigm shift in medicine - towards understanding the far-reaching impacts of life stories, relationships, place, and meaning-making on biology. This welcome shift is changing our understanding of disease formation and our understanding of ways people cope with distress. First wave trauma-informed care shifted attention from what is wrong with you to what happened to you. This attention to the past at times caused pain - as retelling stories without safety can cause harm - to both the clinician and those they care for. This session introduces part of a new strength-based and healing-oriented approach to trauma, developed by an Australian general practitioner psychotherapist. The Sense of Safety Theoretical Framework asks a new question: 'what can build your sense of safety?’ This approach defines whole person domains, sense of safety dynamics, and practitioner skills and attitudes that enable practitioners to attend to shifts in sense of safety in the consultation, across the healing journey, and in their own wellbeing. This internationally acclaimed approach is grounded in robust research, has been endorsed by First Nations academics, and been applied across the disciplines. Attendees are invited to consider the implications for their own practice or research and to dream of a healthcare system that recognises and responds to the imprint of trauma on people’s lives by building their sense of safety in the world.

Associate Professor Johanna Lynch MBBS PhD FRACGP FASPM Grad Cert(Grief and Loss) is Whole Person Care Lead and Deputy GP Lead at New Med Education, working in partnership with Federation University. She is a mentor and retired general practitioner of 25 years. She consults nationally and internationally across the health and domestic violence sectors on strength-based, trauma-informed and whole person approaches to health.

For all queries, contact the organisers: citr@aut.ac.nz.