Domestic abuse and sexual violence are extremely prevalent across the world. As recently as 2022, the Office for National Statistics said that one in five adults will experience domestic abuse at some point in their lives.1Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview: November 2022, ONS, 25 November 2022. SafeLives, a UK charity dedicated to ending domestic abuse, states that ‘85% of victims sought help five times on average from professionals in the year before they got effective help to stop the abuse’.2Getting it right first time, SafeLives, 2015, page 3. This tells us that despite the prevalence and destructive nature of domestic abuse, professionals are not always responding to survivors in a way that actually supports them to end the abuse that they are experiencing. I believe that the causes of this are twofold: first, a lack of professional understanding about domestic abuse, which means that survivors are turned away from services to which they are entitled; and second, not adopting a trauma-informed approach creates a risk of re-traumatisation that alienates survivors and creates significant barriers to meaningful engagement with professionals.

An awareness of trauma and how it manifests is integral to a trauma-informed approach. It is important to understand how trauma impacts survivors and creates obstacles to accessing support. With this understanding, professionals can help survivors overcome these barriers. For example, it is important to know that trauma can impact the brain to severely disrupt cognitive function. Trauma predominantly affects the frontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for executive function, which deals with processes like problem-solving, attention, focus, planning, and memory. This can present professionals with challenges when they require clients to recount details as well as remembering and having the ability to complete tasks. I frequently explain this to professionals when they express frustration at clients’ accounts being ‘inconsistent’, struggling to complete paperwork and other administrative tasks, or generally being forgetful.

The Crown Prosecution Service acknowledges that ‘[i]nconsistencies in accounts, gaps in memory and self-blame are commonplace’.3Pre-trial therapy: legal guidance, CPS, 26 May 2022. Despite this, it is common for professionals to use a survivor’s inability to remember accounts of abuse as reason to doubt the survivor or deny services. A common tactic of abusers is to tell survivors that they will never be believed, or that they are exaggerating or even fabricating their experiences. Professionals disbelieving survivors of abuse causes tremendous harm to those survivors.

Coupled with forgetfulness, trauma also frequently leads to a state of hypervigilance. When we are in fear for our lives, our nervous system is activated, causing us to ‘fight, flight, flop, freeze, or friend’. Hypervigilance occurs when the brain gets locked into ‘survival mode’, meaning the emotions that dominate are anger, fear and panic, even when threats are no longer present. This makes engaging with the legal process extremely challenging, as a survivor may interpret threat where there is none and become reactive. If a survivor needs to leave their home for an appointment, they may remember a previous time when they left the house and were assaulted. This memory can trigger a surge of anxiety, meaning leaving the house for an appointment becomes impossible. Referring to missing appointments, a report published by Against Violence & Abuse said that ‘[n]on-engagement is … seen as a refusal of services, not a common symptom of mental health, trauma and complex needs, when sometimes attending appointments can feel overwhelming and frightening’.4Jumping through hoops: how are coordinated responses to multiple disadvantage meeting the needs of women?, AVA, August 2018, page 5. Rather than responding with frustration or even denying further support as a result, it is helpful to address this directly with survivors and ask if they have identified ways that support them to overcome these difficulties.

Another principle of trauma-informed care is establishing physical and emotional safety. Physical safety is particularly significant when working with survivors of abuse, especially if the abuse is ongoing. If someone is currently at risk, not only is this dangerous for the survivor, but it will often limit their ability to meaningfully engage with professionals. The perpetrator may also try to limit their engagement with professionals, as isolation is a tactic that many abusers employ to maintain control over their victims. If you are working with someone who is being abused currently, I would advise asking them if they have a supportive network, and particularly if they have professional support.

If they do not have an independent domestic violence advocate (IDVA), I would suggest offering this to your client. IDVAs are experts at reducing the risk posed to survivors from perpetrators of domestic abuse. They do this by creating a personalised safety plan with the survivor and advising them of their rights and options. An advocate will offer free and confidential support to a survivor as long as they need or want it. The survivor can be signposted to a local service by calling Refuge’s free 24/7 National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.

IDVAs do not only work with people who are experiencing physical violence. Domestic abuse can include coercive control, psychological abuse, sexual abuse, and financial and economic abuse. Just because a perpetrator has not been violent yet, it does not mean that the survivor is safe. Stalking, rather than physical violence, is the primary indicator of future domestic homicide. Additionally, the risk of serious assault and death is highest when the survivor ends the abusive relationship (Femicide Census 2020), which is when they are most likely to access support from professionals. When the perpetrator feels as though they are losing control over their victim, it often causes an escalation in their behaviour. If your client states that they are afraid, regardless of the type of domestic abuse they are experiencing, please advise them about IDVAs. Expressing concern over a survivor’s physical safety will convey compassion and concern, which will likely improve your overall working relationship.

Establishing emotional safety for the survivor is also important. Domestic abuse is associated with a range of mental health conditions including anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression. PTSD, for example, is experienced by 51–75 per cent of women who have experienced domestic abuse, compared with an average of 10.4 per cent of women in the general population. Adverse mental health can lead to self-harming behaviours or even suicidal ideation and attempts. Part of developing emotional safety is showing concern for this and accommodating survivors when mental health difficulties present challenges for engaging with professionals. While legal professionals are not mental health practitioners, you can use phrases like, ‘That sounds really hard, do you want to speak to someone about that?’, and then provide numbers for helplines like the Samaritans or local crisis teams. Some charities provide free or low-cost counselling or groups, such as Mind, One in Four and SurvivorsUK. While it isn’t a lawyer’s job to sign clients up for counselling, advising clients that these services exist can be helpful and conveys compassion for their situation.

Belittling, minimising or victim-blaming language should be avoided. Any use of this by professionals will automatically create an unsafe emotional environment for the client and alienate them from the service. One would think that professionals who work with survivors would not do this. However, as a professional working in this field, I frequently have to challenge professionals who minimise instances of abuse or even engage in victim blaming. For example, a health professional advised that a patient experiencing ongoing domestic abuse did not need an IDVA because they had smiled in their previous appointment and therefore seemed fine. Other concerning statements made by professionals include, ‘Well she did let him into her home’, ‘If she genuinely fears for her life like she says, she would report to the police’, ‘Did she actually say no to the man she claims raped her?’, ‘He’s a big strong man, surely he could protect himself from someone trying to assault him.’

Experiences of domestic abuse and sexual violence are defined by a lack of power and control. The survivor will likely have had many parts of their life, if not all of them, dictated by the perpetrator. Providing your clients with as much choice as possible, and adopting a collaborative approach to working with them, will result in better engagement and can even aid their recovery. The working dynamic that they have with their lawyer should not be reminiscent of the lack of power and control they had while in an abusive relationship. Professionals should always seek to ensure, where possible, the self-determination of clients over the support that they are receiving. Practically, this can be done by explicitly stating that the client has a right to direct the support that they receive, which includes refusing support, how they answer questions, as well as not answering them at all. At the beginning of appointments or interactions, it is good practice to ask the client how they are, if they feel comfortable to speak today, and remind them that they can take breaks, and can answer questions how they see fit or not at all if it becomes too distressing.

A strength-based approach is also an important hallmark of trauma-informed care. Put simply, a strength-based approach focuses on someone’s strengths. It assumes that survivors themselves are the agents of positive change, and supports them to identify their resilience in the face of adversity. A survivor may say to you, ‘My abuser has left me with nothing. They have destroyed my life and made me feel like nothing.’ You could respond with something like, ‘You have been through so much and have asked for support, which is hard to do, and that is admirable.’ Responding to particular challenges that survivors have had and acknowledging how hard they are trying over these is supportive. For example, if a survivor finds it hard to leave the house because they feel unsafe in the community, highlighting the attempts that they have made to attend appointments could be beneficial.

A strength-based approach can be thought of as reframing negatives into positives. This is also important for supporting a survivor’s confidence. Survivors will likely have been told negative things about themselves repeatedly, and as a result struggle with low self-esteem. A strength-based approach can work to undermine the voice of the abuser, which often lives on in the mind of the survivor for years after the abuse has ceased.

In conclusion, a trauma-informed approach has numerous benefits, including, but not limited to, better engagement from clients, improved relationship between client and professional, as well as exhibiting compassion and sensitivity to the client’s situation.