I have recently been having lots of conversations with colleagues across different organisations about trauma-informed research. As these discussions have gone on, I've learned that these practitioners all have a story to tell about experiencing research that was potentially traumatising for themselves as the facilitator, or re-traumatising for the participant involved. Personally, I have similar experiences too.

My hypothesis is that these experiences are more common than we think, and that more should be done to equip researchers and designers for these scenarios.

I also get the sense that practitioners sometimes experience shame over these experiences, saying things like "I really should have been better prepared, I didn't realise that was going to happen". I hope in sharing our stories, we can realise that this isn't an individual failing but something which needs more system-level intervention. I also hope to raise awareness of the concepts and definitions of 'trauma-informed research and design' among participants of this survey.

You are invited to take part if you have prior experience of researching or designing services or products with users. This can be in any setting or sector. You do not have to be the person who was leading the research. I am also interested in your experience if you have been an observer or a facilitator.

There are five yes/no questions

There are two open questions which give you the chance to share experiences

All questions are optional

The data collected here is anonymous. If you select to give me your name and contact details for follow-up, I will still keep any information you share completely anonymous. If you do include any identifying details within your answers (for example the name of an employer or a project), I will redact these in any outputs I produce. Feel free to obscure details yourself in your responses, for example saying "in a project for a public sector organisation" or "whilst working for a large bank".

You can also withdraw your answers at any time. Contact me on katherine.every@gmail.com and I will delete your responses.                                                                                                                     

At the end of the survey you'll get the chance to share details so that I can follow up with you. This is totally optional. I will analyse the survey data and produce a blog post via Medium, and share insights via LinkedIn and the Ethical Design Network slack. If you want to remain anonymous but would be interested in seeing outputs from this survey, that's where you'll be able to find them.

I am also hoping to use some of the anonymised stories as part of a workshop I'll be running on 'trauma-informed research'. If you are not comfortable with your stories being used in this way, but still wish to participate, please let me know at the end of the survey.

This survey will ask you questions about difficult experiences in research settings. There is a risk that these could activate trauma for you as you participate. Be sure to take care of yourself, and exit the survey if you need to.