Most people don’t think about trauma-informed care until they need it. Laura Sinko does every day.

A faculty member in Temple University’s Barnett College of Public Health and an active clinician, Sinko spends her time thinking about what it really looks like to support people after harm, and what systems can do better the first time around.

“Most of my work is research,” she said, “but I also work as a sexual assault nurse examiner at the Sexual Assault Center in Philadelphia.” In addition, she serves as a restorative justice practitioner at WOAR, Philadelphia’s center against sexual violence.

“It’s a mix of direct clinical care with survivors of sexual violence and domestic violence,” Sinko said, “as well as hosting restorative circles focused on repair.”

That blend of research and practice shaped her recent Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) commentary on extending trauma-informed care. For Sinko, it begins with a simple but powerful shift in mindset.

“When someone’s acting a certain way toward you, how do you shift your perspective from, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ to, ‘What’s happened to you?’” she posed. “That is the first step.”

But, she added, it can’t stop there. “As we’ve moved further along, we’ve recognized not only what happened to you, but also, how am I—and the systems I’m a part of—reenacting those traumatizing dynamics?”

That broader lens leads to a simple idea: survivors deserve personalized support without judgment.

“Every survivor might want something a little bit different,” she noted. And Sinko is direct about how stigma can keep people from seeking help. “There’s definitely still a lot of victim blaming,” she said. “The more people hear about those kinds of situations, the harder it is for them to seek help because they might not feel like they deserve it.”

At Temple, she brings that same lens into the classroom. “My goal is to make my class feel trauma informed,” she said. “That means providing choices and creating a space where you can speak your first draft. It doesn’t have to come out perfect.”

In the end, trauma-informed care is not just a framework. It’s a way of showing up.

“Anyone can experience trauma,” Sinko said. “If I’m always trying to act in a trauma-informed way, the best I can, it makes environments easier to learn and encourages individuals to be more honest and authentic.”

If you or someone you know is looking for survivor-centered counseling or support, reach out to Temple’s Tuttleman Counseling Services or WOAR. To learn more about survivor advocacy and storytelling, visit Our Wave, the nonprofit founded by Sinko.