Since we opened our doors in 1987, RACS has been listening and learning from trauma survivors seeking asylum and the other practitioners and organisations who support them. Over the years, as research and collective understandings about trauma-informed practices has grown, RACS has continued to adapt and reshape itself to provide safety and support for our community and clients. Now we are proud to present our very own toolkit with some of these learnings. We hope this resource will contribute to a larger cultural conversation within the legal sector about best practices moving forward.

Download the RACS Trauma-Informed Legal Practice guide

Awareness of trauma in legal terms

The last 40 years have seen awareness of trauma develop among legal professionals and the judiciary. This has led to the development of a framework of trauma-informed practice. Without such a framework the industry risks “inadvertently increase[ing] the level of trauma that [people] experience”, which can affect both clients and practitioners.

At RACS we live and breathe by the assertion of the Blue Knot Foundation that “there are few areas of legal practice to which trauma-informed principles do not apply”.

“Trauma informed practice means that we work in a way that recognises the impacts that trauma has had on the lives of our clients. We ensure that all of our practitioners and staff are aware of the unique needs of those who have experienced trauma, and that they are empowered with the skills and training required to support them.”

– RACS Toolkit

We apply the learnings highlighted in our guide across every department at RACS, we incorporate it into our partnerships, and our staff also take home with us the practices of care necessary to protect ourselves from vicarious trauma.

For this blog series however, we’ll explore how a trauma-informed approach applies to Women at Risk, people held in immigration detention, and LGBTQI+ individuals seeking asylum. Our goal is to demonstrate how these principles and practices can be adapted for different contexts and why they are so necessary.

Women at Risk: the origins of RACS’s toolkit

RACS’s Women at Risk program was established in 2019 in “recognition of women seeking protection in Australia”. Led by an all-female team of lawyers and support staff, this program supports people who identify as female who have experienced or are at risk of gender-based, sexual, or domestic violence.

“We’re really pleased to partner with RACS, supporting women seeking asylum in Australia with access to both legal assistance and the wraparound care they need. Their Women at Risk initiative helps women facing gender-based violence to navigate their legal challenges with confidence and dignity.”

- Candice Van Doosselaere, Head of Australia Programs for the Judith Neilson Foundation

RACS Women at Risk Team Lead Nabilah Reza (fourth from left, front row) and RACS Centre Director and Principal Solicitor Sarah Dale (third from right, back row) at the Judith Neilson Foundation

The need for more trauma-informed programs like this is clear. A landmark national report from Monash University in 2021 on migrant and refugee women in Australia estimated that one third experience violence from a partner. Temporary visa holders were especially vulnerable, not only reporting higher levels of family and domestic violence, but also suffering higher rates of “migration-related abuse and threats (such as threats to be deported or separated from their children)”.

A July 2024 report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found 1 in 8 people seeking asylum in Australia receive specialist housing support. 3 in 5 of these are women, with domestic violence being the most common cause of housing vulnerability. The same report found that people seeking asylum were six times more likely to face hospital admission due to assault.

A 2022 report, formed in collaboration with The University of Melbourne, found that up to 70% of women and children seeking asylum experience sexual and gender-based violence.

“Half of them were women and girls who were at risk of physical harm including broken bones, burns and scarring, forced pregnancy and rape as well as psychological trauma and thoughts of suicide and self-harm,” Dr Karen Block, the report’s co-author noted.

Unfortunately, the report found that the violence did not end when women seeking asylum reached Australia. Instead, many of these women are subjected to further psychological trauma through the process, as well as a higher risk of intimate partner violence.

How the legal system fails women at risk: RACS testimonies

In June of 2024 RACS lawyers Nabilah Reza (Senior Solicitor Team Lead - Women at Risk) and Isobel McGarity (Supervising Senior Solicitor) compiled many of our clients’ and staff members’ experiences in a report titled Justice Responses to Sexual Violence. Part of being a trauma-informed practice at RACS means listening to the survivors we work with and using our structural and social capital to advocate for their right to not be further harmed by the legal system.

Women at Risk Team Lead Nabilah Reza presenting at the JRS Australia Finding Safety Insights Forum

As lawyers, we are often tasked with producing evidence of the harm our clients experience. However, for many of these women, they are afraid to contact the police due to a fear and distrust of authority figures, as well as anxieties over possible repercussions for either their own visa or their children’s. In many cases these fears are well founded, with many of our clients facing significant consequences for reporting assault in the immigration framework.

Some have even been misidentified as perpetrators by the police due to language and cultural barriers. This reversal of victim order has led to grave consequences for some of RACS clients, including criminal charges and subsequent visa cancellations.

For our clients - many of whom face language barriers, have been deprived of formal education, and otherwise experience structural and social racism and discrimination - the right to a trauma-informed interpreter could not be more vital in accessing justice. However, despite this need RACS has encountered cases where police did not use an interpreter due to time concerns. We have also often encountered police and other front-line services depending on family members for interpretations. This puts clients in an uncomfortable position that could prevent them from providing full testimony. It also raises further concerns about confidentiality.

“A culturally safe environment is one that recognises power imbalances between the organisation, mainstream workers, culturally diverse workers, and service users - and seeks to address these imbalances.”

- RACS Toolkit

Trauma-informed responses for women at risk

Being informed about the many short-falls and triggers present in the legal system for our clients is one of the best ways that we can support them. RACS is often the first place our clients have felt safe enough to disclose what happened to them. How our clients experience us through this disclosure can have a tremendous impact on the work we are able to do with them, as well as how comfortable they feel when navigating other aspects of the legal system. McGarity notes that when working with trauma survivors, “You need to develop a rapport or trust because you’re asking them to tell you incredibly personal stories straight off the bat.”

Often the biggest fear for our clients is that their disclosure will be ignored, dismissed, or denied. The fear of not being believed, or worse, that their disclosure will lead to serious consequences, can be debilitating. Because of this we use a person-centred approach: we wrap around our clients and invite them in as collaborators. Our clients are the experts in their own lives, and our mission is to support their own self-determination.

This means that when we collect evidence from them, we avoid using phrases such as “the Department need”, “because you’re a victim of family violence”, or “you have to”. For many women who have experienced violence, it is easy for rigid, demanding, or controlling language to be retraumatising or remind them of their perpetrator(s). Instead, we would say “we’ll work together on this”, “one step at a time”, or “do you think you can do that?”.

A trauma-informed approach is also about looking inward, and understanding how you yourself may be affected by the process.

“Some client stories are harder, and women who have had a number of sexual assault claims bother me more than other stories… These aren’t faceless clients – they’re human beings that have laid it all out before you.”

– Isobel McGarity, RACS Supervising Senior Solicitor

Looking ahead

At RACS we are hopeful that our toolkit and work on trauma-informed legal practice can be shared and used to improve the sector. We don’t believe that change can only come from the top down. Any point of connection or safety can be life changing for a survivor, particularly when navigating isolating and alienating legal processes.

However, we are also motivated to honour the testimonies of our clients by continuing to advocate for improvements within immigration law, policy, and institutions. In doing so we hope to break cycles of structural harm and reduce, rather than exacerbate, trauma for those seeking asylum in Australia.

Whilst our trauma-informed guide is intended for all legal practitioners and is applicable across many departments within law, our Women At Risk team is also currently working on their own best practices toolkit. They remain committed to continuously improving the wraparound services offered to women going through the protection visa process, and regularly engage with welfare organisations, support workers, and other partners in this space to ensure the provision of a holistic service for clients.

Want to learn more about how to engage sensitively with people who have experienced trauma? Download the RACS guide to trauma-informed legal practice here.