In our work mentoring people with experience of the criminal justice system, we often see the deep imprint trauma leaves on lives. Many of the men and women we support have not only lived through traumatic events, they’ve been shaped by them. Understanding trauma and how it affects behaviour is not just a helpful tool for those working in rehabilitation; it is an essential starting point for anyone who wants to support meaningful, long-term change.

What Is Trauma?

Trauma can be defined as a psychological response to a deeply distressing or disturbing experience. While often associated with events like violence, abuse, or sudden loss, trauma also includes experiences of neglect, chronic poverty, racism, unstable housing, or parental substance misuse. Crucially, trauma is not only about what happened, but how a person makes sense of it, especially when they are left unsupported or without adequate resources to cope.

Many of the people we mentor have experienced trauma early in life, often referred to as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). These can include physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, neglect, domestic violence, or growing up with a parent who has mental illness or substance dependency. Research has shown that the higher the number of ACEs, the more likely someone is to face challenges such as poor mental health, substance misuse, and involvement in the criminal justice system later in life.

Trauma and the Brain

One of the most important insights from neuroscience in recent years is how trauma affects the brain, particularly the areas responsible for threat detection, emotional regulation, and decision-making.

When a person experiences trauma, especially repeatedly or during childhood, their nervous system can become chronically activated. The brain becomes wired to detect danger even when none is present, and the stress response system (fight, flight, or freeze) may become stuck in overdrive. This can lead to:

• Hypervigilance (constantly on edge or suspicious of others)
• Impulsivity or aggression
• Emotional numbness or detachment
• Difficulty trusting others or forming healthy relationships
• Challenges with focus, memory, and planning

In the context of offending behaviour, these adaptations can be misunderstood. A young man who responds with aggression when asked a simple question might not be ‘anti-social’ or ‘disrespectful’, he might be responding from a nervous system that learned early on that the world is unsafe and unpredictable.

Trauma is Often Hidden

One of the most challenging aspects of trauma is that it is often invisible. People don’t always recognise their own experiences as traumatic, particularly if they’ve grown up in environments where abuse or neglect was normalised. Moreover, many of those affected have never been given the language or space to talk about what they’ve been through.

In our work, we often hear things like:

“That’s just how it was.”

“I never thought about it like that before.”

“I didn’t realise that was abuse.”

Helping people name and make sense of their experiences is the first step in the healing process. This can only happen when we create environments of safety, respect, and non-judgement, core principles here at The Reasons Why Foundation.

How Trauma Shapes Behaviour

When people feel unsafe, emotionally, physically, or psychologically, they will adapt in whatever way they can to survive. Sometimes that survival looks like substance abuse to numb pain. Sometimes it looks like joining a gang to find belonging. Sometimes it means pushing people away because trusting others has always led to being hurt.

What may look like "bad behaviour" is often better understood as "adaptive behaviour", strategies developed in response to trauma that may have once protected someone but are now holding them back. A trauma-informed approach doesn’t excuse harmful behaviour, but it does seek to understand its roots so that we can support real change.

The Role of Mentoring

Mentoring, when grounded in a trauma-informed approach, can be a powerful tool for healing and rehabilitation. It offers a consistent, non-judgemental relationship, often the first of its kind, where a person can be seen, heard, and valued.

Here’s how mentoring can help:

• Co-regulation: Through a calm, attuned relationship, mentors can help individuals regulate their emotional responses, which in turn supports better decision-making.
• Modelling healthy relationships: Many people with histories of trauma have never experienced relationships based on trust, boundaries, and care. A mentor can model these qualities in real time.
• Building self-awareness: Reflective conversations help individuals connect their feelings, thoughts, and actions, a crucial step in making different choices.
• Rebuilding identity: Mentoring supports individuals in exploring who they are beyond their offending past, often for the first time. It helps restore a sense of self-worth and possibility.
• Practical support: From helping with housing and employment to navigating services, mentors offer tangible help that reduces stress and creates stability, essential for trauma recovery.

Creating Informed Communities

Trauma does not occur in isolation, and neither does healing. While individual mentoring is powerful, we believe in creating wider communities of understanding. This means:

• Training staff and volunteers to recognise trauma responses
• Embedding safety, choice, and empowerment into all interactions
• Avoiding retraumatisation (e.g., using shame or power-based tactics)
• Prioritising cultural humility and understanding how trauma intersects with issues like racism, poverty, and discrimination

When services take a trauma-informed approach, people feel safer to engage. They are more likely to stay in programmes, build trust, and take the risks necessary to change. Most importantly, they are treated with dignity, not as problems to be fixed, but as people with potential to be realised.

Final Thoughts

Understanding trauma changes how we see everything, from behaviour to potential, from risk to relationship. It invites us to meet people not where we wish they were, but where they actually are. For those who’ve been through the criminal justice system, this shift in perspective is not just helpful, it’s transformative.

It’s not a question of “What’s wrong with you?” Rather, “What happened to you?” and “What do you need now?” That difference is everything.