Trauma-informed refers to a focus on the social and environmental implications of an individual, instead of assuming a chronic chemical imbalance in the brain and prescribing medication. A trauma-informed approach primarily concerns a strengths-based, non-pathologizing, and non-victim-blaming approach based on the social model of mental wellbeing. In this way, the experiences of violence, trauma, and abuses perpetrated against women and sexual minorities are the catalysts of poor coping mechanisms and trauma responses.

For instance, a woman may self-harm due to repeated inflictions of sexual and physical violence. In such cases, there is no chronic chemical imbalance in the brain that suddenly appeared, instead, the experience is a trauma-response in which the woman feels calmer when self-inflicting abuses have already been inflicted on her previously. This is just one example of why an individual would self-harm. It is important to note that every individual will have a different answer, different reasons, and different sensations when self-harming.