Systems should work for people as they actually are, not as we wish they were. We help organisations create content that reduces harm and meets regulatory requirements at the same time.
We work with vulnerability teams and content teams in government and financial services. We help create content that works when people's capacity is reduced.
The global content community is beginning to recognise trauma-informed design as essential practice rather than nice-to-have or covered by existing best practice. Our consulting, assessment and training services help organisations create content that works for people as they actually are, reducing both regulatory risk and actual harm.
Consulting
We identify where your content creates barriers during difficult circumstances, then help you fix it while meeting regulatory requirements.
Assessment & implementation
We assess your existing content against trauma-informed principles, then work with your teams to redesign what’s not working.
Training & speaking
We help your teams understand how reduced capacity affects information processing, and teach practical techniques for designing content that works.
Desiging for reality
About us
Trauma-Informed Content Consulting is run by Adrie van der Luijt, who spent years working on government digital projects as a Senior Content Designer and Content Strategist and watching how systems fail people during the worst moments of their lives.
This work combines a Wall Street Journal-quoted background in business journalism with hard-won understanding of what happens when you’re the person on the other side of a form that demands clarity you don’t currently have.
The focus is on making powerful institutions accountable for the harm their content creates, working with vulnerability teams who need to understand regulatory risk and content teams who need to fix what’s not working.
This isn’t about being nicer to vulnerable people; it’s about designing systems that work for people as they actually are.
Adrie van der Luijt
Founder, Trauma-Informed Content Consulting
Discover Trauma-Informed Content Consulting
Projects we've worked on
Cancer Research UK
Content architecture was redesigned for 5,000 cancer-information pages serving 4 million unique users monthly, creating user-controlled layouts and multimedia guidance that reduced distress indicators in testing while delivering medically accurate content compliant with NHS and charity-sector standards.
Cabinet Office
Content was designed for SaaS counter-fraud tools during COVID-19 emergency grant schemes, balancing delivery speed with fraud-risk, governance and data-protection compliance. Tools recognised by Number 10 as ‘star performers’, preventing significant fraud and receiving ‘Game Changer’ award.
Metropolitan Police Service
A national online reporting and advice service for drink and needle spiking was designed from scratch, using trauma-informed language patterns that balanced empathy with evidential precision. Now adopted by 81% of UK forces and commended by Home Office for giving victims genuine control.
Empower your customers
Check our recent articles
Trauma-informed content design challenges how institutions communicate with people during difficult circumstances. These articles explore the principles, practice and regulatory context of creating content that works for people as they actually are, not as organisations wish they were.
Drawing on years of government digital work and deep engagement with vulnerability compliance in financial services, these pieces examine what changes when you stop designing for perfect conditions and start designing for reduced capacity.
BUTTON BLOG
Trauma-informed content and AI: Amplifying empathy at scale
VULNERABILITY ACADEMY KEYNOTE
Vulnerability and trauma-informed approaches
