Guiding Principles
These principles exist to make clear who Between Trust and Trauma is, what we stand for, and how we work together. This is a living document — it will grow as more people join this work.
We are survivor-led and peer-guided.
Between Trust and Trauma exists to hold mental health clinics and practitioners accountable to genuine trauma-informed principles — and to their own stated ethics. We support one another in healing from the harm that happens when those principles are abandoned. Survivor voices lead here. Always.
We are built on mutual aid.
That means no fees for services, ever. It means we actively look for ways to support one another — not charity, but genuine reciprocity. We benefit together or not at all.
We are unapologetically inclusive.
Trans people, neurodivergent people, disabled people, people with mental illness, people of color, people of various cultures, and the full LGBTQIIA+ spectrum are not just welcome here — they are centered here.
People with mental illness are human beings with knowledge, experience, and something essential to contribute. Neurodivergence is a difference, not a deficit. Racism, misogyny, ableism, and bigotry have no place in this work.
We center accountability over comfort.
We name institutional psychiatric abuse when we see it. We do not prioritize the comfort of providers or systems over the safety and dignity of survivors. Trauma-informed care is not a marketing claim — it is a standard we hold ourselves and others to.
We protect survivor dignity above all.
We will never publish a survivor’s story without their explicit consent. We will never pressure anyone to share more than they are ready to share. What you bring here stays here unless you choose otherwise.
These aren’t rules imposed from outside. They’re the foundation we build on together.
Nothing About Us Without Us.
