People with developmental disabilities are seven times more likely to experience sexual assault. That means there’s a very good chance someone in your class has a trauma history. The question isn’t whether to address this. It’s how to teach these topics in a way that creates safety — not more harm.
Note: This is a pre-recorded, 60-minute, online workshop. You’ll receive Instant access upon purchase — including downloadable resources.
Why This Workshop Exists
Katherine McLaughlin has been teaching sexuality education to people with I/DD for over 25 years. She knows the statistics. She believes in the work. And a few years ago, she started asking herself a question she could not shake:
“I was really sort of wondering, is the work that I’m doing trauma-informed at all, enough, could I do more?”
— Katherine McLaughlin, M.Ed., CSE, Elevatus Training
It’s not a hypothetical question. According to an NPR investigation on sexual abuse, people with developmental disabilities are seven times more likely to experience sexual assault than people without disabilities. That’s not a background statistic — it’s the reality of the room. If you teach sexuality education to this population, you are almost certainly teaching people who have experienced trauma.
The stakes go both ways. Sexuality education is one of the most powerful tools we have for preventing abuse. Removing it from the curriculum doesn’t protect anyone — it increases vulnerability. So the question isn’t whether to teach these topics. It’s how to create an environment where people can actually learn, including those who are still carrying the weight of what happened to them.
Katherine went looking for a framework. She found it in SAMHSA’s Six Key Principles of a Trauma-Informed Approach — and in this workshop, she applies those principles directly to the sexuality education classroom.
The Six Principles in Practice
SAMHSA — the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration — defines trauma using three E’s: the Event, how it was Experienced, and its lasting Effects on the person’s mental, physical, social, emotional, and spiritual well-being. A trauma-informed approach doesn’t just acknowledge this history. It actively works to avoid re-traumatization at every level of practice.
The six principles SAMHSA identified are: safety; trustworthiness and transparency; peer support; collaboration and mutuality; empowerment, voice, and choice; and cultural, historical, and gender issues. Katherine walks through each one — not as an abstract checklist, but as a set of real decisions you can start making immediately.
Safety starts before the first class. It means setting group agreements, giving people the right to pass on any activity, using LGBTQIA+ inclusive language so no one feels invisible, and separating gender identity from body parts. It means being clear: your class is shame-free, nonjudgmental, and a place where no one will be forced to share anything personal.
Trustworthiness and transparency means no surprises. Post the agenda. Give content warnings before sensitive material. Tell participants upfront that you are a mandated reporter — because finding out after the fact feels like a breach of trust. Being honest about what you don’t know, and following up, goes further than projecting false authority.
Peer support recognizes that healing doesn’t happen in isolation. This means normalizing the experience of trauma, teaching participants how to support one another, and being clear: “Abuse is not okay, but you are okay.” Providing hotline numbers and designating a safe person outside the room matters too.
Collaboration and mutuality asks you to share the power. Trauma is a loss of power. When participants help set their own group agreements, contribute their questions, and shape the class alongside you — you give some of that power back. You’re a facilitator, not the keeper of all answers.
Empowerment, voice, and choice is where sexuality education and trauma recovery directly overlap. Teaching sexual self-advocacy — the right to make decisions about your own body, to say yes and no and have those answers respected — restores something that trauma takes away. This is the message Katherine brings into every class: “Even if you’ve experienced sexual assault or trauma, you can still have a healthy sexual life.” And one concrete tip: when participants offer ideas during a brainstorm, write down their exact words. Paraphrasing into “better” language sends a message. Using their words sends the opposite one.
Cultural, historical, and gender issues means understanding the full context participants carry into the room: disability culture, the history of forced sterilization, how mainstream culture still treats people with disabilities, and what historical trauma does to decision-making. You cannot separate the sexual from the social and historical.
Who This Workshop Is For
This workshop is for self-advocates who are interested in peer sexuality education and want to understand how to create a safe and supportive space for others. It is also for educators, direct support professionals, school staff, agency trainers, therapists, and family members who provide sexuality education or healthy relationships conversations to people with I/DD. If you teach, facilitate, or have one-on-one conversations about sexuality with this population — in a classroom, a group home, a clinic, or a family — this workshop is for you.
What You Will Learn
By the end of this 90-minute workshop, you will be able to:
Define trauma using SAMHSA’s three E’s framework, and explain what distinguishes a trauma-informed approach from one that is merely trauma-aware
Describe why people with I/DD experience higher rates of trauma — and how disability-specific factors like autism sensory differences, perseveration, limited verbal reporting ability, and a tendency to comply with authority figures affect the trauma response
Apply SAMHSA’s Six Key Principles — safety, trustworthiness and transparency, peer support, collaboration, empowerment, and cultural awareness — to your sexuality education classroom or one-on-one conversations
Set up a shame-free, LGBTQIA+ inclusive classroom environment from the first session, using group agreements, content warnings, and language choices that reduce the risk of triggering or re-traumatizing participants
Respond when someone discloses trauma during class — including what to say, how to redirect, and when to involve other staff
Recognize your own wellbeing as part of this work, and build practices that sustain you when you’re regularly hearing difficult stories
Workshop Price
$45/one-time
Purchase once — watch as many times as you like.
What is Included?
Your purchase includes immediate access to the 90-minute video recording, plus the following downloadable resources:
Workshop Slides — The complete presentation slide deck, including SAMHSA’s definitions, the Six Key Principles framework, classroom teaching strategies, and discussion prompts.
Six Key Principles of a Trauma-Informed Approach — A printable reference handout summarizing SAMHSA’s six principles for use in your own planning, training, and practice.
Workshop Closed-Caption Transcript — A complete text transcript of the workshop audio, useful for reference, note-taking, or accessibility.
Katherine McLaughlin, M.Ed., AASECT Certified Sexuality Educator, is the Founder, CEO, and Lead Trainer for Elevatus Training. She has been a sexuality educator and trainer for over 30 years. As a national expert on sexuality and intellectual and developmental disabilities, she trains professionals and parents, as well as people with I/DD, to become sexual self-advocates and peer sexuality educators.
