Trauma-Informed Practice Designer Agent Skill

Design trauma-informed classroom practices that prioritise safety, predictability, connection, and regulation.

Context cost
6.7k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
1 file · 26.6 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
not declarednone named by its author
Last change
—v1.0
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Design trauma-informed classroom practices that prioritise safety, predictability, connection, and regulation. Use when student behaviour may be trauma-related or the class needs a sensitive approach.

What this skill changes about the agent has not been set out here as a list. Its SKILL.md, shown below, says it in the author’s own words.

acesattachmentbehaviourdocumentationregulationsafetytrauma-informed

The skill itself

A skill is instructions the model reads, so you can see what you are getting: below is the start of its SKILL.md. The front matter loads with every session, the body loads when the skill triggers, and the whole file comes with the install.

SKILL.md26.6 kB · preview
--- # AGENT SKILLS STANDARD FIELDS (v2) name: trauma-informed-practice-designer disable-model-invocation: false user-invocable: true effort: medium # EXISTING FIELDS skill_id: "wellbeing-motivation-agency/trauma-informed-practice-designer" skill_name: "Trauma-Informed Practice Designer" domain: "wellbeing-motivation-agency" version: "1.0" evidence_strength: "moderate" evidence_sources: - "van der Kolk (2014) — The Body Keeps the Score: brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma" - "Perry (2006) — The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: neurosequential model of therapeutics" - "Felitti et al. (1998) — Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults (ACE Study)" - "Bergin & Bergin (2009) — Attachment in the classroom" - "Craig (2016) — Trauma-Sensitive Schools: learning communities transforming children's lives" input_schema: required: - field: "classroom_situation" type: "string" - field: "student_level" type: "string" optional: - field: "subject_area" type: "string" - field: "known_context" type: "string" - field: "current_responses" type: "string" - field: "available_support" type: "string" - field: "class_context" type: "string" output_schema: type: "object" fields: - field: "trauma_lens_analysis" type: "object" - field: "classroom_adaptations" type: "array" - field: "response_protocols" type: "object" - field: "boundaries" type: "string" chains_well_with: - "belonging-classroom-culture-designer" - "restorative-practice-protocol-designer" - "ruler-emotional-literacy-sequence" - "differentiation-adapter" teacher_time: "4 minutes" tags: ["trauma-informed", "ACEs", "safety", "regulation", "attachment", "behaviour"] ---
70# Trauma-Informed Practice Designer
71
72## What This Skill Does
73
74Designs trauma-informed classroom practices that create safety, predictability, and connection for students who have experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) — while maintaining clear boundaries, academic expectations, and a functional learning environment for all students. The critical principle is that trauma-informed practice is not about lowering expectations or excusing behaviour — it is about understanding that behaviour communicating distress requires a different response from behaviour communicating defiance, because the underlying cause is different and punitive responses to trauma-related behaviour typically escalate rather than resolve it. The output includes a trauma-lens reframing of the observed behaviour, specific classroom adaptations, response protocols for when trauma-related behaviour occurs, and clear boundaries about what trauma-informed practice IS and IS NOT. AI is specifically valuable here because trauma-informed practice requires understanding the neuroscience of trauma (how trauma affects the brain and body), the psychology of attachment (how early relationships shape classroom behaviour), and the pedagogy of safety (how to create conditions where all students can learn) — a multi-disciplinary knowledge base that most teachers have limited training in.
75
76## Evidence Foundation
77
78Felitti et al. (1998) conducted the landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, showing that childhood adversity (abuse, neglect, household dysfunction) is both common and consequential: approximately two-thirds of participants reported at least one ACE, and ACE scores predicted health, mental health, and social outcomes decades later. In educational contexts, high ACE scores predict lower academic achievement, higher rates of school exclusion, and greater behavioural and emotional difficulties. Van der Kolk (2014) demonstrated that trauma fundamentally changes the brain — specifically the amygdala (threat detection), prefrontal cortex (executive function and impulse control), and hippocampus (memory). A traumatised brain is stuck in survival mode: hypervigilant to threat, quick to activate fight/flight/freeze, and unable to access the higher-order thinking required for learning. Perry (2006) developed the neurosequential model, showing that traumatised children must feel SAFE before they can RELATE, and must be able to relate before they can REASON. Teaching content (reasoning) to a student who doesn't feel safe is neurobiologically futile — the survival brain overrides the learning brain. Bergin & Bergin (2009) showed that secure attachment to at least one adult at school is a protective factor for students with high ACE scores — a teacher who is consistently available, predictable, and emotionally regulated can partially compensate for insecure early attachments. Craig (2016) outlined the practical implications for schools: trauma-sensitive environments prioritise safety, predictability, connection, and choice — and these adaptations benefit ALL students, not just those with trauma histories.
79
80## Input Schema
81
82The teacher must provide:
83- **Classroom situation:** What is being observed. *e.g. "A Year 8 student has sudden, intense outbursts — shouting, throwing equipment, running out of the room — triggered by seemingly minor events (being asked to move seats, being told their work is wrong)" / "A Year 10 student is completely withdrawn — never speaks, never makes eye contact, produces minimal work, flinches when adults approach" / "A Year 7 student is constantly seeking adult attention — following the teacher around, asking unnecessary questions, becoming distressed when the teacher attends to other students"*
84- **Student level:** Year group. *e.g. "Year 8"*
85
86Optional (injected by context engine if available):
87- **Subject area:** The curriculum subject
88- **Known context:** What the teacher knows about the student's background
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md3,854 words
Files1
Licencenot declared
Why you can read it

Nothing in a skill executes. The client loads the text and the model follows it, so a skill can be audited the way a runbook is — by reading it.

What it costs in context

Skills are not billed by the call. They are paid for in context: every token the instructions occupy is a token your code, your diff and your conversation cannot use. Here is what this one takes and when it takes it.

≈780
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
5,870
on trigger
The instruction body, read only when the skill fires.
3.3%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 33% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

6.7k tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Heavy. Teams tend to install this one per project rather than globally, and load it only when the job comes up.

Servers bill, skills cost

A server charges by the month. A skill charges once per session, in context, and then keeps charging it for as long as the session lives.

Before and after

The same question, put to the same model twice: once as it comes, and once with these instructions loaded.

No worked example has been published for this skill yet.

The procedure it runs

The procedure has not been set out here step by step. It is in the body of its SKILL.md: the start of it is shown above, and the whole file comes with the install.

Prose, not code

These steps are written for a model to follow, not executed by a runtime. It can still be told to skip one, and it will say so when it does.

Servers it uses

None. This skill calls no MCP servers at all.

Everything it needs is in the instructions, so it works in a project with nothing connected — the model reads the file and changes how it works with what it can already reach.

Its SKILL.md does not declare which tools it asks the agent for, so what it touches is whatever the instructions themselves ask for — read them before you install it.

What it asks for
Writes filesnot declared
Network accessnot declared

This SKILL.md carries no allowed-tools line, so neither is declared. A skill grants no permissions of its own — it can only ask for tools your client already has.

What it will not do

Every skill is narrow, and the useful ones say where they stop. These are the jobs this one is the wrong tool for.

What this skill is not for has not been published here. Nothing is implied by that: it is a section the author has not filled in.

What is in the bundle

1 file, 26.6 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in.

  • SKILL.md26.6 kB
What is not in it

No dependencies and nothing executable: a skill is text the agent reads, so the bundle is 1 file you can review in full before installing.

Install

Installing copies the bundle into your project. Nothing runs at install time — the files sit on disk until the model reads them.

# Trauma-Informed Practice Designer · 6.7k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/trauma-informed-practice-designer/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/trauma-informed-practice-designer" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/trauma-informed-practice-designer ] || { mv .claude/skills/trauma-informed-practice-designer "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/trauma-informed-practice-designer" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/trauma-informed-practice-designer"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add garethmanning/trauma-informed-practice-designer

Windows PowerShell says 'running scripts is disabled on this system'? Run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once, or type npx.cmd instead of npx (codex.cmd, gemini.cmd, grok.cmd likewise). PowerShell 7 needs neither. Writes to .claude/skills/trauma-informed-practice-designer/ in the current project. For every project instead, run mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/trauma-informed-practice-designer/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/trauma-informed-practice-designer" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/trauma-informed-practice-designer ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/trauma-informed-practice-designer "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/trauma-informed-practice-designer" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/trauma-informed-practice-designer" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/trauma-informed-practice-designer/ only after the download succeeds, so files left there by another skill of the same name, or by an older release, do not mix in. A copy already there is moved aside, not deleted, and the line prints where.

Which clients pick it up on their own

A skill is a folder of text. Most of these read a skills folder and pick it up without being told; the rest take the same folder another way — an upload in the app, a parameter on an API call — and then choose it by its description just the same.

Claude Code.claude/skills/
Claude DesktopCustomize › Skills
ChatGPTSkills › Create › Upload
Cursor.cursor/skills/
VS Code.github/skills/
Codex CLI.agents/skills/
Gemini CLI.gemini/skills/
Grok Build.grok/skills/
Microsoft CopilotSkills › Upload a skill
PerplexityComputer › Skills › Upload a skill
DeepSeek Harness.dsh/skills/
Zed.agents/skills/
Devin Desktop.devin/skills/
Windsurf (legacy).windsurf/skills/
OpenAI Agents SDKInstructions or sandbox Skills
HTTP / APIa request parameter
This release
Version1.0
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referencegarethmanning/trauma-informed-practice-designer

Versions

v1.0 is what is on the shelf; no release here carries a date. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

v1.0
  • No earlier releases have been published to the marketplace.
Pinning

The install command always fetches the release that is current the day you run it — v1.0 today — and cannot ask for an earlier one. The copy on your disk does not change until you run it again.

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