Understanding the resistance to trauma-informed care: The emotional, relational and ideological challenges of shifting power dynamics in child and youth residential care

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Trauma-informed care (TIC) is a relational approach emphasizing safety, attunement, and collaboration. In child and youth residential care, this orientation sits in tension with longstanding compliance-oriented approaches that rely on rigid systems of incentives and consequences to guide behaviour. OBJECTIVE: This study examines how residential care staff experience the challenges of shifting power dynamics during the transition from compliance-oriented approaches toward relational practice during TIC implementation. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: The study was conducted in a large urban child and youth residential care agency in Québec, Canada. Participants included staff across roles and organizational levels. METHODS: Using a constructivist grounded theory design, data were generated through 17 in-depth interviews with staff, 45 h of participant observation of trainings, clinical support sessions, and leadership meetings, and analysis of institutional and implementation documents. RESULTS: Analysis produced five interrelated theoretical categories characterizing the challenges experienced during TIC implementation: (1) perceptions of TIC as "too permissive," (2) destabilization associated with relinquishing punishment without concrete alternatives, (3) the emotional and relational challenge of "looking inward" through self-regulation and accountability, (4) an unspoken taboo around naming power, control, and compliance, and (5) a gap between intellectual buy-in and embodied practice under pressure. CONCLUSIONS: Ideological resistance to TIC implementation emerged through concerns that its relational approach was overly permissive. Letting go of compliance-oriented approaches without clear enough relational alternatives often left staff feeling unsafe and helpless. Meaningful TIC implementation requires confronting punitive and childist belief systems, supporting deep self-reflection, and investing in experiential learning, supervision, and organizational conditions that sustain relational practice.