Meet the Author: Border-Town Raised, Trauma-Trained, and Tired of the Bullsh*t

Hi. I’m Kris Medina — founder of the American Institute for Trauma-Informed Care (AITIC), descendant of Mexican immigrants, lover of animals and curse words, truth-teller, and sometimes (okay, often) professional overthinker.

I built this space because, frankly, I was tired. Tired of watching people get retraumatized in systems that claim to "help." Tired of legal intake forms that forget the person behind the paperwork. Tired of watching brilliant, bilingual, bleeding-heart professionals burn out because no one taught them how to hold space while also holding boundaries.

I created AITIC because there’s a better way. And if you’re here, I bet you feel that too.

A Few Things You Should Know About Me

💃🏽 I’m a Latina raised between Corpus Christi and the border. My summers were filled with Laredo heat, empanadas, and food trucks in Nuevo Laredo (pre-9/11 border vibes when you could cross back with a wink and a Whataburger receipt). Trauma-informed care wasn’t a phrase I knew back then — it was just what my family did. My tío gave the shoes off his feet to people fresh from crossing the river. My mother-in-law crossed herself, decades ago. We spoke of it often — we just understood.

🧠 I’ve worked with everyone from suicidal teens in state care to attorneys handling sexual assault claims. I know how to sit in the fire of someone else’s pain and help them find the exit. I also know when to shut up, pass the tissue, and not pathologize survival.

😂 I’ve healed enough to laugh now. Trauma’s no joke — but healing absolutely requires humor. The best trauma-informed practitioners I know are the ones who can cry with you one minute and send a perfectly timed meme the next. That’s my kind of people.

👩🏽‍🏫 I teach law firms, clinics, and changemakers how to serve without causing harm. And I do it in a way that’s honest, unpretentious, and grounded in both research and real life.

What You’ll Find Here

This blog isn’t a sterile how-to guide. It’s a living journal of stories, tools, rage, reflection, and radical care. It’s where I’ll talk about…

• What trauma-informed care actually looks like (not just what it says on the brochure)

• Real examples of language that either heals or harms

• How to stay soft in a world that demands armor

• Why survivors deserve better — and how we build that "better"

• And occasionally… what enchiladas from across the border taught me about compassion.

  
  

What I Want You to Know

You don’t have to be a therapist to be trauma-informed. You don’t need letters after your name to hold space for someone. You just have to care enough to learn — and be brave enough to unlearn.

Whether you're here as a legal advocate, a community organizer, a teacher, a parent, a survivor, or just someone trying not to screw up too badly — you’re welcome here.

There’s room at this table.And if you need it, I’ll save you a seat next to the fan. (Because let’s be real — I’m not sitting in the heat either.)

Let’s change the way care is given. Let’s make it honest. Let’s make it human. Let’s make it healing.

Thanks for being here. Now go poke around the site — I built it for you.

—Kris 🤎Founder, Disruptor, Border Child, Advocate Always