The Rainbow Project™
Transforming Stigma Through Care
The Rainbow Project™ is a living, breathing mission to turn stigma into care not through blame, but through deep truth-telling, healing frameworks, and survivor-led systems change.
Founded by Rainbow Tomes, this project holds space for people whose pain has been erased by politeness, productivity, and/or power. It was born from a simple, radical belief:
“Stigma is not just a feeling. It’s a form of harm. And care is how we transform it.”
This work isn’t theoretical. It’s grounded in lived experience, professional practice, and the urgent need to name what has been unnamed for far too long.
How do we start to transform stigma into care? To transform stigma into care, we must first name the kinds of harm that stigma creates especially the invisible, system-shaped, and silenced ones. That’s why this project introduces two foundational concepts:
Disenfranchised Abuse™ and Disenfranchised Traumatic Grief™.
These terms don’t just describe pain they legitimise it. They offer new language for the kinds of suffering that rarely make it into policies, protocols, or professional conversations but exist in the lives of so many.
About The Rainbow Project™
Disenfranchised Abuse™ is a term coined by Rainbow Tomes (2025) to describe the systemic, relational, or social erasure of pain where harm occurs not just through what was done, but through what was denied, dismissed, or never validated.
It is the abuse of being unseen.
This is not always obvious or visible, but it is often devastating. It lives in systems, relationships, and roles of care that fail to respond to human pain.
Disenfranchised Abuse™ names harm that hides in the everyday in moments of silence, disbelief, or deflection.
This abuse occurs in:
- Workplaces, services, and institutions
- that reward silence or respond to truth-telling with retaliation, victimisation, or exclusion.
- Families
- that turn away from pain, deny lived history, or protect those who caused harm instead of those who were harmed.
- Professionals
- who overlook what doesn’t fit the textbook, the diagnosis, or the model leaving survivors unsupported and/or misdiagnosed.
It is a structural trauma hidden in everyday interactions and reinforced by stigma and misunderstanding.
This term is original, distinct, and legally protected under intellectual ownership. It expands the recognised forms of abuse and names the harm caused by being erased while in pain.
Disenfranchised Traumatic Grief™ is a companion concept also coined by Rainbow Tomes (2025). It refers to the compound emotional fallout that occurs when both grief and trauma are not only unprocessed, but unacknowledged.
It is the pain of being wounded and then told there’s nothing to grieve and nothing to heal.
It often affects people who:
- Have no “socially accepted” right to grieve
- Are told their trauma “wasn’t that bad”
- Live with invisible, silenced, or stigmatised pain
- Are grieving losses that were never named like childhood, safety, identity, dignity, or connection
The term reflects the truth that grief is not always about death, and trauma is not always validated. Together, their denial forms a distinct psychological burden and it deserves its own language, its own care.
This term is part of the Restoration Care Pathway™, a survivor-informed framework authored and protected by Rainbow Tomes.
These terms give voice to what has too often been minimised, medicalised, and/or misunderstood.
They offer:
- Language for lived experiences that haven’t been named
- Legitimacy to stories that were once dismissed
- Pathways for care that includes validation and support
They are central to the Restoration Care Pathway™ a survivor-informed model for emotional healing, system redesign, and cultural transformation.
The following concepts are the intellectual property of Rainbow Tomes, formally coined and timestamped in 2025:
- Disenfranchised Abuse™
- Disenfranchised Traumatic Grief™
- The Restoration Care Pathway™
- The Rainbow Project™
These terms and frameworks are offered to the public with the intention of recovery, education, and advocacy and are protected by copyright under ethical use and licensing principles. Any reproduction, adaptation, rebranding, or misrepresentation without permission is prohibited.
“This is not about gatekeeping. It’s about safeguarding the integrity of care.”
To cite, reference, train in, or apply this work within your own services, please contact rainbow@mentalhealthpeople.com directly for permission and guidance.
The Rainbow Project™ is not just a campaign. It is a cultural intervention — a survivor-led movement committed to:
- Naming hidden harm
- Restoring care where it was denied
- Helping people and systems evolve
We believe systems can be transformed to be kinder, smarter, and safer — but only if we stop rewarding silence and start redesigning care at every level.
This includes:
- Updating policies, practices, and professional standards
- Embedding trauma-informed, survivor-validating approaches
- Reimagining what accountability, safety, and support truly mean
We equip people and organisations with:
- The Restoration Care Pathway™
- A model for healing and systemic repair rooted in dignity, validation, and recovery.
- Ethical education and professional training
- Designed for therapists, coaches, educators, leaders, and care providers.
- Culture-shifting campaigns
- That transform stigma, reframe silence, and create space for truth and care.
This is how we create systems where:
- Silence no longer equals safety
- Healing is no longer conditional on being believed
- Support means care — not control, correction, and/or dismissal.
To ethically cite, partner with, or use this work: