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Hey there, Coach.
You already know how to lead a mind-blowing coaching session.
You love your clients.
You’re making a purposeful contribution with your unique content.
You feel so fortunate to be doing this work in the world.
But you’ve still got some sessions that leave you wondering:
- What was really going on there?
- Why aren’t we making any progress?
- What’s up with the stomachache I get every Thursday morning?
It's more than likely because trauma was in the room.
Trauma-Informed coaching means you notice the TRAUMA responses showing up in your Zoom room and you are INFORMED about what to do when they happen.
Trauma – in this context – is defined as anything that overwhelms your nervous system (or your client’s) and causes you (or your client) to disconnect from the current moment.
Trauma-Informed coaching empowers you to stop resorting to labeling clients as
“resistant” or “difficult” or “uncoachable”.
A trauma-informed coach knows how to meet “stuck” with safety and how to direct “circular” conversations back toward the discovery of useful insights.
This advanced certification will help you spot the trauma-responses that shut sessions down.
It will teach you to offer the critical safety that keeps everyone’s nervous system on board and engaged in the work you’re doing together.
Ever been on the receiving end of prickly coaching?
The kind that leaves you closed off to exploration and reaching for a cookie instead?
Me too.
I’ve legit hopped out of the Zoom room five minutes into a call.
I’ve forfeited my investment by strait up no-showing for my appointment.
I’ve even quit the coaching relationship all together.
You could say that I was a “resistant” or “difficult” client.
You could observe that I “wasn’t ready” to hear the “truth”.
You’d be right.
And also wrong.
Because “not ready” isn’t the most important part of that story.
The REASON for “not ready” is WAY MORE IMPORTANT than the “not ready” itself.
I wasn’t ready to hear what might have helped me at the time.
Not because I didn’t want to.
Not because I wasn’t willing to examine myself honestly.
I wasn’t ready because my nervous system was playing bouncer.
The coaching interaction felt unsafe, so… my brain gave it a hard pass.
No learning. No releasing. No exploration.
Survival comes first. Always will.
Even good coaching won’t land – at least not as well – when the client senses threat.
It’s not that the coaches I was working with meant to threaten me.
I believe that all of them genuinely believed they were serving my best interest.
So… what went wrong?
After those failed coaching sessions, I made it my personal mission to answer that question.
I spent thousands of hours observing hundreds of coaches.
I dissected their sessions.
I reflected on my own experiences as coach AND as client.
I studied a wide range of modalities and personally experienced work with masters of EFT (tapping), equine assisted attachment, meditation, EMDR, psychedelic medicine, energy clearing, sound baths, trauma-informed yoga and other somatic-based methods of healing.
Through all of that, I’ve pinpointed what’s present in coaching that flows… and absent in coaching that falls flat.
Now I’m ready to share all of that with you.
Sometimes clients come to you willing and open.
You do an amazing model together and the R line really clicks.
At least it seems to… until you find yourself discussing the same issue next session.
Again and again.
Maybe you find yourself feeling queasy when you see a certain client’s name on your calendar.
You can’t quite figure out what’s off and why nothing seems to be changing.
You keep wondering what’s preventing you from getting to what’s really going on.
I’m here to tell you it’s not you.
It’s also not them.
It’s the nervous system – theirs AND yours – putting on the brakes.
So, what do you do?
When you find yourself wondering what’s missing about your approach…
When you’re trying to figure out why the tools you’ve always used are failing you now…
When you slip into thinking your “resistant” client doesn’t “want it bad enough”…
That’s your opportunity to look for the trauma response shutting everything down.
If your coaching relationship seems stagnant, you and your client are likely smack dab in the middle of a standoff between survival and growth.
Read it again: the standoff between survival and growth.
That’s what you’re witnessing when your client has a trauma response.
That’s what you are experiencing when YOUR trauma responses join you in session.
The nervous system shuts everything out in favor of survival. In service of safety.
Of course it does.
Because safety is pre-requisite to every other life experience.
Safety before happiness. Safety before thriving. Safety before growth.
When safety seems threatened, nothing else matters.
This Advanced Certification in Trauma-Informed coaching is your opportunity to partner with your client’s nervous system to help it see that your Zoom room is safe. That survival isn’t at stake in session with you.
You’ll learn how to help your clients keep all of their mental and emotional resources engaged while you do important, life-changing work together.
You’ll learn what to do to keep yourself in that same mentally and emotionally engaged state – even when your client checks out or fights back.
Because when you’re both there – in sync with each other and with your two safely supported nervous systems – that’s when the magic happens.
Client Testimonials
Sara Payne
“The feedback was worth the complete cost of the certification.”
LeAnn Austin
“The certification layout is so easy – it’s structured and organized and I know what to expect.”
Brooke Robbins
“Trauma-Informed Coaching helps bridge the gap between therapist and life coaches – we’re all on the same team.”
Josie Johnson
“Without creating safety, the coaching won’t stick. I’ve grown faster because of this work.”
Darcy Christ
“Because of the certification, my business is growing and growing with me.”
Debbie Curran
“What it does for you, as a human, is the second gift of this certification.”
Jennifer Knight
“I feel like I know what to do now because I’ve experienced myself – I’m actually different because of this training, so my coaching is different.”
YOU are a magic maker.
Enroll now to master the skill of tuning in to subtle clues that you’re likely missing (or noticing but not responding to) in your sessions.
Click the button below to perfect science-based strategies for helping your clients get back to safety and on with the work.
Because safety is the prerequisite for change.
Without safety, progress will be slow and painful.
And may not happen at all.
Your clients deserve better.
I know you want to give them better.
That’s not to say there won’t be pain.
There will.
That’s not to say progress will be quick.
It might not be.
I’m only saying that trauma-informed coaching techniques help your client stay engaged in the process.
Even when it’s hard.
Even when it hurts.
Because if your client isn’t in the room or on the call – you can’t help them.
Even if they are physically present, you can’t help them if they are mentally checked out or emotionally frozen.
And that’s a shame.
It’s also unnecessary.
Come with me to learn how to support any client presentation that lands in front of you AND hold yourself through whatever emotional response bubbles up for you as you hold that sacred space.
This is Trauma-Informed Coaching.
You might be wondering whether work like this should be reserved for therapy.
Maybe.
Sometimes that’ll be the case, for sure.
And also, No. Not always.
“Reserved for therapy” is a well-intended thought aimed at ensuring we all make ethical, responsible choices around the type of support we offer.
I’m in. 100%.
No qualms at all.
It’s also true that “reserved for therapy” can be a thought that coaches use to scare themselves out of helping when they could actually provide life-saving work in the heat of the moment.
Imagine if no one learned CPR or the Heimlich maneuver or basic first aid because we all decided that sort of work was “reserved for doctors”.
How shortsighted would that be?
Can you imagine how many people would suffer brain damage or worse if non-doctors believed they “couldn’t” or “shouldn’t” perform those relatively easy to implement techniques?
Open your toolbox.
We have the opportunity to introduce more nuance and fluidity into the way we allow ourselves to respond to trauma.
You owe it to your beloved clients to be prepared and willing to act when trauma responses show up in your Zoom room and retreat venue.
Sometimes that’ll mean you help people come back to safety and then carry on with the coaching right there in that moment.
Other times, that’ll mean you help people come back to safety and then offer a warm referral to someone in your well-vetted network for targeted therapeutic support that matches your client’s acute need.
No matter how it turns out, it’s our responsibility as ethical coaches to be well-resourced and ready to respond swiftly and intelligently when trauma responses show up in our sessions.
Because they will.
They more than likely already are.
You ready to be ready?
If you want to offer effective safety-promoting experiences to your clients, you MUST first become a skilled, compassionate partner for your own nervous system.
This requires more than mindset.
It’s about: Embodiment. Patience. Acceptance. Trust.
What you believe you’re “allowed” to do as a coach and what you think about the rules you created (or adopted) really matters.
You probably can’t help with everything.
That means you’re a reflective, responsible coach. Not a limited one.
You can also do more than you think.
So let’s get busy.
Advanced certification in Trauma-Informed coaching isn’t extra.
It’s not simply “interesting information” meant to “supplement” what you already know.
This training is how you’ll effectively transfer safety from your nervous system to your client’s nervous system in a way that allows both of you to progress in the coaching relationship.
Spaciousness is key.
Creating a lived experience where it’s welcomed and encouraged for your client to be exactly where they are in a way that’s solid enough to build on is the foundation of trauma-informed coaching.
If you come to your sessions ignoring your own nervous system, you can’t be an anchor of safety for your clients.
Empowered change cannot move forward unless you are secure in helping your clients develop a new relationship with their current experience.
So it’s time for YOU to go first.
Safety matters most and safety starts in your own brain.
I know that “trauma-informed” is an ambiguous phrase with many definitions.
I’m aware that some people use terms like “healing-centered” or “client-oriented” instead.
My belief is that the lingo matters less than the intent behind it.
My intent is to help you create abundant safety in your sessions and make room for all the growth you and your client could ever want to experience.
In this advanced certification, you’ll be empowered to:
- know your talents and allow yourself to utilize them
- know your limits and require yourself to NOT cross them
- believe in your abilities
- trust yourself to find and fill in your skill gaps
- get busy helping people – by personally helping or by making referrals
- stop debating what’s “allowed”
It makes sense that we, as a coaching community, would try to create safety by making up rules and guidelines.
What I’ve noticed is that those rules and guidelines often lead us to question ourselves and glance over our shoulders instead.
Which doesn’t feel safe at all.
In this advanced certification, we stop wondering and start helping.
With our regulated nervous systems leading the way, we:
- create precise and inclusive marketing
- host clearly outlined onboarding and offboarding practices
- hold beautiful, infinite space to help clients access what they already know
- release adaptive, protective nervous system responses that are no longer necessary
- awaken understanding around how our clients always make perfect sense
- make warm, well-vetted referrals that support our clients’ highest growth
Stop wondering.
Start helping.
Your nervous system will lead the way.
I’ll support you in figuring out how to embrace yourself where YOU are – moment by moment even as your nervous system stabilizes and activates and stabilizes again.
Because when you hold that space for you, you’ll more effectively help your clients heal their relationships with themselves.
A healed relationship is a safe relationship.
Safety brings the freedom to explore and create and contribute and live.
You’re promising your clients amazing results.
I’m promising that they’ll stick with you long enough to get them.
Let’s go.
Here’s what it takes to become a Trauma-Informed Coach:
Material Study
module work to expand your understanding of trauma and how to best to honor it in session
Guided Coaching Practice
peer coaching with feedback and discussion
Field Coaching Practice and Reflection
directed assignments to complete and reflect on with your own clients (with their opt-in)
Guest Presentations
participate in and reflect on experiential classes hosted by practitioners from varying modalities
Trauma-Informed Project
select a project of your choosing that will enhance your practice and benefit the world
24/7 Green Room Connection
slack is always open for questions, chatting and integrating what it means to be a Trauma-Informed Coach