​Are you able to recognize that not everyone moves toward success with speed and optimal access to what it takes to get there right off the bat?

Can you understand that the direction someone needs to be going in is not always forward, even though much of the noise out there has convinced us that forward is the only way?

Can you be open to learning new things, challenging long-standing beliefs, and possibly adjusting your approach based on new information?

As an advocate and trauma educator it is important for me to be transparent with you. What you learn from me may feel conflicting in some way to what you have always known or believed.

I want you to know that it's okay for feelings to come up in the learning process. The science of trauma is always evolving. It can also be heavy material to cover at times. It's natural to experience different feelings when we feel confronted by new information and start to break through walls in the process of making changes or shifting our beliefs.

These are key details to understand because this potentially applies to both you and some of your clients when you are working together.

The inner work starts with us.

I offer a hybrid of services in my sessions because I realized that some people may need more support than others. As humans, we have different bodies, brains, and needs. Some of us have different styles of learning that work for best. The acknowledgement that the people that we work with may have challenges and differences is important in the process of fully supporting them from a starting point to actualization -- giving them optimal opportunity to apply what they have learned and reap the benefits of the work that they have done in in our sessions.

Coaching is designed to naturally encourage individuals through guidance, to find their own answers, discover their own truths, and develop their own strategies for finding clarity, solving their own problems, and finding their own solutions to an outcome that they have defined and want to receive support around. It encourages self-discovery and personal growth in the area(s) that they want to work on. Think of the process of learning how to ride a bike. I will support you until you are confident in implement things on your own, but you are ultimately guided by what you innately know. (Adapted from Forbes Coaches Council)

Consulting is designed to tell clients how to do certain things. It focuses on a specific area of business or coaching and provides streamlined direction through a teaching a process and offering guidance on how to implement methods, strategies, and teachings that often already exist, and have been tried and tested. As a consultant, I offer very specific advice and provide solutions to clients based on my training, knowledge, and experience in my areas of specialization. In this aspect, you are being taught and guided by what I know. (Adapted from Forbes Coaches Council)

In the true spirit of my decision to offer a hybrid of these services, even though there are times that you may be guided by what I know, I also encourage you to make decisions for yourself and most importantly, to ultimately be guided by what you know and want for yourself. It's okay to question things, and you can ask me as many questions as you need to along the way. In honesty, I may not always have an answer, but I will get back to you.

Mentorship is designed to offer support over a longer period of time. Instead of relying specifically on what you know, or what I know, we are coming together so that I can transfer my knowledge and offer you support as you learn and grow on your own. In this aspect, we work better, together. The transfer of knowledge is a cornerstone of my work and something that I incorporate within sessions when I can. I do not believe in gatekeeping for the sake of holding a perceived level of authority or to boost my positioning. Knowledge is a gift that saved me in many ways. I want to share what I know in case it might help others on their own journey.

Peer Support This is based on a mutually supportive alliance in which two or more people come together to exchange ideas, support one another, and share common ground in either personal and/or professional lived experience. In shared spaces, it is important to presume competence. I adopt a salutogenic, trauma informed approach to peer support, and prefer this over potentially creating hierarchal structures and a one-down relationship. Although some of my roles include leadership and supervision, I strive to approach from a place of curiousity, exemplify a willingness to ask questions, be okay with not knowing the answers, acknowledge that I may sometimes give the wrong ones, and do my best to release the need to be "right." I do not ask more from my clients or those I supervise, than I am willing to do for myself. I am willing to learn along the way, and be in the trenches of trauma recovery, learning, growth, and healing beside my peers.

• One-on-one calls on Google Meet or Messaging sessions through Messenger or Voxer.

• Providing Peer to Peer Support (P2P over a B2B approach)

• Providing Education (For Coaches, Advocates, Service Providers, and Organizations)

• Do the best that I can to help coaches, advocates, service providers, and organizations develop or evaluate their boundaries, processes, and approaches, so that they are better prepared to work with their clients, can handle the inevitability of dilemmas that they may find challenging and/or unexpected within the context of service provision and delivery routes, and reduce rates of burnout where possible.

I work with coaches, advocates, and service providers who want to be conscientious, ethically considerate, and apply trauma informed practices in their approach with their clients, audience, and prospective buyers.

First and foremost, I believe that there are ethical considerations when it comes to transparency, honesty, being responsible with our scope of practice, and in how we advocate, coach, and teach. There are many coaches, clinicians, and practitioners who say that they are trauma informed, when they are not. There are key differences to understand between the terms Trauma Aware, Trauma Sensitive, Trauma Informed, Trauma Trained, and Trauma Responsive.

Social media has contributed to harm because people are often misguided and misinformed around trauma informed care, what it is, what it entails, and where there are key differences in how we approach the work that we are doing. It's not a title to use because it sounds good, attracts clients, and brings you income.

I question whether someone is truly trauma informed when for example, when service providers tell their followers that no one can disagree with them because it is too uncomfortable, or when they are not being sensitive to diversity and differences across groups, communities, and cultures, beyond the spaces that they spend the most time in. We can't hit the block button in real life.

How does that translate to what they provide in private containers?

When things like this remain unchecked, especially as trauma informed care continues to cross over into unregulated industries such as coaching, the people that get harmed along the way may not be able to speak up or recognize what is happening. Where is the supervision to reduce risk on behalf of the clients?

​Trauma Informed Care is not a modality or trend. It is a trauma framework, one that is often picked apart because people are looking for the easiest parts that they can apply within their work. What is left does not always leave the original concept intact. It gets fragmented because its broadness can make it complicated and hard to uphold entirely.

Dismantled, how can a framework of care exist in integrity without the critical pieces that make it what it is as whole?

Trauma Informed care does not get handed to you in a certificate, course, or program.

How are we embodying this level of care when working with others?

Are we listening enough?

This includes listening and learning from individuals and groups across communities while being mindful of our biases and making sure we aren't engaging in selective inclusion to check off a box and making a commitment to learn beyond what a training has cherry picked for us to learn to fulfill components of becoming trauma informed.

At the end of the day, a piece of paper or a training doesn't guarantee that people can embody what they have learned in a meaningful way or genuinely apply what they have learned it, especially in challenging situations with clients. Perhaps some people just attended to get the certificate for clout. It's become a great buzzword for marketing and engagement. These are issues that we need to be aware of.

This is sacred work to me and not something I do for the sake of a title. I am developing my own way of teaching on the topic of trauma informed care based on my personal and professional experience as a lifetime patient and advocate who became both a provider and a recipient of services. This includes relying on my professional training. I want to help people become trauma informed in a less complicated way and be real about the journey.

I have shifted to using the term trauma sensitive where it applies to be more transparent about degrees of trauma work and to accommodate the different levels that people might be on in their journey. I have found that this is a more practical and realistic approach. This shift was necessary to articulate key differences in how things are presented by me to leave room for nuance and maintain professional integrity.

The organization that I trained under has also opted to move from focusing mostly on trauma informed care to incorporating the term trauma sensitive care where it applies. Knowing how long I have advocated for this shift I could not be happier.

Working in non-profit mental health I personally witnessed and can attest to how hard it can be for one individual to provide true trauma informed care at times. Large organizations that are heavily backed and connected with strategic support struggle, particularly in rural area.

I outline the specifics of what I can provide individuals, groups, and organizations when we are working together based on the setting, relevant context, and other factors. It's important to be transparent about what we are able to provide the people that we work with.

How we treat people and how we show up to provide care through the vehicle of service, matters. Embodiment matters. In unregulated spaces where folks have come to rely on us as we provide education, support, and resources, it is on us to hold ourselves accountable.

People are trusting us to help them, and to be who we say we are, as much as humanly possible.

How Can I Help?

• I will provide you with honest insight that I wish I had as I started venturing down the path to integrating trauma informed care into my work.

• I can provide foundational trauma education that touches on the science of trauma and toxic stress guided by trauma informed principles and practice, and other relevant areas of trauma work. ​

• I will discuss the differences between being trauma aware, trauma sensitive, trauma informed, trauma trained, and trauma responsive, in a way that aims to be well-rounded and not just focused on my own personal perspective.

• I will expand on inclusiveness to the extent that I personally can, and cover aspects of trauma education that are applicable within coaching and service provision.

• I will also touch on those which I believe may be more challenging to provide, and why. I will also have a resource list of coaches that I recommend listening to and learning from because I am not the only voice in the arena, nor do I want to be.

• Where applicable, I cover and review ethically considerate marketing practices and mindful etiquette that support your clients, audience, and prospective buyers through the facilitation of connection, co-regulation, and building trust by establishing a sense of safety, rapport, and predictability.

At the end of our time together, at request, I will connect you with resources and other service providers that can continue to enhance your journey.

I also address possible challenges and the resistance that you may face:

1. As someone who is against "bro-marketing" strategies, manipulation, and non-compliant tactics that are commonly taught and used in the online space.

2. As a service provider striving to provide trauma support and care within coaching and service provision. ​