Trauma-informed coaching

A tiny rock in your shoe. A boulder fallen across the trail. Disorienting fog that disconnects you from your surroundings. Light so intense you can’t open your eyes. Tender leaves of a seed just germinated. The sound of a rushing stream that draws you toward it through dense forest.

Challenges and opportunities present themselves in many different guises. Sometimes they emerge out of nowhere; other times we see them coming from a distance. If there's aversion, we might try to dodge them; if there's desire, we may chase them down. Coaching offers a supportive structure so that we can sense into our inherent capacity to meet both challenges and opportunities in ways that uniquely suit us.

In a coaching relationship, the person who steps up to be coached sets the intention and direction (and they can adjust those at any time). The coach poses questions that invite the coachee to consider situations and themes from multiple angles. The coachee can test out their thoughts and the coach reflects them back, providing an opportunity for the coachee to affirm where they’re headed or make adjustments. Through this combination of attuned inquiry from the coach and freeform exploration by the coachee, the coachee can gain a better understanding of obstacles and blockages and move into new ways of responding.

The primary aim of the coaching process is to affirm the coachee’s personal power. Takeaways at the end of a session might just as easily look like a quiet inner peace as much as a plan for bold external action. There are no expectations for a defined outcome. Instead, a coaching session aspires to provide the coachee with a renewed sense of their own capabilities to engage with whatever life is bringing them.

Trauma-informed

Treating or processing trauma is not within the scope of trauma-informed coaching (that is reserved for therapy). Instead, a trauma-informed coaching relationship holds space for trauma in a conscientious and loving way when it comes up. While therapy aids in understanding the past and healing from its wounds, coaching shines a light on one’s current capacity to create a desired outcome.

Working in a trauma-informed framework, the coach is trained to notice and respond to the ways that trauma might present itself as the coachee works on what they want. The coachee’s trauma does not need to be relived or even discussed in any detail. The coach tailors their approach to prioritize the coachee’s sense of safety as well as their personal agency and innate capacity to integrate their knowledge of themself from past, present, and future into a unified and capable whole.

Topics you might explore in a coaching session

  • Sensing into your authentic self, purpose, and direction

  • Putting shape to projects, ideas, or yearnings

  • Connecting with your creativity, verve, and vivacity

  • Tending to your needs during a period of slow progress, non-progress, or not knowing what’s next

  • Opening up conversations between your soma and your psyche

  • Making the best of working for pay while enduring the harm of capitalism/patriarchy/white supremacy

  • Developing or enhancing your intuition and how to practice it

  • Navigating relationship dynamics of all kinds

  • Creating routines and structures to support yourself on a daily basis

What I offer as a coach

  • A calm container

  • Time to pause and think, sense and feel

  • A structure that helps you move your thinking: maybe in hops or leaps, perhaps in dotted lines or bold strokes

  • Questions that connect you to your body, your values, and your capacity to direct your own life

  • Space to be quiet or fiery, dreamy or practical, questioning or certain, all the facets of you that want to participate

  • Gentle invitations to make changes that move you closer to your heart’s desires

What to bring to a coaching session

  • Ideas about what you want more of 

  • Ideas about what you want less of

  • A question that’s been hovering at your periphery

  • Words, images, or sensations that you’d like to explore in order to gain clarity, choose a direction, or feel a shift

  • Water

  • Fidget toys if you like them

  • A notebook and pen

  • Your presence and intentions

Details of my coaching practice

I am currently completing my training as a trauma-informed coach through Moving the Human Spirit. I am working toward becoming certified through the International Coaching Federation (ICF) as an Associate Certified Coach.

I follow ICF’s code of ethics and practice the core competencies, which includes establishing clear agreements. When you schedule your session, you will be asked to review and sign a coaching agreement that outlines the parameters of our coaching relationship and what to expect. You can preview the agreement before scheduling an appointment. You may optionally agree to allow me to record our coaching session for evaluation purposes as I work toward certification. There is no pressure to have your session recorded; please make the choice that feels right to you (and you can change your mind later). If you have any questions or concerns about the agreement, please get in touch.

When you schedule, you will be asked to select the modality for our session. Most folks will select Google Meet (cameras can be on or off). We can also conduct the session via phone if that is preferable. If you are local to the Bay Area, please get in touch if you would like to discuss meeting in person at a quiet outdoor location.

Plan to spend 45 to 55 minutes in our coaching session. Afterward, take time to integrate what you’ve discovered by resting, journaling, meditating, doing somatic practices, and connecting to nature. All of my coaching sessions include the opportunity to engage with me via email to support your process of absorbing and integrating your new understandings.

I offer coaching sessions at sliding scale pricing as well as in exchange for services or at no-cost for those who need it. I also provide sessions as a benefit to students in the Moving the Human Spirit Trauma-Informed Coaching Certification course. If you would like to offer your services in exchange for coaching or have questions about which type of session to choose, please get in touch.

For those who want to work together across a longer arc, I offer six-session packages. During the initial session, we will collaborate to design a structure for our time together with your desired outcome as the guide. We can meet weekly, every other week, or another frequency that suits your needs. When scheduling, pick a date for your first session and we will coordinate the dates to follow.

Read more about my personal and professional relationship to coaching. I look forward to partnering with you in the coaching process.

— Blayd Grumstrup (they/them)