Here’s my take:

Just because you’ve read books on trauma and done a few courses doesn’t necessarily mean you can call your work trauma informed. And, calling your work trauma informed before it actually is can be (unintentionally) misleading, shaming and confusing for your clients. Because it directs them to relate to trauma on the level of the mind. It can have them believing they should be able to Think their way out of a trauma state or reaction (and by trauma here, I’m referring to any frozen or reactive responses arising from the reptilian brain).

Trauma is primarily held in the reptilian brain and the nervous system and must be met on the level of the body. If you haven’t Personally experienced and tracked your own nervous system in action it can seem like trauma is something you can just talk about and that’ll be enough for those “other” people who have trauma to feel taken care of.

It’s not. Or not if you are running embodiment or therapeutic processes. Because trauma is such a Body thing.. We communicate safety to our clients with our Bodies, our energy and voices. With our embodiment.

To be truly trauma informed you need to have deepened your capacity to track your own fight, flight, freeze or fawn behaviours, to be able to stay present in your body and inner felt-sensing, and to experience the process of release and resolution of at least Some of your bound trauma or shock from the past.

This doesn’t have to be an intense process. You don’t have to go to the bottom of your barrel to be embodied in trauma informed facilitation. (In fact it works better if you start with pleasurable felt-sense processes to experience your nervous system in response to “good/ok” sensations). It doesn’t mean that you need to have “healed” your deepest stuff. Just that you’ve been willing to experience your own nervous system in action without just Thinking about it. You’ve walked the track you want your clients to feel safe to walk with you. (I see it a bit like reconnoitering before a hike.. you’ve checked out what the cliffs and ravines are like and your feet know the terrain).

So yes, having the information is a wonderful start. But if the information hasn’t moved through your body and the foundations of your work (the words you speak, the pacing, the level of choice you give and most importantly your embodied Presence) it can be a bit like a lot of “trendy” words spoken over the top of an old system. And it can be like walking your clients out on the hike with just a paper map in your hands, when their terrain is an alive, moving landscape.

This is why I’m offering an experiential training in trauma informed facilitation. 
Because I see a lot of wonderful counselors, therapists and coaches who have the information, but haven’t walked it through their body. They either don’t use the tools they have, or they talk “trauma informed” but don’t embody it, and so cant actually support someone in real time when needed. (Leading to clients staying stuck, blaming the work, and both of you losing confidence fast). Which I know is not what you want. You want to see your clients more free and happy and you want to be of service in a tangible way.

Being trauma informed to me means being more deeply human. More anchored in these fleshy vehicles. More present, compassionate and inclusive. And from that place, hearts heal. Families become healthier and poor strategies for survival are no longer chosen. You don’t need to yell so much when your nervous system, and that old wound, has been met. You don’t need to shut down and cut off from other people when your freeze response has been unwound and safety found in the body again.

Healing trauma releases a Lot of bound energy that can then be used for creating good things; more gardens, more spacious time hugging. More meditation and silence and listening to the wisdom of the earth. More good creative thinking, more systemic change that is connected to present-time Care.

Let’s do that, hey

If you want and need your work to be more embodied and trauma informed, this program will take you through 3 stages:

> Module 1: Work with the Mind to Support Somatic Healing
One of the biggest blocks to effective somatic work is the mind and the inner judge. This module will show you how to use the mind to support rather than hinder the process of resolution and healing. It’ll show you how to get deeper access to the somatic (embodied and programmed) patterns underneath thoughts and to know what to do when the ego/identity throws up defenses.

> Module 2: Landing in the Animal Body
This will teach you how to increase presence and body awareness in yourself and your clients (even the heady ones and the disassociated ones), understand and work with the body’s natural unwinding process, create emotional resiliency, and use language to create more safety and willingness in your clients body.

> Module 3: Successfully Work with Unconscious Programming
This module takes the core skills of the program and goes deeper into how to work with relational wounding, incorporate symbols and expressive arts, how to work with shame or common patterns of bracing or collapsing found when a client is facing something that has felt too big for them to digest. This third module brings the entire training to a 400hr Certification in Somatic Therapy (recognised by IICT) 

You’ll learn how to work with intention and attention in a trauma informed way, the maps to work with someone in a freeze or shutdown state. How to work with fight or flight responses in a way that invites resolution. How to use “time” to make content more manageable and you’ll master the Goldilocks Method; how to create the right balance of safety and challenge to create healing.

The training also includes a module on ethics and trauma as well as bonus teachings on creating effective secure attachment in sessions and the structural and relational elements to working with diverse clientele (multicultural, gender or sexuality).

The course is delivered online in a series of live workshops over the space of 12months:
15 classes, 16 full workshop days, with 11 x group inquiry and connection calls, 11 x practice and case consult calls, 6 x 1:1 sessions with me and 2 x 1:1 video review sessions and lots and lots more designed to help you Embody the work personally, anchor the skills and frameworks well and then naturally offer that safe and grounded presence to your clients. 

Class times are offered on Thursday mornings and Monday evenings and the workshops on weekends (AEST)

The first Module begins as soon as you are ready, and the second module starts on June 6th.

Check out the full outline here.

There are limited places as I want to ensure good quality attention for each participant. 

If you are interested, please reach out via PM (I don’t always get notifications if you comment below). I’ll ask a few questions to see if you’re a good fit for the program and we can begin with Module 1 soon as you’re ready!

Much love

Amanda

A community building project,
Something that will reduce suffering in hospitals,
Or a healing business where you see awakening bloom in your clients.

Whatever it is, this dream has been dancing on the shelf, trying to get your attention for years.

Cause you’ve been busy taking care of business. Your own healing journey. The family and the material needs of a human life. It feels like there’s never the time to begin the thing. Or never the support to parent And build dreams. I know it, baby.

And what I know is, there are clear steps to moving from “I cant” to “I’m fucking doing it and it’s awesome!”

So here is the First, most important step:

BELIEVE it’s possible.

If you don’t actually think that this thing is possible for you. If all the reasons “why not” are bigger than the deep calling to do it anyway… you wont take a step and you’ll stay safe and small (and squirming).

But you can build your belief in simple and effective ways.

1. Stoke your fire. Remind yourself why you love this thing. Let yourself feel the pull to it. Tolerate the discomfort of the contrast between what is now and what you see is possible. Let your passion for it build. Give yourself to what you’re passionate about. Remember WHY this thing pulls you. If you can, write that down. Often.
2. For this exercise, suspend any thoughts about why it won’t work, why it’s not possible for you, why there’s no time or energy. That’s none of your business (truly!)
3. Gather supporters. When we’re fumbling in the dark for something we’ve never experienced before, we need some external hand holds. Humans who’ve been there or are doing it already. Find people who inspire you, who are doing the thing you’re doing. Contact them, reach out, get in the energy field of people who already know (believe) this thing is possible.
4. Gather evidence. Find images that look like the thing happening.. surround yourself with them and look at them regularly. Anytime something Vaguely along the lines of your dreams happens WRITE. IT. DOWN. (this makes it more concrete and tangible). Surround yourself with a new dialogue about what is actually possible in your world and don’t back down.

Fight for your vision. Be like a bulldog with a bone and fight for your souls longings. Don’t wait for someone else to do it and don’t let yourself collapse here. You Can do it. You’re worth it. Miracles are possible. Be the bird who flys.

Want to begin your evidence and support gathering right now?

Well let me share with you, when I first wrote this article, I’d had my own dance with a burning dream for years. A dream to help women land more in their gifts, in their bodies and in their power. To bring the heart, in female and male bodies, back to the centre of things. To heal the disconnection and disease so rife on our planet. My dream was that leaders with heart rise up and create a better world… there was so much Light in this dream! (and.. for years it felt like it was already done, with you and me and the whole shebang of intelligent consciousness at our back).

At the time I was giving 1:1 sessions doing just this. I was apprenticing in a Conscious Development Essence school.

This evolved over time into people coming to me asking for me to share my wisdom and the last 5 years now of giving training, Certifications in my method and mentorship to practitioners who share my dream.

And please know… in amidst this was a lot of messy, human fumbling, doubt, fear, scramble and all the rest. Life finds a way my love, even and including your imperfections.

SO BELIEVE. You can have it

And if there’s any way I can support that, I would LOVE it!

Check out my courses here:

and my Sessions here: