Do you work as a helping professional or in a role supporting other humans? If so, then your work involves working with trauma in one way or another. Because
if you work with humans, you work with trauma
Trauma impacts all of us, whether that’s in our individual lived experience, culturally, relationally, or through our ancestry (or a combination). And as such, when we work with other humans we are working with trauma. Both the trauma of those we are working with and our own.
With this I have been supporting helping professionals for a number of years, providing consultancy around trauma and working in trauma-informed ways, both in the way they plan and promote their business and services, and in providing client consultations, along with offering a space to land and supervision in exploring how their work is impacting them.
Sessions are all online (via Zoom), so they can be accessed internationally, from wherever is most comfortable for you.
It is also important to note, that while I do offer some explanation for what each of these elements of support can include below, much (if not all) of this work is non-linear and so the support any two individuals receive from me during one-to-one sessions, while perhaps exploring similar themes, will look different in terms of the focus, pace, length and types of explorations we enter into. I say this as I believe many forms of trauma support and supervision for helping professionals are hugely prescriptive and do not allow for your human complexity.
Note: While these sessions might provide support that feels therapeutic at times, these are not therapy sessions. You get to share with me as much of your trauma and life experiences as feels good and appropriate to you within our time working together, and it is also not a requirement that you enter into deep processing work to receive the benefits of this support. And, unlike traditional therapy practices, I do not focus solely on the mind (with embodiment being a huge part of my work) or on the individual or pathology being the ‘issue’ (considering how we are impacted by culture and systems). Also, while you might ask me to provide guidance within our sessions, these sessions are also not coaching - in that I am not trying to lead you to a certain place. Additionally, these sessions do not replace any supervision that is required as part of your licensing or registration in a particular role (unless your employer/licensing allows for it to replace this). These sessions can be accessed alongside therapy or coaching or any other form of workplace support, if that is right for you (or not).
How can we work together?
Please click the + to expand the below sections for more information about the types of sessions I can offer:
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In ongoing supervision we can meet every week or every other week, exploring what it means to work in trauma-informed ways. These sessions are person-centred, so we won’t be working to a prescriptive format, but rather I will meet you where you are and we can delve into what is most present for you in your work.
This is a space where we can explore how your work is impacting YOU.
This is a space for you to land while you while you navigate your work, and perhaps also in a body that holds trauma and the complex intersections with being human (e.g. chronic illness, mental illness, grief, oppression…) and as you navigate all of the other systems and relationships involved in your work and life.
This is a space for your to be met in your complex reality, and to be seen as whole and fully human throughout it all.
I will meet you in this space human to human. I enter this space believing you and your experience and trusting you to know your work best.
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We can explore the complexities of your life and how this needs to be considered in your work, along with looking at how particular cases or clients or experiences might be stirring up trauma or other challenging experiences from your life - offering you a space to land in all this.
We can also explore the planning of your work in terms of your capacity and how sustainable certain aspects of your work are for you.
And throughout it all I will meet you in companionship and compassion, welcoming your complexity and advocating for you doing your work in a way that truly works for you, and not in a way that feeds into oppressive conditioning around work, that often leads to burnout.
PERSON-CENTRED & CO-CREATED SUPPORT:
As this is ongoing support, any trauma-informed consultancy I offer on an ad-hoc basis (see below) can be weaved into our sessions.
While there may not be time to offer our Trauma-Informed Trainings or all of the principles we work with in these are present across all of my work with professionals. If you want to take part in training or an audit at the same time as ongoing supervision, we can explore options around this too.
And, because I recognise that professionals are also humans living with trauma too, any support offered within 1-1 Trauma Support Sessions can be brought into our Supervision too (you don’t have to choose one of the other).
As part of this support, you are welcome to email me between sessions (this is not a crisis service and I ask clients allow 72 hours for a response, unless otherwise notified about my availability).
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When we are working with other humans, it can be useful to have a space and another human to check in with around certain aspects of our work - especially around working in trauma-informed ways (we really cannot do this work in an isolated bubble). And sometimes, if we are not in a position to take part in ongoing supervision, we might we might still need to consult with someone on a more ad-hoc basis.
Trauma-Informed Consultancy Sessions are 1 hour sessions that can be booked as one off sessions (or I can offer a package of sessions at a reduced rate).
This is a space to consult with me around a topic/issue/question coming up for you related to working in trauma-informed ways. (Given these are one-off sessions, I invite you to think about the area you want to focus on upon booking your session).
Here I offer you a space to explore and consult upon how trauma and its complex intersections are impacting you or your clients/people you work with.
And/or we can explore how to approach your work in a way that both considers trauma and supports you and your clients to do the work you do in the most resourced way possible.
You are welcome to explore with me how you might approach certain cases or experiences in your work, along with planning (short-term and long term) for your work in a way that considers trauma (including the trauma of oppression).
Who are these sessions for?
Anyone who is in a helping profession or who supports other humans as part of their work, such as somatic practitioners, trauma practitioners, coaches, therapists, support workers, crisis workers, healthcare workers, doulas, consultants or leaders in personal or community development, leaders or teachers or those who run community groups (online or offline) such as creatives or movement instructors, and many others. I also work with people in the early stages of starting their own business or entering into this kind of work.
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If you support humans in your work in any way and you think you could benefit from these sessions, then I’d love to see if we would be a fit for working together.
You can read more about Trauma & Co.’s values here.
My work is based upon the following principles and practices:
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Person-centered meaning you get to decide what support you need and what direction we go in from the beginning and in every session. I will not assume to know you or your experiences better than you, and I believe you and your knowing of yourself first and foremost, including in whether you want to work with me.
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Consent-based meaning I will continuously check-in with you throughout our work (including in the consultation phase) and even, or especially, during sessions to ask for consent before we enter into/continue with a particular kind of work, and I will listen for non-verbal indicators that a No might be present. And I encourage and celebrate your No, as well as your Yes. (In addition to how exploring consent in and of itself is a huge part of this work.)
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Non-pathologizing meaning I do not believe you need to be fixed, or that there is anything wrong with you in your trauma responses. Trauma begins with our bodies doing what they needed to do to keep us alive and any impacts of trauma thereafter do not indicate that anything is wrong with you or your body, but rather you are human and impacted. A huge part of my work is in trying to normalize these human experiences, while acknowledging how we all need support and offering support while you navigate your human experiences and needs (often in a culture that repeatedly pathologizes us).
I will not (and cannot) diagnose you with any health condition (mental health or otherwise) and I will explore your support options with you, should you want and need them. I will acknowledge and try to work with the times when labels are useful in accessing support, and when certain labels or diagnoses make a conversation more accessible or understandable, and I will always explore what this means for you and continuously be in conversation with you around the meaning you place on words, diagnoses, labels or terminology.
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Anti-oppressive meaning I am dedicated to working towards collective liberation and I am continuously unraveling the layers of my own oppressive conditioning, including in the work I do and in the cultures/sectors/professions I work within/alongside, and that I can meet you in exploring how oppression has impacted you (including its traumatic impacts) and in unraveling your oppressive conditioning, too, should you feel safe enough to explore these areas with me.
You can also read Trauma & Co.’s values here.
