What is Trauma-Informed Coaching?

The journey of healing begins with understanding.

When life's challenges leave invisible scars on our hearts and minds, we often need guidance to navigate through the shadows toward the light. Trauma-informed coaching represents a powerful pathway for those seeking healing—a compassionate approach that acknowledges the profound impact trauma can have on every aspect of our lives while creating safe spaces for growth and transformation.

At its core, trauma-informed coaching is an approach that recognizes the potential impact of trauma on an individual's life and creates a safe, supportive environment for clients who have experienced trauma. The primary goal is to help clients heal and build resilience while honoring their unique experiences and perspectives.

Unlike traditional coaching methods, trauma-informed coaching incorporates an understanding of how traumatic experiences affect the mind, body, and spirit, allowing coaches to work with clients in ways that avoid retraumatization while empowering them to move forward.

This approach recognizes that trauma isn't just a psychological issue—it's a whole-person experience that requires a holistic healing approach. The trauma-informed coach understands that what we often label as "problematic behaviors" or "resistance" may actually be adaptive responses to past trauma. Rather than asking "What's wrong with you?" the trauma-informed coach asks, "What happened to you?" This simple shift in perspective opens the door to deeper understanding and more effective healing.

What makes trauma-informed coaching particularly powerful is its emphasis on creating safety first. Before any meaningful growth can occur, clients need to feel secure within the coaching relationship. This foundation of safety allows for exploration, vulnerability, and ultimately, transformation. Through this trust-building process, clients can begin to reclaim parts of themselves that may have been lost or hidden away due to traumatic experiences.

As you contemplate your own healing journey, consider how a trauma-informed approach might offer you not just coping mechanisms, but a pathway to profound personal transformation—one that acknowledges your past while opening doors to a future defined by resilience, self-compassion, and renewed purpose.

A Typical Session.

Entering a trauma-informed coaching relationship can feel like stepping into unknown territory. Understanding what happens during a typical session can help ease apprehension and create a sense of readiness for the transformative work ahead.

When you first meet with a trauma-informed coach, you'll likely notice a difference in the environment and approach right away. These coaches create a safe, non-judgmental space where clients can grow and move forward. The physical space itself is often designed to promote comfort and security—perhaps with comfortable seating, soft lighting, and minimal distractions. This intentional environment helps signal to your nervous system that you're in a place where it's safe to open up.

The session typically begins with grounding exercises designed to bring you fully into the present moment. These might include deep breathing, gentle movement, or mindfulness practices that help regulate your nervous system. Your coach will explain that these practices serve as anchors that you can return to whenever you feel overwhelmed during the session or in your daily life.

As the session progresses, you'll notice that your coach uses a particular communication style—speaking in a calm, measured tone and providing clear information about what to expect. They'll emphasize your autonomy, frequently checking in about your comfort level and ensuring you feel in control of the pace and direction of the conversation. Trauma-informed coaches prioritize making sure clients feel physically, emotionally, and mentally safe throughout the process.

When discussing your goals and challenges, a trauma-informed coach won't rush to solutions or action steps. Instead, they'll take time to understand the context of your experiences and how they might be influencing your current situation. You might be surprised by the coach's attentiveness to subtle signs of discomfort or overwhelm—they're trained to notice when your body language, breathing, or voice tone indicates you might be moving outside your "window of tolerance," the zone where productive work can happen.

During the session, you may experience a range of emotions—perhaps relief at finally feeling understood, grief for past experiences, or hope for the future. Your coach will normalize these responses and help you navigate them with compassion. You might notice physical sensations as well—perhaps tension releasing from your shoulders, a knot in your stomach loosening, or a sense of your breath deepening. These bodily responses are important signals that your coach will help you recognize and interpret.

As the session draws to a close, your coach will guide you through another grounding exercise to ensure you feel centered and present before returning to your daily activities. They may offer simple practices for you to try between sessions—not overwhelming homework, but manageable steps that support your continued regulation and growth.

Throughout this process, you remain in the driver's seat of your healing journey. The trauma-informed coach works with you to develop recovery goals, identify resources needed, and support you in the changes you determine are best for your needs. This collaborative approach ensures that the path forward aligns with your values and respects your innate wisdom about what you need.

After several sessions, clients often report experiencing a growing sense of safety within themselves—an inner sanctuary they can access even when external circumstances feel challenging. This internal resource becomes a foundation for more profound healing and transformation.

The Benefits.

The journey through trauma-informed coaching offers numerous profound benefits that extend far beyond simply managing symptoms or coping with difficult emotions. This approach can catalyze deep healing and transformation across multiple dimensions of your life, creating lasting positive change that evolves over time.

One of the most immediate benefits of trauma-informed coaching is the development of increased self-awareness. As you work with your coach, you'll begin to recognize patterns in your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that may have been invisible to you before. This greater awareness of personal strengths and individual worth opens doors to new possibilities and can improve relationships. Clients often describe this as a "coming home" to themselves—rediscovering aspects of their identity that had been overshadowed by trauma responses.

The trauma-informed approach also facilitates remarkable shifts in how you relate to your body. Many trauma survivors experience disconnection from physical sensations as a protective mechanism. Through gentle somatic awareness practices guided by your coach, you can begin to rebuild a trustworthy relationship with your body, recognizing it as a source of wisdom rather than threat. This embodied healing allows you to access resources you may not have realized were available to you.

Another significant outcome is the development of emotional regulation skills. Trauma can disrupt our ability to navigate emotional experiences, sometimes leaving us feeling either overwhelmed by intense feelings or numb and disconnected. Trauma-informed coaching provides practical tools for understanding, expressing, and managing emotions in healthier ways. Over time, clients report a growing sense of emotional flexibility—the ability to experience the full range of human emotions without being overtaken by them.

The ripple effects of these internal changes naturally extend to your relationships with others. As you develop greater self-compassion and boundaries, your interactions with family, friends, and colleagues often transform as well. Coaching from a trauma-informed approach promotes growth and healing, helping individuals learn to use more beneficial coping mechanisms, build resilience, and become more self-confident. Many clients report that their capacity for authentic connection deepens, allowing for more satisfying and supportive relationships.

Perhaps most importantly, trauma-informed coaching fosters resilience—not just the ability to bounce back from adversity, but the capacity to integrate difficult experiences into a more expansive understanding of yourself and your life. This resilience becomes an internal resource that continues to serve you long after the coaching relationship has ended.

The beauty of these benefits is that they tend to unfold in a natural, organic way. Rather than forcing change through sheer willpower, trauma-informed coaching creates the conditions for your inherent healing capacity to emerge. The coach doesn't "fix" you—instead, they help you access your own innate wisdom and strength, supporting you as you reclaim your power to create the life you truly desire.

The Science.

The field of trauma-informed coaching is built upon a solid foundation of scientific research spanning neuroscience, psychology, and various therapeutic disciplines. Understanding the evidence behind this approach helps illuminate why it can be so effective for promoting healing and growth after trauma.

At the heart of trauma-informed coaching is our evolving understanding of how trauma affects the brain and nervous system. Research in neuroscience has revealed that traumatic experiences can significantly alter brain structure and function, particularly in areas responsible for processing emotions, assessing threats, and forming memories. Trauma results from "an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or threatening and that has lasting adverse effects on the individual's functioning." These neurobiological changes help explain why traditional coaching approaches that focus primarily on cognitive strategies or goal-setting may be insufficient for trauma survivors.

The polyvagal theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, has been particularly influential in trauma-informed approaches. This theory explains how our autonomic nervous system responds to safety and danger, and how trauma can disrupt these responses. Trauma-informed coaches draw on this research to help clients recognize their nervous system states and develop skills for regulation, creating the physiological conditions necessary for healing.

Attachment theory also provides crucial insights for trauma-informed coaching. Research shows that secure attachment relationships can help repair the neurological damage caused by trauma and create new neural pathways associated with safety and trust. Studies have shown that the implementation of trauma-informed care approaches has resulted in improved outcomes for patients and systems. The coaching relationship itself becomes a vehicle for this healing attachment, offering a consistent, supportive presence that helps rewire the client's expectations about relationships.

While specific research on trauma-informed coaching is still emerging, studies on related trauma-informed approaches in healthcare, education, and mental health settings provide compelling evidence for their effectiveness. For example, a systematic review published in the Journal of Mental Health Systems identified five key factors for successful implementation of trauma-informed care: leadership commitment, sufficient staff support, amplifying the voices of those with lived experience, aligning policies with trauma-informed principles, and using data to drive change. These findings inform best practices in trauma-informed coaching as well.

The growing body of research on post-traumatic growth also supports the trauma-informed coaching approach. This research demonstrates that with appropriate support, many trauma survivors experience not just recovery but significant positive transformation in areas such as appreciation for life, personal strength, and meaningful relationships. Trauma-informed coaching focuses on specific tactics designed to make environments more accessible and inclusive for trauma-affected individuals.

Despite these promising foundations, it's important to note that more research specifically examining the outcomes of trauma-informed coaching is needed. Several systematic reviews have found limited evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of trauma-informed approaches in various settings, highlighting the need for more rigorous evaluation studies. However, the absence of extensive specific research does not negate the value of this approach, which integrates well-established principles from trauma-informed care with effective coaching methodologies.

As the field continues to evolve, trauma-informed coaches should stay current with emerging research and best practices. This commitment to evidence-informed approaches ensures that clients receive the most effective support possible on their healing journey.

Origins.

The history of trauma-informed coaching weaves together ancient healing traditions, modern psychological insights, and evolving understanding of human resilience. While the specific term "trauma-informed coaching" is relatively recent, the principles that underlie this approach have deep historical roots across diverse cultures and healing practices.

Throughout human history, communities have developed rituals and practices to help individuals cope with and heal from traumatic experiences. Indigenous healing traditions often included ceremonies for warriors returning from battle—early recognition that exposure to violence and danger requires intentional reintegration into community life. Eastern contemplative traditions like Buddhism and yoga incorporated practices for cultivating present-moment awareness and compassion that we now understand are crucial for trauma recovery.

The modern understanding of trauma began to take shape in the late 19th century. Early accounts of traumatic stress were recorded in both military and civilian populations, with terms like "soldier's heart" and "nostalgia" used during the American Civil War to describe trauma reactions.

Sigmund Freud and Pierre Janet were among the first to propose that psychological trauma could cause lasting psychological symptoms, though these insights were often disregarded or forgotten in subsequent decades.

Interest in trauma surged following the World Wars, particularly as clinicians sought to understand and treat the psychological wounds of returning soldiers. However, it wasn't until the 1970s and 1980s that a more comprehensive understanding of trauma began to emerge. The feminist movement brought attention to previously ignored forms of trauma such as domestic violence and sexual assault, while Vietnam veterans advocated for recognition of what would later be termed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The formalization of trauma-informed approaches began in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The term "trauma-informed" started trending around 2004, with a noticeable uptick since 2011, partly due to national efforts from the National Center for Trauma-Informed Care and other organizations. In a seminal 2001 article, Harris and Fallot proposed that systems working with trauma survivors should undergo fundamental changes to avoid retraumatization and promote healing.

The specific application of trauma-informed principles to coaching emerged as the coaching profession itself grew in prominence during the early 21st century. Pioneering organizations began to offer specialized training for coaches working with trauma survivors, recognizing that standard coaching approaches needed adaptation to be effective and ethical for this population.

In recent years, the field has seen significant developments in both theory and practice. Moving the Human Spirit designed what is recognized as the first trauma-informed coaching course accredited by the International Coaching Federation, with co-founders Brad Hardie and Susan Hogarth pioneering these practices. This represents an important milestone in the professionalization of trauma-informed coaching.

The evolution continues today as trauma-informed coaching integrates insights from diverse fields including neuroscience, somatic psychology, attachment theory, and mindfulness practices. This interdisciplinary approach reflects growing recognition that trauma affects the whole person—body, mind, and spirit—and that effective coaching must address all these dimensions.

As we look to the future, trauma-informed coaching continues to develop in response to emerging research and evolving social awareness. The increased recognition of collective, historical, and identity-based trauma is expanding how coaches understand and address trauma in their work. Cultural humility and social justice perspectives are becoming increasingly central to trauma-informed approaches, acknowledging that healing happens not just within individuals but within communities and societies as well.

The journey of trauma-informed coaching from ancient healing wisdom to contemporary practice reminds us that while our understanding continues to evolve, the human capacity for healing and transformation remains a constant thread throughout history.

Have you tried Trauma-Informed Coaching?

If so, we’d love to hear from you.

1. What was your experience like?

2. How did you feel afterwards?

3. What would you share with others who are considering this healing method?

Your feedback will help us build a community conversation about this, and give others an understanding of what it’s truly like to experience this practice.

Thank you 🙏🏼

References

1. Goldstein, E., et al. (2024). Effectiveness of Trauma-Informed Care Implementation in Health Care Settings: Systematic Review of Reviews and Realist Synthesis. The Permanente Journal, 28(1), 135–150. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10940237/

2. Harris, M., & Fallot, R. D. (2001). Using trauma theory to design service systems. New Directions for Mental Health Services, 89, 1-103. As cited in SAMHSA. (2014). A Review of the Literature - Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207192/

3. Maynard, B. R., et al. (2019). Effects of trauma‐informed approaches in schools: A systematic review. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 15(1-2). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cl2.1018

4. Saunders, K. R. K., et al. (2023). A scoping review of trauma informed approaches in acute, crisis, emergency, and residential mental health care. BMC Psychiatry, 23(1), 567. As cited in PubMed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31081263/

5. Thomas, M. S., Crosby, S., & Vanderhaar, J. (2019). Trauma-Informed Practices in Schools Across Two Decades: An Interdisciplinary Review of Research. Review of Educational Research, 89(2), 295-325. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0091732X18821123