Why 'Write On!' Trauma-Informed Coaching?

Why "Write On!" Trauma-Informed Coaching?

As a "trauma-informed" coach, I bring to my coaching practice a deep understanding of the ways in which trauma impacts everyday life for so many of us. My abiding underlying conviction is that not only does one survive trauma, but that, given the right circumstances, settings, and support, one can thrive. One often emerges from traumatic experiences with untapped resources, with unique personal capacities and gifts. I will help you to recognize these strengths in yourself, not only the courage it took for you to survive, but also a myriad of other capacities that you might have yet to see in yourself. I can be a mirror in which you can see reflections of your uniquely gifted self.

An underlying principle of my work as your coach is the understanding that present-tense challenges are often rooted in trauma -- childhood and family crises and chaos; incest, rape, and other forms of violence, sexual and otherwise; addiction; war; poverty; racism; homophobia, and other exposures to violation and threat. Often, though not always, these traumas arise from systemic and institutionalized practices. 

While both coaching and therapy are multi-dimensional and potentially transformative processes on your journey towards emotional and physical well-being, in therapy the most fertile ground for exploration often resides in the deep past. While these explorations take place in the context of the patient's present tense goals, revisiting scenes of trauma and reliving traumatic memories are more likely when working with a therapist than they are in your work with a coach. 

In the coach-client partnership, you will focus mostly on the present; you and I work together to identify the areas of your life that need attention, those in which you feel "stuck" (wherever these challenges present themselves -- in your relationship to yourself, in your intimate relationships, in your friendships, in the classroom, at the workplace, in your "family" of origin (or in the "family" you have created), among other arenas. I will work with you and guide you to devise strategies and practices that can help you get "unstuck." This process will involve identifying your strengths, setting goals, and devising a plan for reaching those goals. You will learn to  recognize your unique gifts and capacities as you construct a life based on these strengths. 

If you are in therapy, coaching can help in several ways: In times of crisis you might feel the need for more than the once a week or bi-weekly support of your therapist; coaching might function as a "bridge" between therapy sessions. Coaching is far less costly than therapy. When the work of therapy opens you to disquieting and painful memories, coaching can help you ground yourself in the here and now, reducing fear and panic and challenging self-limiting beliefs, helping you to regulate your nervous system, and giving you a place to land in which you feel safe and "seen." 

Finally, as a college Professor of literature and writing with decades' worth of experience, I have witnessed first hand the profound and seemingly miraculous kinds of discovery and transformation that arise from acts of writing and reading, acts through which you will connect more deeply and more authentically to yourself, to others, and to all humanity. 

As we work to uncover your gifts and to understand your unique challenges, literature can be another mirror and writing the road towards meaning and purpose. Together, reading brief excerpts from literary texts that I will select for you personally as we get to know each other, and "free-writing" in response to these texts and/or to our conversations, will open you to the deepest parts of yourself, not only those places where you might heretofore have felt painfully alone but also to those places where your truest self resides, including your pre-trauma self. Once you begin to see yourself reflected in the literature and in the writing, there is no end to the exciting possibilities for growth, for living life with meaning, a sense of connectedness, passion, compassion for self and other, and depth.