Most ‘Trauma-Informed’ Coaches Aren’t
- Brainz Magazine
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 11 hours ago
Written by Rebecca T. Dickson, Leadership Coach
Rebecca T. Dickson is recognized as one of the most transformational leaders in the world. She is the founder of The Yes Method, teaching leaders how to feel and process emotions, an intuitive author, a horse medicine practitioner, and a huge fan of nature-based therapies.
'Trauma-informed' has become the coaching industry's favorite buzzword. Add it to your bio, and suddenly you can charge premium rates for working with "complex clients." Take a weekend course on nervous system regulation, and you're qualified to help people heal from childhood abuse. But here's what nobody wants to admit, most trauma-informed coaching isn't.
The weekend warrior problem
Coaches take a 16-hour certification course and often emerge believing they understand trauma. They learn about fight-flight-freeze responses and think they've mastered nervous system science. They memorize the definition of co-regulation and assume they can provide it.
This is like taking a first aid course and calling yourself a surgeon.
Real trauma-informed work requires understanding how trauma actually rewires the nervous system, not just knowing the buzzwords. It means recognizing the difference between someone who experienced a difficult divorce and someone with complex developmental trauma. It means understanding that breathing exercises won't resolve dissociation patterns that formed in infancy.
Most importantly, it means knowing when you're in over your head.
What trauma actually is (and isn't)
Here's where coaches can get it wrong from the start, they think trauma is about what happened to someone. Bad childhood. Abusive relationship. Car accident. Check the boxes, call it trauma-informed.
Trauma isn't what happened to you. Trauma is what happened inside your nervous system when you couldn't process what was happening to you.
This distinction matters because it changes everything about how you approach healing. If trauma is just "bad things that happened," then talking about them and finding the silver lining should help. If, instead, trauma is unprocessed activation stuck in your nervous system, then you need interventions that work at that neurobiological level.
Most trauma-informed coaches are still operating from the "bad things happened" model. They're doing talk therapy without a license, believing that processing the story will heal the nervous system.
The dangerous overreach
The coaching industry has a scope of practice problem, and nowhere is it more dangerous than with trauma work.
Coaches regularly take on clients who are dissociating in sessions, having flashbacks, or struggling with suicidal ideation. They convince themselves that because they're not calling it therapy, they're operating within their scope.
This is like saying you're not practicing medicine, you're just helping people with their mysterious chest pains and shortness of breath.
When someone's nervous system is dysregulated to the point where they can't function in daily life, that's not a coaching issue. When someone is having intrusive memories that feel like the trauma is happening right now, that's not a mindset problem.
These are clinical presentations that require clinical training.
The neurobiological gap
Most trauma-informed coaches can recite the basics, trauma gets stored in the body, the nervous system remembers everything, window of tolerance matters. But ask them how memory reconsolidation works, or what happens neurobiologically during a flashback, and you'll get blank stares.
They know trauma lives in the nervous system, but they're still trying to heal it through the thinking brain. They understand that trauma responses aren't logical, but they keep using logical interventions.
This is why so many clients see trauma-informed coaches for months or years without lasting change. The coach is working at the wrong level of the system.
Real trauma healing happens through experiences that meet trauma at its own neurobiological intensity. Not through talking, journaling or positive thinking. Through interventions that can compete with the original traumatic encoding.
The certification mill
Much of the trauma-informed coaching certification industry is built on a lie, that you can learn to work with trauma in a weekend workshop.
These programs teach surface-level concepts without any understanding of clinical complexity. Students learn to identify trauma symptoms, but not how to actually address them. They memorize safety protocols but don't understand nervous system regulation well enough to maintain it.
Worse, these certifications give coaches false confidence. They believe their certificate protects them legally and qualifies them professionally. Neither is true.
The real cost
This isn't just about coaching standards. It's about human suffering.
When coaches without adequate training take on traumatized clients, people get hurt. Clients who need clinical intervention spend months or years in inappropriate treatment. They blame themselves when coaching methods don't work for their trauma responses. They conclude they're "too broken" for help.
Meanwhile, truly trauma-informed coaches, those with genuine training and appropriate scope, get lumped in with weekend warriors. The entire field loses credibility.
What trauma-informed actually means
Real trauma-informed coaching starts with understanding your limitations. It means knowing the difference between coaching someone with a trauma history versus treating active trauma symptoms. It means having robust referral relationships with licensed therapists.
It means understanding how trauma affects the nervous system so thoroughly that you can recognize when someone needs clinical care, not coaching. It means having interventions that work with the body's wisdom, not against it.
Most importantly, it means ongoing education. Trauma research evolves constantly. What we knew five years ago has been updated by new neuroscience findings. Real trauma-informed practitioners stay current with actual research, not coaching industry trends.
The path forward
If you're a coach who wants to work ethically with trauma survivors, start with an honest self-assessment. Do you understand memory reconsolidation? Can you recognize different types of dissociation? Do you know when someone's window of tolerance has been exceeded?
If not, you're not ready to call yourself trauma-informed.
Get real training. Not a weekend workshop, but a comprehensive education that includes supervised practice. Learn from those who understand the full spectrum of trauma presentations.
Understand that trauma-informed coaching isn't about healing trauma. It's about working appropriately with people who have trauma histories, while they're stable and functioning.
The bottom line
The coaching industry desperately needs practitioners who truly understand trauma. People are suffering, and they deserve better than surface-level interventions delivered by well-meaning coaches with inadequate training.
But calling yourself trauma-informed doesn't make you competent to work with trauma. It makes you responsible for getting the training that actually prepares you for this sacred work.
Because when someone trusts you with their deepest wounds, "I took a weekend course" isn't enough.
If you're ready to become genuinely trauma-informed, not just trauma-curious, my comprehensive certification program teaches you to work ethically and effectively with trauma survivors. Learn evidence-based interventions, understand your scope of practice, and develop the skills to truly help. Learn more about trauma-informed coaching certification.
Rebecca T. Dickson, Leadership Coach
Rebecca T. Dickson is recognized as one of the most transformational leaders in the world. She is the founder of The Yes Method, teaching leaders how to feel and process emotions, and rise. During her 16 years in the coaching industry, she has served tens of thousands of clients globally. The mission: Be yourself.
