Trauma hurts. Your professional development doesn’t have to.
Professional development experiences, made for your team.
Serious Information, Unserious Delivery, Seriously Valuable
Topics and Content
We make and deliver creative, custom PD products and services for teams that want to lead better and work more effectively in the context of trauma.
No workshop or training we do is the same, and topics covered are based on client areas of interest and what outcomes they hope to achieve.
What we bring to every engagement is our trauma-informed perspective and our core focus on increasing worker wellbeing and mitigating the impact of trauma on the workplace.
Why TIW?
Trauma has a massive impact on humanity, and it shows up at work everyday, whether or not teams are trauma-trained. On top of personal trauma, today’s workforce faces external adversity that impacts their wellbeing and professional effectiveness. Economic, political, environmental, and other conditions are pushing down on workers alongside an artificial intelligence revolution that can seem to threaten both our ability to earn a living and even the value of our lived experience and minds.
Considering this, we believe the leaders of the future will be the humans who human best. Think “soft skills,” but bigger. Think “psychological safety,” plus 5 more principles. Think “putting people first,” and discovering the business does better when you do.
Trauma-Informed Leadership is a radically human way of thinking about our coworkers, and its related skills help leaders support people to do great work, despite our frailty, pasts, and the complicated world we live in. Trauma-Informed Workplaces will have a competitive advantage in coming years because working conditions that meet the moment for workers will be able to meet whatever the world throws next: steady, people-centered, and resilient.
Our Style
Workers want employers to invest in their growth, but they don’t want to sit through another generic, boring, work presentation they’ll forget by Monday morning.
Modern attention has to be earned and kept, and we embrace the challenge. TIW trainings are designed for engagement, and we’re inspired by the content elements that people love about social media, especially speed, variety, interactivity, humor, and storytelling.
Our Sources
Now more than ever, quality information matters. We draw from clinical, academic, and organizational leadership research and frameworks, and we practice source transparency.
OUR ENGAGEMENT PROCESS
STEP ONE : Contact us.
Your custom professional development experience starts with curiosity. You are curious about us, so you email or set up a 30-minute video call. Now, we are curious about you. Because we have backgrounds in mental health counseling and professional peer support, we approach the helping relationship with humility and recognition that you are the expert on the call. You know yourself, you know your team, and you know your company. We listen, ask questions, and share ideas until a workshop or training starts to take shape.
STEP TWO : Review and approve our proposal.
We send you a proposal with outlined content, format, possible activities, digital resources, and pricing. If you have feedback, new ideas, change requests, or questions, you respond via email and we work together until the proposal is right.
STEP THREE : Sign agreement, make payment, and schedule workshop.
We send you a standard services agreement to sign and an invoice that matches your preferred payment plan. Once the agreement is signed and the invoice is paid, we officially schedule and block off 1.) A leadership prep call about a week before your workshop begins, and 2.) Your workshop date(s)
STEP FOUR : We go to work for you.
We prepare for your workshop, drawing from the catalogue below and pulling in relevant new materials as the project develops.
STEP FIVE : Leadership prep call.
It’s a week before your workshop! You meet on a prep call with us to discuss housekeeping and unresolved details. We preview your deck and digital resources and ask for your thoughts and input, usually covering practice scenarios and stories to verify relevance and alignment.
STEP SIX : Go time!
We facilitate an inspiring, valuable development experience for your team.
STEP SEVEN : Feedback
We request person-to-person feedback from you to ensure that every engagement makes us better.
Training Catalogue Samples
Trauma-Informed Workplace Core Training
Trauma shows up at work in ways you might not recognize. This training demystifies what trauma actually is, why it matters in professional settings, and how the six principles of trauma-informed practice create workplaces where people feel safer and perform better. Teams learn to recognize the signs of activation in themselves and each other, and they discover what trauma-informed leadership actually looks like in real conversations and real moments. Teams walk away with shared language and tools they can use immediately.
OMG Don’t Tell Me That : Boundaries and Role Clarity Training
Compassion can blur lines. This training tackles the hard question of how to care about your people without becoming their therapist or emotional dumping ground. Participants practice setting boundaries that feel trauma-informed (not cold), learn the difference between a trauma-informed managers and a therapist, and develop strategies for responding with genuine compassion while protecting ourselves and the organization. The skills here prevent burnout, equip supervisors with tools for tough topics, keep relationships professional, and ensure people get routed to the right resources when they need them.
WTF Just Happened : Trauma-Informed De-Escalation
When someone's nervous system goes into overdrive, the usual management playbook doesn't work. This training teaches leaders how to create safety in moments of activation, understand what's actually happening in a dysregulated person's body and brain, and respond in ways that calm rather than escalate. Participants practice scenario-based skills so they know what to say and do, and they learn nervous system regulation techniques they can model and teach their teams. It's practical, hands-on, and built for the real situations leaders face every day.
Fight My Brain : Communication for Neurodiverse and Trauma-Impacted Teams
Who’s Next? : Leading After Layoffs
Layoffs leave trauma in their wake, and not just for those who leave. This training addresses the hidden cost of staying: survivor's guilt, broken trust, and the psychological toll on remaining staff. Participants learn how to rebuild safety and cohesion after upheaval, hold space for grief and uncertainty without losing professionalism, and navigate the hard conversations about the future with transparency and humanity. The result is a team that can move forward with trust intact, rather than operating from fear.
I’m Actually Not OK : The Cost of Caring
Compassion fatigue, secondary trauma, and burnout are real occupational hazards, especially in helping professions and high-stress industries. This training names the difference between these invisible injuries, helps staff spot them early in themselves and others, and teaches concrete strategies for prevention and recovery. Participants build an individual self-care plan and explore what organizational supports actually prevent people from running on empty.
Real Life Self-Care for Professionals
TIW Emerging Leader Training
New managers are often promoted for being great at the work, then handed a team with no training in how to lead it. This training gives emerging leaders the foundation others were never given. Participants learn what the role of a manager actually is, how to set clear expectations, delegate with confidence, and run one-on-one conversations that build trust. They practice giving feedback, handling their first difficult moments, and managing their own stress so they can stay steady for their teams. Using a trauma-informed lens, they learn how safety, clarity, and consistency affect performance. Emerging leaders walk away with practical tools they can use the next day.
Kindness, Clarity, and Regulation : Performance Conversations Training
Hard conversations go wrong when people's brains perceive criticism as threat. This training outlines how the brain processes feedback, what gets in the way of communication, and how to talk to employees about their performance in ways they can actually receive and act on. Training participants practice real scenarios and learn what to say (and what not to say) so that reviews rebuild trust instead of damaging it. They walk away with a trauma-informed framework for giving professional feedback, with tools and skills that can be practiced the next day.
I’ve Literally Been There : Leveraging Lived Experience
This training is for teams that employ people who have lived experience with recovery, trauma, or the issues your organization serves. It helps them and their leaders learn to leverage that expertise without being reduced to it. Lived experience experts develop disclosure strategies, learn how to build credibility despite the stigma that surrounds lived experience, and navigate the unique challenges of working alongside clinicians and clients.
“So engaging and practical. My team never pays attention to anyone, but this got them.”
“We found Mandy on TikTok and are so glad we did! She hit on every topic we requested and made it such a fun experience for our staff.”