Welcome to Mental Health First Coaching!
“We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.” ~ Galileo
My role as a Certified Trauma Recovery Coach is to give my clients a safe space to create a strong, trusting relationship and offer the tools and inspiration for us to uncover their own unique path to healing.
Life as we know it is constantly changing and sometimes past experiences can make change feel extremely difficult. By healing from our past we can learn to see life in a new light and embrace change as an opportunity for greatness….
My Story-My Purpose
My name is Brian, and I am a fellow mental health trauma survivor who has dedicated the rest of my life to helping others heal from their past and live fully in the present.
We all experience trauma in life. The question is not “if” someone has experienced trauma, but “when” and “how deeply” do those experiences impact their present-day life. Trauma can simply be described as any experience from your past that could not be emotionally processed in the moment and therefore leaves an “imprint” in your body that remains until it can be healed and released. Trauma is not limited to catastrophic events like car accidents and military missions. Something as simple as “family dynamics” can cause us to store unprocessed emotions as traumatic experiences.
Personally, I have experienced generational trauma, developmental attachment trauma, PTSD, CPTSD, emotional neglect, and emotional abuse. I spent the first 20 years of my life unaware of the degree that my past was negatively affecting my present-day life experiences. Traditional psychotherapy was unsuccessful in treating my symptoms around generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and depression. With that realization, I finally decided that if I was going to live the life of joy and happiness that we all deserve, I was going to have to go within and find the answers to my own healing.
Over the next several decades I figured out that my clinical diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and depression all stemmed from past trauma and that the only way to be free was not to try and cope with symptoms, but to heal the underlying source of the pain.
Why is Trauma Recovery Coaching Effective?
Trauma Recovery Coaching is powerful and effective because it is experiential in nature. Unlike traditional talk therapy, as a Trauma Recovery Coach, I will help you learn through interacting and taking action, not just talking. The most powerful tool I work on developing with clients is the development of the “Objective Observer Self.” This is a part of one’s self that was usually lost during traumatic experiences in the past. In order to develop the “Objective Observer Self,” we cultivate the ability to detach from our “pain body” or “trauma identity” and become curious around why we are reacting to certain outside circumstances with perceived threat or negativity on the inside. Detachment and curiosity are the gateways to becoming present and transcending the suffering that we experience when we are trapped in the past or the perceived negative future. This is because the most challenging aspects of interpreting the motive or message behind a behavior, belief or emotional response is both a limiting perspective and a flawed system of meaning making. Using the “Objective Observer Self” can address both of those challenges: helping my client to see a different aspect of their behavior, belief and emotional response, thereby allowing them to make a different non-threatening meaning out of their present-day experiences.
My Trauma Recovery Coaching goals are to help my clients:
• Establish personal safety
• Feel heard, validated and understood
• Learn how to connect with themselves and others by first connecting with me
• Identify the negative beliefs they learned due to their trauma and replace
them with truths
• Understand how intergenerational trauma, family mythology and family
systems have affected them
• Understand how their trauma impacted them biologically, psychologically,
emotionally and relationally
• Identify any maladaptive coping mechanisms (addictions) they are employing and
focusing on building adaptive coping mechanisms through developing overall emotional sobriety.
• Identify their strengths and maximize them
• Set goals and action steps for their recovery
• Develop a toolbox full of strong coping techniques to facilitate healthy
personal change and make their recovery smoother
• Connect with adjunctive resources that will help them meet their recovery
goals
• Discover and develop their authentic self
Coaching vs Therapy
One of the questions that I am most frequently asked about Trauma Recovery Coaching is how it differs from traditional therapy. The easiest way I have found is using a medical example. Say that someone had an accident and they needed immediate emergency care. They go to the hospital and see a doctor who can care for their significant injuries, prescribe medicine, and diagnose. The medical intervention is aimed at bringing the patient from a critical to a stable condition.
Once the patient is stable and discharged to go to their own home, they no longer need a doctor to guide their recovery. Instead, they can call home health, friends, and family to make a full recovery possible. The patient still needs help and can’t fully recover on their own, but they are no longer in an unstable condition. At this point a coach helps the patient assess where they are currently and set goals for recovery. Together, the coach and patient navigate the necessary path to healing for each individual.
To further clarify, coaches help clients with issues that are presently occurring in their life, as well as planning for the future. We do not, as coaches, dwell on past traumas for longer than necessary to gain insights for healing. We only revisit past trauma to gain understanding of why or how current issues came into being. Helping clients understand the “origin of an unhealthy belief or behavior” can help them discover how to build a new, healthy manner of coping with or changing it now in the present.
One-on-One Coaching
Thank you for making the effort to take the inward journey to heal from the past and live to your full potential. We can all do this by working with ourselves to build the internal strength, love, and resiliency necessary to be truly present with every waking moment. By developing this awareness, we allow ourselves to interact with our everyday experiences from a space of clarity and intention. As your Certified Trauma Recovery Coach, I will be here to guide you through your healing process and help you reach your recovery goals. I have been on my own healing journey for over 20 years and I am honored to help you navigate your recovery journey and goals.
One-on-One Coaching - Single Session without a package - $120 USD
6 Session Package - 6 One-on-One Coaching Sessions - Discounted Rate - $95 USD per session
12 Session Package - 12 One-on-One Coaching Sessions - Discounted Rate - $75 USD per session
Sliding Scale Pricing - I hold limited spots that can be further discounted for those facing financial hardship. Please email me directly for details.
Contact me!
Email me directly for a 30 minute complementary discovery session.
brian@mentalhealthfirstcoaching.com