Trauma is an emotional response. Most people will encounter situations in life that trigger some kind of trauma. Short-term fear, anxiety, shock, and anger/aggression are all normal responses to trauma. Such negative feelings lessen as the crisis abates and the experience fades from memory, but for some people, the feelings can linger, interfering with day-to-day life. Sufferers of long-term trauma may develop emotional disturbances, including extreme anxiety, anger, sadness, guilt and disassociation.

How can a parent coach help a parent support their child who may be experiencing effects of trauma?

First, it is important to note that a parent coach is not a mental health professional treating trauma as a part of the coaching relationship. Coaches work as part of an integrative team including out-patient or in-patient therapists and the treatment center, consultants and educational professionals. Your coach helps you to understand and interpret diagnostic information coming out of treatment. Your coach helps you to shift your interactions, responses and household structure to better support a child learning how to regulate their responses stemming from traumatic experiences. A coach can help you better understand these responses, prepare for them, and identify when a child might be entering a fight-flight-freeze response pattern so that you as a parent may help them work through it.

How can a parent coach help a parent manage their own trauma?

It is not uncommon for a parent to feel traumatized by the events that lead up to out of home placements on top of having potentially experienced prior trauma. Likewise parents may have unresolved trauma that can lead to responding to our children from places of fear, guilt or anger. Working with a parent coach can help you build the skills to identify when you are responding, or not responding, to a situation based on a trauma response, and will teach you concrete skills to accept and move through these emotions and back into effective action.

If you need support in this area and want to explore our contract options, please BOOK A CONSULTATION today.