Trauma Awareness + Trauma Informed Care Training
Creating Safer Space For Coaches, Therapists, Healers & Facilitators
Simple, effective, trauma-informed tools and understanding to support your clients who’ve been impacted by trauma (hint: many more than you think).
Creating Safer Space is designed to
take coaches therapists, facilitators and healers from ‘great’ to exceptional. This go-at-your-own-pace course helps you understand what might be happening below the surface for the people you’re facilitating and guiding so that you can open the doors of communication in ways that might not be possible otherwise.
This global course has helped hundreds of participants feel more balanced, confident, and clear in the ways they interact with and guide their students with a trauma-aware and trauma-informed lens. They report breathing deeper, having more of themselves available to show up genuinely, and feeling present and connected to their people, while seriously up-leveling their skill, integrity, and mission to bring their gifts into the world to help others.
If you want to support the next level of excellence and engagement for your clients and programs, this is the place to be. You will be guided to set a foundation that will support, grow and sustain your work in a way that feels GOOD to your body, heart, and mind (and that of those who come to see you).
“Safety is The Treatment”
“Creating Safer Space was instrumental in how I built my business and also how I work with clients. I know I say money is subjective, but it is the biggest bargain I think I’ve ever seen. Your pricing is so accessible for what you offer - it’s incredible. Creating Safer Space was that beautiful mixture for me of really tangible things that I want to implement in my business and a real massive step back of ‘alright, how do I want to build this and how do I want to be?”
Business coach for the radically fabulous
(Seattle, Washington)
ELLIE BARCLAY
But Shelby, how can I know what’s happening within all of my clients all of the time?
You can’t know it. We don’t make assumptions in trauma-informed care - we sit in a place of curiosity and non-judgment.
You can’t know what’s on your client's minds, what’s within their hearts, or whatever emotions are swirling within them, but you can know that they are complex humans managing a lot in there.
This is why it makes SO MUCH SENSE to make creating safer spaces our top priority.
What would be possible for us as facilitators, and for our students and clients, if the people that come to us feel safe enough to be even more open, to be vulnerable, to get curious with us, to explore and play within an experience that is truly healing?
Imagine the experiences people could have if they felt truly comfortable in our care.
Imagine being the kind of facilitator who can skillfully take people to the edges of their discomfort in a way that feels safe enough for them to go just a little further than they thought they were capable of.
Imagine knowing how to facilitate this dance with discomfort in “safe enough space” and how much MORE our students and clients could receive if we tipped the scales in their favor and knew how to create safer spaces for them.
join
Creating Safer Space
Discover simple, effective, trauma-informed tools you can use immediately to level up your space holding skills for the people you support.
One-Time-Payment of $550 or 4 monthly Payments of $140
19 Modules of Creating Safer Space
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Welcome to the course! You get to experience firsthand what it might be like to show up to a trauma-aware experience. Immerse yourself in orienting in action, and feel this in your own nervous system as it’s modeled for you.
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Drop into awareness of how to support others with trauma, and how to support yourselves in the midst of supporting others who have trauma. Get clear on the importance of what happens during arriving for folks with trauma, and play with some experiential exercises so you feel in your own body and nervous system what you’re learning - how it feels, creating a safer space for yourself.
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Getting a little nerdy, in a really accessible way! This module helps you to understand what trauma is, how it impacts pretty much everyone, and the number 1 way to support people with trauma.
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This helps you understand what a container is and why it’s fundamentally important to creating safer space for just about everybody. It breaks down how to create a solid and healthy container for the experience you’re giving your people. AND, lots of examples so you can hear what this sounds like and how you might use what you’re learning to do this for your people.
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As you’ve read about at the top of this page - we go into more detail on the difference between ‘a SAFE space’, which we can’t promise anyone, and ‘SAFER space’ which we can absolutely work towards providing. Learn how to invite people into supportive experiences without making promises about safety.
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Getting a little nerdy, in a really accessible way! This module helps you to understand what trauma is, how it impacts pretty much everyone, and the number 1 way to support people with trauma.
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Learn how to invite people into the experiences you’re offering in a way they’re likely to be SO much more receptive to your guidance. We’ll also talk about the balance between being direct, offering empowered choice, and why telling people to ‘close their eyes’, or ‘relax’ is often not so helpful, and what you can say instead.
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Oh, the importance of this module! Here you learn to track a truly empowered yes or no, and how healing it can be to honor a ‘no’. You’ll understand how to sense this in your own body and also how to help your client or student convey this to you so you can be fully supportive of what THEY need at any given moment.
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It can feel SO GOOD to have people doing what you tell them to, but that’s not giving them the responsibility to learn how to make wise choices for themselves. When we learn how to share power with our people, it’s incredible what healing and growth can occur with high integrity and ease. This is something that’s often been taken from this and we can help them restore their personal power when we can understand what might be happening here.
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Faster and more intense do not equal deeper - as much as many people crave intense, cathartic experiences, these are not always the most skillful way for people to receive the gifts you offer them. Learn some tools for working with people’s edges - how to bring people towards their edge, but not over.
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4 surprising character types to look out for in your classes and sessions, and what each of them needs. By looking through the lens of these types you’ll be able to start recognizing how trauma shows up in the room by paying attention to these various characteristics that people display.
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Why it’s important to have an awareness of the cultural conditioning the majority of us have around our sexuality and how it impacts disconnection from our desires. Adding to the conversation around power dynamics, responsibility, and a wake-up call for embracing our motivations when supporting folks around healing sexual trauma, growing capacity for sexual intimacy, and creating permission for ALL parts of our students and clients to be present.
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Easy-to-follow tools you can use to support people who are experiencing an activated moment while in your care, and how to support yourself in this too. When people become really overwhelmed or shut down, you can implement these tools - accessing them immediately so they’re right there when you need them.
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4 surprising character types to look out for in your classes and sessions, and what each of them needs. By looking through the lens of these types you’ll be able to start recognizing how trauma shows up in the room by paying attention to these various characteristics that people display.
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Learn about how to support Queer, Trans, and Gender Non-Conforming folx as care providers, and the importance of understanding the power dynamics of the "how-to's" of learning about folx with different identities from ourselves, about creating repairs, and so much more.
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Learn the language you can use to support people in feeling safer, practices you can use with clients/ students (and yourself!), ways to help people come into the present moment and tap into their resilience and how to share and teach resourcing so your people are more and more empowered.
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Where to go next? Additional reading, trauma awareness tips for facilitators, and a beautiful grounding practice for you to explore. Everything you need to deepen your understanding, right at your fingertips. This is a constantly growing resource toolkit that will be a supportive foundation for you to return to over and over again.
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Learn about how to support Queer, Trans, and Gender Non-Conforming folx as care providers, and the importance of understanding the power dynamics of the "how-to's" of learning about folx with different identities from ourselves, about creating repairs, and so much more.
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Access to the recordings from the latest rounds of Creating Safer Space Live - 6 live calls with Shelby to deepen your understanding of trauma awareness and the course content. These calls explore many topics from personal to professional and dive into rich content extending your trauma awareness education.
MEET THE GUEST TEACHERS
Creating Safer Space includes a huge bonus - in-depth conversations with a variety of teachers, healers, and space holders on the ways they create safer spaces in their work.
You’ll receive incredible wisdom and many different perspectives on topics like consent, choice, empowerment, change, navigating the edges of overwhelm with people, and more.
BECOMING TRAUMA-INFORMED
People don’t need to relive the stories of their past in order to heal and move forward in a thriving way. When we’re trauma-informed, we’re not digging for the root. We’re not putting the pressure of an agenda on the client. And we’re not trudging through the darkness to purposefully rehash the past. It will come up in the present, if it wants, within time.
We support our people to fiercely learn how to stay resourced here, in the present time - where freedom is possible.
impact
“A lot of the tools that I have, I've learned through Creating Safer Space or the Embodied Coaching Experience. The reason I feel that I’m embodied in these is because I've gotten to be in Shelby’s spaces and be on the calls with women and in the moment witness how these responses come up in my body and then act accordingly.”
Healthy Sensuality Coach
Casey Hall
But how?
We can’t MAKE people feel safe.
So many of us who are taught to guide meditations, teach yoga, and conduct one-on-ones and workshops, as therapists and coaches have been conditioned to say ‘this is a safe space’ because in our heart of hearts we want people to feel safe with us.
But telling people they’re safe doesn’t make them feel safe.
We can’t completely control the environment, and we can’t know what feels safe for every person we hold space for. So we can’t promise a completely safe space - and neither should we.
But we CAN work towards providing a SAFER space -- and we have a responsibility to do so.
So what do we do?
We create a safer space through actions, not through telling someone they are safe.
Relationship Is Healing
We can’t ignore the fact that trauma is constantly there, showing up in our conversations, in our actions, and in the way we feel, in how we learn, heal and grow.
While not all of us are constantly overwhelmed by the trauma we carry, trauma-informed care helps ALL of the people we work with be more present for the particular modality you offer - and integrate it so they can carry it with them for days, weeks, months or even years.
Your clients deserve to feel a human connection when with you.
Building a relationship builds trust. Building trust builds safety. And safe enough spaces are where relationships and confidence thrive.
The number one reason why most clients hop from healing modality to healing modality? It’s because they feel like their experience wasn’t well-nurtured.
We can build relationships that feel good and provide for our clients in a way that feels great.
Gone are the days of pushing our people into discomfort and telling them that’s how they heal. Haven’t they already been uncomfortable enough?
Healing and growth get to feel good (or better) and being trauma-informed will show you how.
“...this is very easy to implement, but it has a huge impact. It’s very powerful. It’s not something that’s so complicated you can’t wrap your head around it, it’s very simple yet profound tools that can make such a difference. That’s what I really liked - it was very easy to implement, but I saw a big shift.”
Breathwork Facilitator, Love & Relationship Coach
COLLEEN
“I see myself slowing down and being more thoughtful of my words and actions. Loving everything about this training!”
Therapist & Coach
(Portland, Oregon & Worldwide)
HEATHER DEVORE
join
Creating Safer Space
Discover simple, effective, trauma-informed tools you can use immediately to level up your space holding skills for the people you support.
One-Time-Payment of $550 or 4 monthly Payments of $140
CLIENT EXPERIENCES
TARAN
Counselor & Therapist
PABLO
Breathwork facilitator, Bali
I was just listening back to a coaching session I did as I was putting it together for my podcast, and realised the other thing I’ve learned so well from you is how to sniff out and recognise when trauma is likely present. And not to label it out loud, but to modulate how I respond and hold space. I go slower, I’m immediately paying extra attention to what level of intensity is doable in the moment, where their nervous system is at, asking for lots of permission and incorporating resourcing. There are so many signatures of potential trauma that I pick up on which I would not have recognised as such before. So thank you for that too!
CAROL ANNE
Sex, Love, and Relationship Coach, Northern Beaches, NSW, Australia
ANAKHA COMAN (she/her)
Leadership Development, DEI Culture, Mindfulness, Bend, Oregon
DAWN
Therapeutic Bodyworker, Sex, Love & Relationship Coach
“You know when you haven’t really gotten a certain piece of the puzzle, that makes things flow a little bit better… this program is filling in those gaps, filling in those little pieces. The puzzle is all coming together where I have the tools and the voice, and what to say, in a much clearer way.”
DANIELLA MATUTES
Woman’s Empowerment and Female Sexuality Coach
When you sign up for Creating Safer Space, you get access to:
15 videos with simple, incredibly effective trauma informed tools and practices for creating safer space so you KNOW you’re setting people up for the best possible experience with you. ($500 value)
Guided audio practices - hear a whole lot of examples of how to use what you’re learning in your own teaching and space holding. ($400 value)
Step by step practices you can use with your clients and students (or even yourself) to help them ground, center and resource. ($400 value)
Bonus interviews - several videos with a wide variety of guest experts, sharing how they “Create Safer Spaces” well in how they guide. ($500 value)
Access to a private online group to connect with other course participants, and have all your questions answered. (Priceless)
Dozens of past live teaching and Q&A call audios from past CSS live courses and office hours (priceless)
Optional discounted 1:1 Consult Calls with Shelby
PLUS…Bonus Pre-Recorded Community Practice Calls to broaden the circle of support for participants, to get alternate views and experiences of “trauma informed facilitation” from past CSS participants and to have even more time and space to practice embodied awareness while being guided by our worldwide team of skilled facilitators.
FAQs
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Creating Safer Space is designed in bite-size chunks - most of the videos are short. You could take one in each day for a couple of weeks, binge-watch them all in a day, or really take your time to integrate each new module before moving on (that last one is my recommendation!).
There are 9 hours of content, including bite-size videos, audio practices and examples, and guest teacher interviews.
You will have lifetime access to the course materials, so take the time you need!
There’s also the bonus extra of the interactive call recordings, which are a great extra resource - see how other Creating Safer Space participants are applying these tools in their practices and learn from the questions they ask (not included in the 9 hours).
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Yes! Creating Safer Space is approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, through provider Jen Atkisson (JentheNurse LLC) Provider Number #17338, for 6 contact hours.
Nurses, physical therapists, therapists, massage therapists, midwives, and other healthcare providers in the US, check with your board! You most likely qualify to earn these hours.
Once you have completed the course in its entirety (everything but the bonus interviews and live calls), you can opt to pay $40 to receive a course evaluation survey. After completion of the survey, we will review your evaluation and send you a certificate within 3-5 days that you can present to your board.
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It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. This is an INFORMATIONAL series - you won’t be a trauma expert at the end of it, but you WILL be trauma aware and trauma informed, and have a lot of tools to support your clients and students so you feel super confident in the spaces you hold.
This course is about creating spaces so your clients and students with trauma feel more resilient, resourced and held so the trauma they carry doesn’t overwhelm them while being guided by you. They’re more able to receive the value of what you’re offering.
This course doesn’t help you directly heal and/or resolve trauma - that’s for more specialized trauma therapists and is a much longer training process. However, clients and students may inadvertently heal naturally through these practices.
There are some guided practices AND there is an online group where you can ask lots of Q’s and get clarifications.
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This is a beginner to intermediate level trauma informed training, so it’s not for folks who have in-depth specialized body-based trauma training already like Sensorimotor or Somatic Experiencing or Organic Intelligence.
It IS for folks who care about their impact, and are willing to look at their blind spots, and to slow down enough to care about those they might be missing.
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Yes! When you click “I’M IN!”…
You’ll be directed to a payment page
Once payment is received, you’ll receive an email with access to the course and an invite to join our private online group on a platform/app called Circle where you can ask all of your questions.
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We sure do! If you’re not satisfied, just contact me within 30 days of purchase, and I’ll refund your money. No questions asked.
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Not a lot but I do drop a few “F-Bombs” for emphasis throughout the modules so proceed at your own risk ;-)
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Yes, we are excited to announce that the Creating Safer Space Course now offers closed captioning.
Money Back Guarantee
I believe strongly in the quality of Creating Safer Space. I’ve poured my heart and soul into creating this series to bring you simple, easy-to-apply tools and practices that will have a profound impact on the quality of the space you hold.
I confidently back it with a 30-Day, Money-Back Guarantee. I want you to dive in deep and experience the full wealth of this course without needing to worry if this is for you.
If you’re not satisfied, just contact me within 30 days of purchase, and I’ll refund your money. No questions asked.
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
― Maya Angelou
join
Creating Safer Space
And join hundreds of other amazing coaches, yoga teachers, therapists, breathwork facilitators, and other healers who are Creating Safer Spaces for their clients and students.
One-Time-Payment of $550 or 4 monthly Payments of $140
when you join
Creating Safer Space…
…you’ll receive so many tools and practices to create a sense of ease for people, and it all begins with how we set up the experience we’re offering, and how we orient someone to the experience they’re going to have with us.
In survival mode, we're not able to receive information or take in connection.
We’re not able to feel safe enough to experience the edges of our discomfort in a way that supports our healing and growth.
Orienting our clients to the work we are going to embark on is about first impressions. You know that first impressions count - we hear it all the time.
Orienting is how you create the first impression for someone - whether it’s the first time or the hundredth time they’re walking into your space. And believe me… they ARE sizing you up whether or not they are even conscious of it!
Bringing intention into how you Orient makes a HUGE difference, as you’ll learn when you listen to the audio examples included in the course. You get to hear Orienting in action, so you can experience what it feels like to be guided and introduced to what’s happening next and tune in to how it feels in your own body and nervous system. Then you can deliver that to your people.
Healing is a relationship we
create and grow.
But Who am I to Tell You This?
hi
I’m Shelby Leigh, and I’m so glad you’re here.
My journey has been filled with plenty of ups and downs. I became who I am today through quite a few dead end roads, misguided coping mechanisms, a depth of complex trauma, and a strong dose of PTSD.
But everything changed the day I walked into a Buddhist Meditation Class over 15 years ago and devoted myself to my healing.
I ended up getting a coaching certification, then a somatic psychotherapy degree, got another coaching certification in Sex, Love & Relationships, went deep into embodiment, tantra, and sensuality (which I use in my work and life everyday), started working with clients and realized I’m really passionate about this!
I’ve invested years into traveling the world, both teaching and also immersing myself in trainings and workshops. Through it all I would take notes specifically on what people are doing (and not doing) to create space for their students and clients that gives the best opportunity for healing and growth.
With my culmination of experience, I help people heal and grow so they can offer their gifts to others, integrating my somatic psychotherapy background to make sure that we’re navigating trauma in a way that doesn’t cause more.
In other words, I’m here to help people be more of themselves so they can heal their wounds and the world.
I want you to be able to TRUST that you can create a safer space so that your clients can heal, learn and grow with you and YOU can tap more fully into your AUTHENTIC VOICE, WISDOM and SPACE-HOLDING with incredible wisdom, care and compassion.
I designed Creating Safer Space to help coaches, therapists, facilitators and healers build long-lasting and understanding relationships with their clients by honoring their trauma. My goal is to help others create business practices that are human-centered, dignity-affirming, and trauma-informed is something I really value. I am so honored to share this with everyone on a deeper level inside of Creating Safer Space.
When you create a safer space that enables people to feel safe enough to have a life-changing experience in your care - that’s the kind of thing they’ll remember forever.
join
Creating Safer Space
And join hundreds of other amazing coaches, yoga teachers, therapists, breathwork facilitators, and other healers who are Creating Safer Spaces for their clients and students.
One-Time-Payment of $550 or 4 monthly Payments of $140