Trauma Recovery Coaching Certification Program

NEXT COURSE BEGINS ON February 18, 2025

Are you a survivor of trauma who would like to use all that you've learned in your recovery to help other survivors?

Do you have a natural ability to connect with those who are hurting and help them find peace and happiness?

Would you like to make a difference in the world and change people's lives?

Trauma Recovery Coaching might be the career for you! Trauma informed care is much needed in every part of the globe. Millions of people around the world experience trauma — whether as a result of childhood or adult interpersonal abuse, natural disasters, serving in combat zones, workplace harassment and bullying, serving on the front lines as a police officer or paramedic, racial oppression, marginalization due to ability or sexual orientation, or being displaced from their homes due to war, drought or famine. Looking solely at childhood trauma, in the United States alone 700,000 children are abused and neglected every year. Hundreds of thousands more endure other types of trauma around the world.

There are shockingly few resources to help trauma survivors around the globe, individuals who are suffering from mental health issues such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as well as problems with relationships, jobs, handling emotions, developing identity and self-worth. These survivors need and deserve help that is Trauma Informed.

Trauma Recovery Coaches serves a desperately under-served community. As we have worked in the mental health arena for the last 27 years we have encountered thousands of adult survivors of trauma. needing and wanting affordable, high quality help recovering from their trauma. Trauma Recovery Coaching can meet this need, if provided competently and ethically.

We are excited to offer the world’s first and original Trauma Recovery Coaching Certification program. Successfully completing the program and gaining your certification will give you the skills you need to provide care to the international community of survivors.

The certification process

All classes are recorded for the convenience of our students so that they can fit class time into their personal schedules. Classes will open Friday morning each week, except for the first week of class which will begin on Tuesday February 18, 2025. Students will have 18 months from the beginning of their course to complete certification and portfolio requirements.

To assist you in the learning process we will hold bi-weekly Q&A’s throughout the semester for students to attend live and ask questions about course material. Q&A sessions will be held, in our online classroom. To accommodate different schedules and time zones they will be offered the first Tuesday at 11am EST and the third Wednesday at 7:30pm EST each month. Q&A sessions will be recorded and the replay will be available within 48 hours for students who are unable to attend live. Our Q&A sessions will be hosted by our Executive Director and Course Creator, Bobbi Parish and one of our credentialed Supervisors.

We also provide students with three mentors who are available to engage and answer student questions in the group feed in each cohort. Mentors will answer student questions within 24 hours during the weekdays and engage with students about course topics throughout the semester.

Beginning the third week of class we will hold Practice Groups — on a variety of days and times announced after class begins. These groups are like the lab portion of the class — we learn the material during Tuesday and Wednesday’s class and then practice and apply it in Practice Groups. These groups will be facilitated by certified Supervisors. They will allow you to, initially, observe Trauma Recovery Coaching and, after four weeks, practice coaching with the group’s Supervisor and other students. We require that you attend at least 13 Practice Groups.

Aside from the weekly class and Practice Groups you will need to spend approximately three to four hours watching videos we have made, reading required books and documents, and completing homework. There will be some assignments along the way, geared at both helping you to understand yourself and to sharpen your skills as a coach.

You will begin your 7.5 hours of Practicum work during the last month of class. You will be paired with two other students to form a Practicum Triad. Your triad will meet five times during the Practicum period. During the each session the three of you will take turns fulfilling the role of coach, client and observer. You will rotate through these roles in each 90 minute long practicum session so that each of you gets a chance to play each role five times. For your final Practicum sessions one of our credentialed Supervisors will be present to do a final assessment of your coaching competency.

During the final month of the class you will also attend 5 Supervision groups. These are led by our Supervisors and are held throughout the week at varying times and dates. Attending Supervision Group will give you an invaluable opportunity to interact with experienced coaches who are out in the field doing this work. It will also give you an opportunity to ask for help in building your coaching practice and consult about clients you work with. After you finish your coaching course and receive your credential you are welcome to attend Supervision Group at any time, at no cost to you. The Association is committed to providing free Group Supervision to all of its coaches because it believes this support is incredibly valuable. It is the only professional organization of its kind that provides free Group Supervision to its coaches.

During the final week of class we’ll offer an additional Q&A session to answer any questions and wrap up details. You will need to successfully complete a Portfolio project and pass a written exam, with score of 80% or more, to obtain your certificate. The test is offered 13 times a year in a virtually proctored environment. You will receive Study Guides and have access to practice questions and a Study Session to prepare you for the examination.

The Portfolio consists of a video taped coaching session you have provided to a client along with case studies and completed forms and worksheets. When we have received your portfolio our Portfolio Review Team will evaluate your work to insure that you have met our coaching competencies. If you have not met the standards set for the Portfolio we will provide you with written feedback as to what needs to be done to bring it up to standards.

Certification requirements
 

• complete the course by watching the recorded classes

• attend Four Observation Practice Groups

• attend Nine Participation Practice Groups and demonstrate coaching competency during your time playing the role of a coach

• attend Five Group Supervision sessions

• attend Five Triad Sessions and demonstrate core coaching competencies through your completed Practicum

• demonstrate coaching competency by passing the written examination with a score of 80% or higher

• demonstrate coaching competency by submitting a satisfactory Portfolio

• successfully manage your recovery journey so that it doesn’t adversely impact your coaching capacities

• demonstrate that you can perform as a Trauma Recovery Coach within the boundaries of the Association’s Code of Ethics

• complete your certification within 18 months from the date of the original course you joined

What you will learn

The class is broken down into five parts:

Part I — Defining trauma and Trauma Recovery Coaching

Part II — How does trauma effect children and adults

Part III — Learning Trauma Recovery Coaching sills

Part IV — Coaching as a Business skills - how to set up and run a coaching business

Part V — Practicum Experience

Specific skills you will learn:

• Basic Coaching Skills such as Attunement, Anchoring, Centering and Grounding

• How Abuse, Neglect and Dysfunction Effects Children

• How a Traumatic Childhood Impacts Adulthood

• The Difference Between Therapy and Coaching

• Advanced Skills and Resources for Coaching a Trauma Survivor

• Coaching Protocols for Safety

• Intakes, Assessments, Crisis Management Plans and Recovery Goal Pans

• The Neuroscience of Trauma Including Polyvagal Theory and the Impact on Brain and Body Development as a Result of Trauma

• Trauma’s Impact on Somatic and Emotional Development

• The Role of Shame in Trauma and How to Address it in Trauma Recovery

• Incorporating Diversity, Culture and Intergenerational traditions/trauma into coaching

• Bottom up and top down coaching strategies to help clients tap into their bodies innate healing wisdomSk

• Using Supportive Methods of Healing such as Bodywork, Expressive Arts and Writing

• Self-Care Strategies to Avoid Burn Out and Vicarious Trauma

• The Code of Ethics of Certified Trauma Recovery Coaching

• The Guiding Principles of Certified Trauma Recovery Coaching

• Running a Coaching Business

You can review the February 2025 Initial Coaching Course syllabus here.

Why Become a Trauma Recovery Coach?

Serving survivors of childhood abuse is one of the most rewarding careers you can choose if you desire to help others. There are so many adults who need help recovering from their dysfunctional upbringing that the need for coaches is virtually endless. You will have the opportunity to immediately impact other's lives for the better. 

Coaching is also very versatile. You can coach out of your own home using Skype or other video conferencing methods or you can meet clients face-to-face. You can coach with groups or clients or just one at a time. Coaching can be your part time career or your full time career. You set your own schedule and determine your own fees.

what can I earn as a Certified Trauma Recovery Coach

We cannot guarantee you an income of a specific amount. However, we will teach you how to price your fees and structure your appointments to maximize your income. Most Trauma Recovery Coaches charge between $75 and $200 an hour. However, there are multiple other ways to earn income other than doing one-to-one coaching:

• Teaching trauma related courses both for survivors and helping professionals, on or off line

• Holding webinars for survivors, families of survivors, and helping professionals

• Consulting with organizations, employers and even churches who want to provide trauma informed services

• Group coaching, online or in person

• Retreats for trauma survivors

• Writing books

• Speaking about trauma and abuse

All of these methods can be combined to earn a very livable wage as a Certified Trauma Recovery Coach.

Why Work with us to become certified?

We are internationally recognized experts in Trauma Recovery. We’ve worked with 1000's of survivors of domestic violence, childhood abuse, dysfunction and neglect around the world. Bobbi Parish, MA, CTRC-S, our Executive Director, holds a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology and a Master's of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy, graduating number one in her class from her graduate school program.

We are significantly different from other programs that teach trauma coaching. We are an organization of Trauma Recovery professionals who use the modality of coaching to help our clients. We are mental health professionals first and coaches second. Other programs are coach education businesses who teach coaches how to work with trauma. They build a non-specific coaching box and try to fit trauma into that model. We build a trauma box, customized to fit the science of trauma recovery, and have built a significantly effective coaching model that fits this very specific trauma box.

As the first Trauma Recovery Coaching program in the world we have pioneered the field of Trauma Recovery Coaching. No other organization has written coaching safety protocols and a Code of Ethics for the field. We are the first to put those together into a Trauma Recovery Coaching Certification Program.

To support and organize Trauma Recovery Coaches who obtain certification we also launched the International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching. This program credentials Trauma Recovery Coaches and upholds the highest quality and ethical standards within the field of Trauma Recovery Coaching. No other trauma coaching program has a professional organization to support, resource and provide continuing education after students graduate.

We offer free Group Supervision to all of our coaches. Supervision is a requirement of all other mental health professions — therapists, psychologists, social workers. Because we are mental health professionals as well we utilize the Supervision process as a means to support our coaches as they work in the field of trauma. No other mental health professional association offers free Supervision to their members. But we see it as so valuable in how it offers resources and community building to our coaches that we do just that.

Our program is also uniquely focused on diversity. We lead the way in teaching our students how to incorporate the aspects of each client’s unique experience into the coaching process. Our coursework has elements of diversity and understanding the trauma of being in a minority or marginalized community built into every educational and experiential component.

This program is not just another coaching education program written by someone who thinks they understand trauma from an outsider’s point of view.

We know what trauma survivors experience and understand what it takes to recover. Our program has been entirely developed, written, taught and led by trauma survivors.

We have used our experience and education to create a robust educational program. Some of our students have reported experiencing more healing in their own trauma recovery journey as a result of taking our classes — because they are coming to understand trauma in a new way.

Why isn’t The International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching accredited by the International Coaching Federation?

The International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching (IAOTRC) is not accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) for several reasons:

First, we are fundamentally different in our structure, purpose and methodology from the ICF. The ICF is a coaching organization that upholds a set of core competencies, competencies which set a clear path for how accredited programs teach coaches. They are not designed to support any type of coaching that varies from their model and competencies. In that way, their focus is on ensuring conformation to their methods rather than a coaching program's effectiveness or impact because they believe their way forward is the best way.

The International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching does not conform to the ICF's model of coaching. We are not coaches who work with trauma survivors. We are trauma professionals who use the modality to coach to help trauma survivors build a life they love to live.

If we were to conform to the ICF's methods and competencies we would be limited in our capacity to help trauma survivors. Doing so would essentially gut our program of it's most effective and beneficial components. For this reason we have neither sought, nor will seek, ICF accreditation.

Second, The IAOTRC has always been on a path toward becoming an accrediting body for Trauma Recovery Coaching. Recognizing that standards and competencies are helpful within a profession we have pioneered the development for those within the modality of coaching with trauma survivors. A Code of Ethics, Guiding Principles and Core Competencies are vital to our success, but they must be ones that work for the population we serve. In the next few years the Association will launch their accreditation process.

If you wish to obtain an ICF credential you may still use our course to pursue that. If you follow the Portfolio Path you will be able to submit your course hours with us toward the number of overall coach education hours needed. Please refer to the ICF website for more information on that process.

Content and Technology

All of the coursework will be offered online. Other required content will be available in PDF format, via audio files and via recorded videos.

Aside from the content we have written and will provide, there are four books that are required reading during the course: Complex PTSD by Pete Walker, The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory by Deb Dana and Trauma Stewardship by Laura Van Der Noot Lipsky and Connie Burk.

To participate in the course you will need to have and be able to utilize Zoom. You may need to sign up for a basic account so that you can record yourself providing coaching. We will talk more about technology in our first session.

Certifying with us offers other perks and bonuses

• A listing in our Coach Directory on The International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching website promoting you and your coaching services.

• Opportunities to be featured in our Online Summits, Social Media and YouTube Channel. Access to webinars and group supervision offered only to our coaches.

• Membership in our private network of coaches to network and access peer support during the 18 month certification process.

• Eligibility to take Advanced Level courses which will earn you Advanced Certification and CE Credits.

• After receiving your Advanced Level Certificate you will be eligible to earn your Supervisor Level Certificate, which will allow you to teach Initial and Advanced Coaching Certification courses and to Supervise Initial Certification Coaches. Read about the Path from Initial to Supervisor Certification.

hOW DO i REGISTER?

Be sure to read our Disclosures and Terms & Conditions before you register!

Enroll now - Take advantage of our Early Enrollment discount~

The early enrollment fee is $2850 January 31, 2025. (US Currency).

An initial non-refundable deposit of $700 is required to hold your spot for either deadline.

The enrollment fee will increase to $3100 February 1.

COURSE TUITION PAYMENT OPTIONS

This course is limited to 80 individuals on a first come, first served basis. Full Payment or $700 deposit secures your spot. No spots will be held without payment.

Pay in Full

Our most popular payment option is for students to pay the course tuition in full.

Automatic 6-month Payment Plan: 

ALL DEPOSITS ARE NON REFUNDABLE

When students are unable to pay in full after the initial deposit, the Association offers a 6-month automatic payment plan. If you are utilizing the payment plan you must set up automatic payments in Dubsado to make the 6 payments after you’ve paid your deposit. Payment plans will have a monthly $25.00 processing fee added. Please email helpdesk@iaotrc.com if you have any questions or need to change the date your payments are deducted. $700 deposit (to hold your spot) and six installments of $425 ($400 + $25 processing fee) due every 30 days.

*Automatic payments are requires. If a student fails to set up automatic payments the student will be removed from the course and forfeit any refund. 

** Full payment is required to receive Certification. If students complete all other requirements and the course tuition has not been paid in full, and a student wasn’t removed from the course, their certification will be held until payment is made in full. If payment is not made in full within 18 months from the start date of the course, students will forfeit certification rights and all payments made.  

Do you have questions? Please read through our FAQ page. If you have further questions please reach out to Info@IAOTRC.com

We have had unprecedented interest in our classes. We encourage you to place a deposit if you are interested in the course.

REFUND POLICY

BEFORE CLASS STARTS

If a student pays in full and withdraws from the course before it starts, a refund of all charges except the deposit fee, will be made to them within 30 business days. Please reach out to helpdesk@iaotrc.com to make withdrawal arrangements. The non-refundable deposit fee may be applied to a future initial course if the student re-enrolls within the following two cohorts. Otherwise, non-refundable fees will be forfeited.

WITHIN 30 DAYS

If a student withdraws from the course after it starts but before 30 days into the course have elapsed, a refund of all charges except the deposit and the first monthly payment will be made to them within 30 business days. Please reach out to helpdesk@iaotrc.com to make withdrawal arrangements. Non-refundable fees may be applied to a future initial course if the student re-enrolls within the following two cohorts. Otherwise, non-refundable fees will be forfeited. 

AFTER 30 DAYS

If a student withdraws from the course after 30 days of it starting all funds paid to date will be forfeited. Students will be removed from the course. NO refunds will be offered. NO option of applying non-refundable fees to future certification will be offered. Students can enroll at full fee at any future date.

NON PAYMENT

If a student is removed from the course due to payment failure of our 6-month automatic payment plan all funds paid to date will be forfeited. NO refunds will be offered. NO option of applying non-refundable fees to future certification will be offered. Students can enroll at full fee at any future date. 

NON COMPLETION

If a student does not complete the certification requirements within 18 months and has not applied for or was denied ECP re-enrollment due to extenuating circumstances all funds paid will be forfeited. NO refunds will be offered. NO option of applying non-refundable fees to future certification will be offered. Students will not be awarded certification. Students can enroll at full fee at any future date. 

Renewal Requirements for Initial Certification:

• 1st Renewal at 2 Years: 

  • Obtain supervision: either 25 group hours and 5 individual hours with an IAOTRC Supervisor OR 35 group hours 

  • Obtain 15 credits in Continuing Education Units 

  • Successfully complete an Ethics Review and Quiz

  • Pay a $50 certificate renewal fee 

  • Submit a copy of your current Policies and Procedures document

• 2nd Renewal at 2 Years & Subsequent 2 Years: 

  • Obtain 15 credits in Continuing Education Units

  • Successfully complete an Ethics Review and Quiz

  • Pay a $50 certificate renewal fee 

  • Submit a copy of your current Policies and Procedures document