Trauma-Informed Coaching Certificate

The PERSEPHONE Model & Polyvagal-Informed Practice

Stabilizing Human Systems Under Pressure

Program Level

Intermediate to Advanced
(Professional Coaches, Executive Coaches, Supervisors, Leaders, HR & L&D Professionals)

Program Rationale

This program is built around the PERSEPHONE Model, a trauma-informed coaching framework that supports individuals and leaders navigating disruption, identity destabilization, and high-pressure transitions.

The program is explicitly informed by Polyvagal Theory (Stephen Porges), used as a neuroscientific explanatory framework to understand nervous-system states, safety, threat, and regulation in coaching contexts.

Trauma is approached not as pathology, but as an intelligent adaptive response of the nervous system and the self.

The program equips coaches to work safely, ethically, and effectively with trauma-impacted clients without crossing into therapy or trauma treatment.

Overall Learning Outcomes

By the end of the program, participants will be able to:

1. Apply the PERSEPHONE Model as a trauma-informed coaching architecture
2. Use Polyvagal Theory to recognize nervous-system states in coaching conversations
3. Distinguish clearly between coaching, therapy, and trauma processing
4. Support clients through disruption, descent, stabilization, and emergence
5. Expand client choice and agency under nervous-system load
6. Maintain psychological safety, pacing, and ethical boundaries
7. Integrate trauma-informed coaching into executive, leadership, and organizational contexts

Program Structure & Modules

Module 1 — Foundations of Trauma-Informed Coaching

Module Purpose

To establish a shared conceptual, ethical, and professional foundation for trauma-informed coaching practice.

Content

• Definitions of trauma, chronic stress, and adversity in coaching contexts
• Trauma as a nervous-system adaptation, not dysfunction
• Trauma-informed vs. trauma-focused vs. therapeutic work
• Why trauma appears in coaching, leadership, and organizations
• Ethical scope, boundaries, and referral criteria
• Psychological safety as a prerequisite for learning and change

Learning Outcomes

Participants articulate a clear, ethical understanding of trauma-informed coaching and its limits.

Module 2 — The PERSEPHONE Model: A Trauma-Informed Map of Transformation

Module Purpose

To anchor PERSEPHONE as the central coaching architecture for trauma-informed work.

Content

• PERSEPHONE as a non-pathologizing model of transformation
• Translating archetypal narrative into coaching structure
• Timing, pacing, and containment across transformation

The PERSEPHONE Stages

• P – Point of Disruption: rupture, loss of coherence
• E – Entry into the Underworld: slowing down, containment, safety
• R – Recognition of Inner Truths: awareness without urgency
• S – Sovereignty: reclaiming agency and boundaries
• E – Emergence: gradual re-engagement
• P – Partnership with the Shadow: integration of adaptive parts
• H – Holding the Duality: old and new identities co-existing
• O – Offering to Others: contribution and relational impact
• N – New Myth: re-authoring identity and meaning
• E – Embodiment: living the transformation in behavior and presence

Learning Outcomes

Participants use PERSEPHONE as a coherent, stage-sensitive coaching map.

Module 3 — Polyvagal-Informed Nervous System Regulation for Coaches

Module Purpose

To develop Polyvagal literacy as a foundation for trauma-informed coaching presence.

Content

• Introduction to Polyvagal Theory (Stephen Porges)
• Neuroception of safety and threat
• Ventral vagal, sympathetic, and dorsal vagal states
• Fight, flight, freeze, collapse, and fawn responses
• Nervous-system states across PERSEPHONE stages
• Regulation vs. resilience vs. performance
• Co-regulation within the coaching relationship
• Coach self-regulation and nervous-system hygiene

Polyvagal Theory is used as an explanatory and orienting framework, not as a clinical or therapeutic intervention.

Learning Outcomes

Participants recognize nervous-system states and respond with stabilizing coaching presence.

Module 4 — Trauma-Adaptive Patterns in Clients

Module Purpose

To identify trauma-adaptive behaviors without pathologizing clients.

Content

• Survival strategies and adaptive identities
• Hyper-control, perfectionism, over-responsibility
• Avoidance, collapse, disengagement, shutdown
• Emotional detachment and over-intellectualization
• Burnout as a nervous-system adaptation
• Mapping patterns accurately within the PERSEPHONE arc

Learning Outcomes

Participants recognize patterns and intervene with precision and compassion.

Module 5 — Trauma-Informed Coaching Skills & Language

Module Purpose

To build practical coaching skills aligned with trauma-informed and polyvagal principles.

Content

• Safety before insight or strategy
• Pacing, titration, and timing
• Expanding choice under nervous-system load
• Trauma-aware and polyvagal-sensitive questioning
• Language that stabilizes vs. language that activates
• Working with embodied experience without somatic therapy
• Preventing re-traumatization in coaching

Learning Outcomes

Participants demonstrate trauma-informed skills across PERSEPHONE stages.

Module 6 — Trauma, Power & Relational Harm

Module Purpose

To work with relational, organizational, and systemic trauma safely and ethically.

Content

• Relational harm: abusive behavior, gaslighting, DARVO, stonewalling
• Manipulation dynamics: love bombing, negging, victim blaming
• Group trauma: bullying, mobbing, cancel culture
• Bias and identity-based harm: microaggressions, privilege, classism, ageism
• Systemic trauma: racism, intersectionality, gender-based violence
• Coaching power dynamics without ideology

Learning Outcomes

Participants coach relational and systemic trauma with non-harmful presence.

Module 7 — The Coach as Instrument

Module Purpose

To support sustainability, ethics, and self-awareness in trauma-informed coaching.

Content

• Coach nervous-system hygiene
• Secondary trauma and burnout prevention
• Counter-transference and parallel process
• Power, authority, and humility
• Reflective practice and supervision

Learning Outcomes

Participants maintain ethical presence and long-term sustainability.

Module 8 — Integration, Assessment & Professional Application

Module Purpose

To integrate learning into professional coaching practice.

Content

• Integrating PERSEPHONE and Polyvagal-informed practice into existing frameworks
• Explaining trauma-informed coaching to clients and organizations
• Ethical positioning and language in the marketplace
• Limits of trauma-informed coaching
• Ongoing development and supervision pathways

Learning Outcomes

Participants demonstrate integrated, ethical, trauma-informed coaching competence.

Certificate Awarded

Certificate in Trauma-Informed Coaching Practice
(PERSEPHONE Model & Polyvagal-Informed Approach)

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