The Certified Trauma Specialist Program

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Trauma-Informed Care Fit to Your Career & Life

Are you in a profession where trauma sensitivity and responsiveness and foundational knowledge of Trauma Informed Care would be helpful in navigating day by day?

Are you ready to take your skills in helping clients, patients, and customers to the next level and gain a deeper understanding of how developmental trauma plays a significant role in our physical, emotional, and mental health, thus enabling you to connect on a more attuned level?

Maybe you are a manager with employees and see behavioral patterns that inhibit performance, such as non-responsiveness to deadlines, procrastination, or self-sabotage.

Are you a student going into the mental health field and want to start out with a strong foundation in trauma, shame, codependency and addiction?

Have you been looking for a program that will fit into your busy life, emphasizing the importance of taking care of yourself while learning, along with a safe community of trauma Informed & responsive individuals?

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Areas of Specialties

As an Accredited Instructor for the International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching, Jennifer Kindera is excited to offer the Certified Trauma Specialist course, to enable you to add foundational knowledge of certified trauma-informed care to your already existing profession. This robust course, accredited by the International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching, offers hands-on instruction within a small group setting. Developed by the leadership and management team of the International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching, of which she is a long-term member, this program is designed to further her mission of teaching others about trauma-informed care, sensitivity, and responsiveness.

Since 2018, Jennifer has been mentoring, teaching, and guiding budding trauma recovery coaches to bring trauma-responsive care out into the world. Jennifer's CTS course offers an inclusive space that includes the course description, combining the additional lenses of shame, codependency, and addiction, taught within the framework of attachment wounding, nervous system capacity, somatics, emotional health, and brain science.

Jennifer's CTS course is taught in a trauma-responsive environment, classes are virtual, enabling students from anywhere to curl up with their cup of tea and learn in the comfort of their own homes. Students are encouraged to participate interactively, with questions and comments.

The protective nature of shame always follows trauma. Codependency and addiction are adaptive responses to trauma, with shame ever-present.

Within developmental trauma, shame is the great protector and trauma survivors carry internalized toxic shame into adulthood, into relationships, and into the workplace. It can show up as self-sabotage, perfectionism, and discomfort personally and professionally. Using the foundational knowledge taught in the CTS course can enable you to engage in a professional capacity to navigate on an empathetic level while respecting and maintaining appropriate boundaries of care.

Jennifer's credentials include being a Certified Trauma Recovery Coach Supervisor, Certified Healing Shame Practitioner, Trauma Informed Certified Coach, and Certified Life Coach, also has completed courses on Trauma & Addiction with Dr. Stephanie Covington, Somatic Embodiment with Dr. Linda Thai, Trauma Research Foundations course in Traumatic Stress Studies, Trauma & Attachment with ATTCH, and IFS & Polyvagal Intro & Advanced, IFS-Cycle of Addictions with Dr. Alexia Rothman. Additionally, Jennifer coaches privately and has created educational and coaching programs to work with trauma and addiction groups.

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Details on Jennifer's Credentials as an Instructor Include:

CTRC-S- Certified Trauma Recovery Coach Supervisor- International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching

CHSP- Certified Healing Shame Practitioner- The Center for Healing Shame

TICC- Trauma Informed Certified Coach- Moving the Human Spirit- ICF Accredited

CLC- Certified Life Coach - Certified Life Coach Institute- ICF Accredited

Additional courses that Jennifer has completed:

Trauma Research Foundation - Traumatic Stress Studies

Helping Women Recover (Addiction & Trauma) - Dr. Stephanie Covington

Somatic Embodiment & Regulation Strategies - Linda Thai

Understanding the Foundations of Trauma and Attachment & Phase-Based Clinical Applications to Promote Healing and Integration of Trauma and Attachment Dysregulation- Lori Gill, The Attachment and Trauma Treatment Center for Healing

Intro to IFS Model, IFS & Polyvagal Theory, Advanced IFS & Polyvagal Theory, The Cycle of Addiction/IFS - Dr. Alexia Rothman

Foundations: Parts Work For Coaches - Lucas Forstmeyer

Working with Exiles - IFS Informed Coaching - Lucas Forstmeyer

Dissociation Made Simple - Dr. Jamie Marich

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What Students Are Saying

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Class Details & Information

Registration for the 2024 cohorts are open!

Cohort 1 - Jan 23 to Mar 26

Cohort 2 - April 9 to June 11

Cohort 3 - Aug 20- Oct 22

4pm PST/5pm MST/6pm CST/7pm EST

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Open House For April Cohort:

Wednesday March 20 at 4pm PT/ 5pm MT/ 6pm CT/ 7pm ET

Tuesday April 2nd at 3pm PT/ 4pm MT/ 5pm CT/ 6pm ET

Please Subscribe for Updates for more information.

Cost: $2000, payable in full or 50/50 month one and two, after 25% deposit. Included in the cost is the 10-week course, office hours immediately following class each week for 30 minutes, not mandatory, for questions, discussion, and connection, and access to the IAOTRC's community platform, which is an incredible resource.

Please note: the CTS certification program does not teach the coaching component. Students may sign up for the CTS course and provided they have completed the ten-week course, paid all tuition, passed the exam, and submitted satisfactorily all homework assignments, can transition into the CTRC class for the coaching/business portion of the course.

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Certified Trauma Specialist Modules

  • Module 1: The Certified Trauma Specialist as a Career

    • Covering the International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching Code of Ethics, guiding principles, and overall goals.

    • Introduction to Shame, Codependency & Addiction

  • Module 2: Understanding Trauma

    • Definition of trauma, subtypes, and classifications, including moral injury

    • Parish Trauma Response Model

    • Trauma, Attachment, and Childhood Psychosocial Development

    • Neuroplasticity

  • Module 3: Biology & Trauma

    • Biological Impacts of Trauma on the brain

    • Biological impacts of trauma on the body as a system

    • Intro to Polyvagal Theory: the Autonomic Nervous System and Somatic Trauma Responses including Fear and Shame Adaptation

    • Epigenetics

  • Module 4: Psychological Aftereffects of Trauma

    • Common psychological diagnoses after trauma

    • Common misdiagnoses after trauma

    • An introduction to psychotropic medication

    • Shame and Psychological Aftereffects of Trauma

    • Shame Binds

    • Introduction to Shame Reactions

  • Module 5: Emotional Aftereffects of Trauma

    • Emotions versus feelings

    • The impact of trauma on emotional development

    • Co-regulation, emotional regulation, and dysregulation

    • Emotional Intelligence and Literacy

    • The Master Emotion of Shame - More Insight

  • Module 6: Relational Aftereffects of Trauma

    • Autonomic Nervous System's regulation of social engagement

    • The Social Engagement System

    • Unhealthy relationship patterns learned during trauma

    • Self-Abandonment, the Interpersonal Bridge and Intrapersonal Bridge

    • Codependency aka 'Love Addiction'

  • Module 7: Multi-focal Aftereffects of Trauma

    • Understanding Healthy & Toxic Shame

    • The Shame Response System

    • De-pathologizing Coping Strategies

    • Understanding trauma responses of internal parts, autonomic nervous system survival states, and shame responses

  • Module 8: Intergenerational Trauma

    • Understanding Intergenerational Trauma

    • Introduction to genograms as a tool for understanding intergenerational trauma

    • Multi-generational transmission of shame

    • Codependency & Addiction as Adaptive Coping Mechanisms

  • Module 9: Understanding the Multi-Dimensionality of Trauma Survivors

    • Developing the capacity to understand trauma in the context of social, gender, racial, ethnic, and historical frameworks

    • Perception, Bias & Privilege

    • Creating a Brave, Safe & Accountable Space

    • Trauma & Addiction

  • Module 10: Working with Trauma Survivors

    • How to work with trauma survivors safely

    • Developing the capacity to be centered, grounded, and anchored in your work with trauma survivors

    • Relationship rupture & repair

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Certified Trauma Specialist Required Reading

Bessel van der Kolk-

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Pete Walker-

Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving

Gabor Mate-

The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture

Bret Lyon & Shelia Rubin- The Center for Healing Shame

Embracing Shame: How to Stop Resisting Shame and Turn It into a Powerful Ally

Jeanette Elizabeth Menter-

You're Not Crazy, You're Codependent: What You Need to Know If You've Been Affected By Addiction, Abuse or Trauma

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