trauma-informed movement +
sports facilitation
professional training programs and staff development for sports + fitness organisations
We believe that while not all sports or fitness professionals need to be providing "trauma-informed" programs, all movement facilitators and space-holders should have an understanding of trauma-informed practices - and why they're so important - for inclusion and performance.
bringing trauma-informed practice to your organisation
Your staff are already navigating trauma and chronic stress. In every session. With every group. Sometimes it's disclosed, but most often it’s not.
Dealing with chronic stress and trauma exposure is not limited to clinical services or specialist programs. Across 24 countries, 70.4% of adults reported at least one potentially traumatic event, and 30.5% reported four or more.
Trauma-Informed Movement and Sports Facilitation gives your staff a framework for understanding what they are seeing and practical ways to respond.
This isn’t a mental health course. It doesn’t ask your team to become Mental Health professionals. But we do ask them to become more aware, more skilled and more deliberate in the influence they already hold.
Keen to learn more but not quite ready to book in an in-house program? Come along (or send one of your fabulous team) to one of our upcoming public virtual workshops.
technical expertise doesn't explain every response
Your coaches and facilitators know their sport or movement practice.
They also work with people whose histories, stress responses and participation needs may be very different from their own. People do not need to disclose trauma for it to affect their participation, enjoyment or response to a session.
Technical training doesn't necessarily prepare staff to recognise how their authority, communication or session design are being received by others.
Stress and trauma can affect the capacities people draw on to participate, learn and perform, including working memory, attention, cognitive flexibility and the ability to adapt under pressure. In sports/movement, this might affect how someone processes a cue, responds to correction, changes strategy, manages intensity or remains engaged. Coaches and leaders who understand the nervous system and trauma-informed practice have more options than defaulting to assuming poor motivation, lack of commitment or defiance.
Trauma-Informed Movement & Sports Facilitation gives coaches and facilitators more ways to understand what they are seeing and decide whether their practice needs to shift in response.
trauma-informed practice for 'ordinary' sessions
Our programs bring together:
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the commonality and impact of trauma and chronic stress;
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the brain-body connection, nervous-system literacy and stress responses;
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choice, agency, power and consent;
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communication, cueing, touch and session design;
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how authority and the conditions created by a facilitator affect participation;
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professional boundaries and scope of practice;
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practical options for adapting a session when the usual approach does not work for everyone.
what your team will develop
Learners leave with practical skills they can use immediately. They will be better able to:
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understand how trauma, chronic stress and nervous-system responses can affect behaviour, engagement and performance;
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recognise possible signs of stress or dysregulation in themselves and others without trying to diagnose anyone;
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consider how their authority, communication, use of touch and session design affect choice and participation;
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adapt their communication, cues and practice while maintaining the purpose and boundaries of their role.
what this can mean for players + participants
When coaches and facilitators have this understanding, participants are more likely to encounter:
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communication that allows for different responses under stress;
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meaningful choices around pace, intensity, touch and participation;
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ways to adapt without having to disclose or justify personal experiences;
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fewer assumptions about what silence, withdrawal, hesitation or compliance mean;
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greater opportunity to notice and communicate their own boundaries;
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more ways to remain involved when the standard approach is not working for them;
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an understanding of progress that includes agency, adaptability and sustainable participation alongside skill and performance.
Trauma-Informed Movement & Sports Facilitation doesn't remove challenge, effort or high expectations. It gives facilitators more deliberate ways to create the conditions in which different people can engage with them.
what this gives the organisation
Team-based learning helps develop:
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shared language across coaches, facilitators and leaders;
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more consistent approaches to choice, consent, participation and professional boundaries;
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greater capability to discuss difficult situations without requiring personal disclosure;
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practical learning that can be applied to real sessions and current organisational priorities;
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clearer connections between individual practice and the organisation’s wider responsibilities.
what our learners said
Participants in a recent half-day introductory Trauma-Informed Movement & Sports Facilitation professional-development session said:
50%
average increase in participant understanding how the brain-body connection and nervous system influence behaviour
4.8 / 5
how their understanding has deepened in how stress and trauma can affect engagement in movement and activities;
57.1%
average increase in confidence offering choice and agency to support participants’ felt sense of safety
4.4 / 5
seeing how the principles of trauma-informed thinking apply to their specific work with people in sport and movement contexts
psychosocial safety beyond the policy
Most organisations have the policy. What is harder to build is the capability behind it.
Organisations in sport and fitness are increasingly aware of their obligations around psychosocial safety, and many are investing in initiatives designed to meet them.
But awareness and policy alone do not change how people behave in their jobs. What does is practical, applied learning that staff can implement immediately in their specific context.
The same issue is recognised in sport safeguarding. The 2024 International Olympic Committee Consensus on Interpersonal Violence and Safeguarding called for athlete-centred, trauma- and violence-informed systems and emphasised that responsibility sits across the sports ecosystem.
Policies, reporting pathways and governance remain essential. Staff also need the practical capability to recognise how communication, authority, touch, intensity and accepted coaching behaviours are affecting the people in front of them.
where the methodology comes from
Trauma-Informed Movement & Sports Facilitation draws on trauma-informed practice and clinical trauma-sensitive Yoga, including Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga, alongside trauma-informed care, practice and movement more broadly.
In one 10-week TCTSY study, 52% of participants no longer met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD at completion, compared with 21% in the control group.
Trauma-Informed Movement & Sports Facilitation does not reproduce clinical treatment in a sport or fitness setting. It translates the body-based methodology behind this work, including interoception, choice and agency, into the decisions coaches and facilitators make about communication, cueing, touch, pacing and session design.
This is why the methodology transfers into sport, movement and fitness. It is concerned with the body, the nervous system and the conditions under which people are able to engage, learn and participate.
A dysregulated nervous system cannot effectively learn skills or perform at its peak. Understanding what may be happening gives coaches and facilitators more options when their usual approach is not working.
who this is for
These programs are relevant across the full spectrum of sport and fitness, including:
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coaches and assistant coaches across codes and levels;
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personal trainers and exercise physiologists;
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Yoga, movement and fitness facilitators;
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program coordinators and team managers;
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sport and recreation facility staff working with participant groups;
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community clubs and associations;
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professional and high-performance sporting organisations;
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fitness facilities and leisure centres;
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recreation and community health organisations;
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peak bodies and sporting associations;
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local government sport and recreation services;
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leadership teams seeking to embed trauma-informed thinking and nervous system literacy across their organisation.
No prior knowledge is needed. The program meets people where they are, regardless of role or experience.
our programs
Every program is tailored to your organisation through a pre-workshop consultation.
What trauma-informed practice looks like in a community footy club is different from what it looks like in a high-performance environment, recreation centre or community health setting.
The consultation makes sure what your people learn is directly usable in their actual context.
level 1: foundations
one day
An introduction to trauma-informed practice for sport and fitness.
Participants develop nervous-system literacy, learn to recognise possible signs of stress or dysregulation in themselves and others, and begin applying a trauma-informed framework to their work.
They consider how communication, authority, choice and session design affect participation and where changes to practice may help.
level 2: application
two days
Everything in Foundations, with more time to apply the framework to the organisation’s context.
Participants work with real situations and practise modifying communication, cues and facilitation decisions in ways that remain relevant to their environment and role.
level 3: facilitation certification
five days / 30 hours
The full Facilitator Certification.
Participants engage with trauma-aware practice at depth and develop a contextualised approach to supporting the people in their care.
Learning is integrated into how they work, not just what they know.
All participants receive a certificate on completion.
learning that connects people, practice and systems
Renée makes complex material understandable without making it simplistic.
She connects what may be happening for an individual with the practical choices available to a coach or facilitator and the organisational systems around them.
This gives groups a structured way to have big conversations without turning the room into therapy or requiring people to disclose personal experiences. The learning remains grounded in the sessions, relationships and decisions participants are responsible for.
Renée founded Trauma-Informed Yoga Australia and is a current trauma-informed yoga practitioner and teacher educator, also with two decades of experience across HR, Adult Learning, Leadership and Organisational Development.
clear professional boundaries
Trauma-Informed Movement & Sports Facilitation does not turn coaches or facilitators into therapists.
Learners are not asked to diagnose trauma, provide mental health treatment or invite personal disclosure. They learn what sits within their role, what does not and how to hold that boundary without abandoning the person in front of them.
Promising healing is outside the scope of this work.
Sport organisations also retain responsibility for governance, safeguarding, reporting, referral pathways and the conditions in which coaches and facilitators work. Individual staff capability is one part of that wider system.
download the program guide
