Live Training (Online)

Ethics of Trauma Coaching

This live training explores trauma through a biopsychosocial lens, including the heritability of PTSD through epigenetics and the relationship between trauma and chronic disease, particularly in the context of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
  • Teacher
    Dr. Athena Phillips
  • Date
    November 12, 2026
  • Time
    12PM - 1PM PT
  • Format
    Online
About This Live Training
Target Audience
Instructor

About This Live Training

Trauma and mental health conditions represent a significant global burden, with lifetime prevalence rates estimated between 18–36%. The impact is increasing, with years lived with disability due to mental health conditions rising by up to 16.1% between 2005 and 2013. Despite this growing need, access to care remains limited. Across 17 countries, only 20% of individuals meeting criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis received treatment, with low- and middle-income countries disproportionately affected. This gap highlights the need for scalable, accessible approaches to trauma-informed support.

This course explores trauma through a biopsychosocial lens, including the heritability of PTSD through epigenetics and the relationship between trauma and chronic disease, particularly in the context of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Participants will examine how trauma impacts long-term health outcomes and contributes to intergenerational patterns of distress.

Within this global context, the course introduces task sharing as a strategy to expand access to care. Participants will learn how trauma coaching can function as a supportive, non-clinical intervention within a task-sharing framework while maintaining ethical integrity. Key topics include scope of practice, maintaining appropriate boundaries, and identifying and managing potential conflicts of interest.

The course also emphasizes cultural competence, equipping participants to adapt trauma-informed approaches across diverse populations and contexts. By integrating global data, ethical considerations, and practical application, this course prepares participants to responsibly contribute to expanding access to trauma-informed care worldwide.

Participants will be able to:

  • Define trauma and its’ categories
  • Describe why trauma coaching is an ethical innovation with potential to address the accessibility crisis
  • Describe coaching as a form of task-sharingItem
  • Describe Orenda + Kalos’ approach to navigating trauma

Target Audience

Global audience of Therapists, Coaches, Social Workers, Social Entrepreneurs, aspiring trauma coaches, therapists aiming to add a coaching component or a coach to compliment their work.

Instructor

Athena Phillips
LCSW - Licensed Clinical Social Worker
I completed my master's in social work from Portland State University, where I was the recipient of the Laurels Scholarship and graduated Magna Cum Laude. Following graduation, I worked as a medical social worker in the emergency department, medical floors and on an inpatient geriatric psychiatry unit. I started my private practice in 2007, which specialized in trauma and dissociative disorders. After five years of serving this population, the need for more holistic approaches to trauma that were safe and accessible to survivors became increasingly clear. In 2012 I started Integrative Trauma Treatment Center (ITTC), an outpatient mental health clinic housed in Portland, OR. ITTC offers continuing education which offers specialized trainings with a mission to include and elevate clinical voices from all over the world. My most recent endeavor was the launch of an online Trauma Coach Certification course that is designed to be globally accessible and culturally adaptable. This project was designed following trainings I facilitated in Rwanda that were an effort to provide a multicultural platform for clinicians to learn about other cultural lenses through which they could approach their work. My contribution in Rwanda extended to the development of mHub Rwanda, which is an outpatient mental health clinic that is run by Rwandans, for Rwandans. I continue to volunteer my services as a trauma consultant within the mHub community.

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Connect, learn, and grow with KALOS. We're a continuing education provider dedicated to expanding access to transformative learning. Our live trainings bring together professionals and individuals from around the world to explore inclusive, culturally diverse content that amplifies underrepresented voices and empowers meaningful change in mental health.

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