Turning Trauma into Triumph: Purpose-Driven Healing with Demetria Nickens

What Is Trauma-Focused Life Design Coaching?

Have you ever envisioned harnessing your past traumas as a catalyst for growth and finding your life's purpose? Demetria Nickens, a seasoned trauma recovery coach and mental health first aid instructor, joins us to reveal how trauma-focused life design coaching can be the key to unlocking a future of fulfillment. In an intimate conversation, Nickens takes us through her innovative approach, combining the search for purpose inherent in life design coaching with the healing processes of trauma recovery. She illustrates the profound impact this fusion can have on one's life, offering a newfound understanding of how our past experiences shape our present and future.

This episode is a journey into personalized healing strategies tailored to the intricate tapestry of individual experiences. Demetria discusses the importance of recognizing the interplay between mind, body, and spirit in overcoming trauma and moving forward with intention. With a wealth of techniques ranging from somatic work to personality assessments, she provides listeners with a glimpse into the transformative power of addressing the roots of pain and reshaping the narrative of one's life. If you're seeking a pathway to not just cope but thrive in the aftermath of life's challenges, this episode with Demetria Nickens is an enlightening step towards healing and self-discovery.

For more information about Dove’s Inner B.E.A.U.T.Y. go to:
https://www.dovesinnerbeauty.com/

Dove’s Inner B.E.A.U.T.Y.
innerbeauty@dovesinnerbeauty.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to the Dove's Inner Beauty Podcast, where we foster emotional awareness, one individual at a time. Leading the way is Demetria Nickens, a certified mental health first aid instructor and trauma recovery coach with over two decades of experience in fostering emotional awareness in others by engaging their mental health.

Speaker 2: 0:33

Ever wondered how to turn life challenges into stepping stones for your growth? Tune in to our invite-in interview with the owner of Does Any Beauty, where we delve into the transformative approach of trauma-focused life design coaching. Welcome back everyone. Um, I'm your host or your co-host, and we're kind of like this as well, and back in the studio with. So how are you?

Speaker 3: 1:01

I am good, I'm good.

Speaker 2: 1:03

Demetria. What is trauma-focused life design coaching?

Speaker 3: 1:09

So trauma-focused life design coaching came out of, kind of taking two different coaching styles. I was certified in trauma recovery coaching and then I learned about life design coaching, and what I did is I merged these two things together. And so when you think about life design coaching, life design coaching is all about purpose and finding that purpose and being able to determine what's your character, what are your, what are the things that help you figure out you, if that makes sense, right? So after learning those, those techniques, I said, wow, that goes really well with this idea of trauma recovery coaching. And so trauma recovery coaching helps an individual with recognizing what's going on in the present, and nine times out of 10, it's something that happened in their past. Right, it is a trauma that has occurred, right.

Speaker 3: 2:14

And so I work with individuals from a trauma recovery standpoint in determining kind of what it is that's holding them back from getting to where they want to be. Right, what is it that? What is this trauma that still has a hold on your life, that that's impacting how you make decisions? Right, that's impacting how you function, and so when I put these two together, they marry so well. Together you get life design coaching with a trauma lens, right.

Speaker 3: 2:46

So this ability to say, okay, well, what is it that you want to do in this life? What's holding you back from what you want to do? Is it the trauma that you've experienced in the past and how you're reacting in the present because of that past trauma, right, and so it's taking all of those concepts and just putting them together to work with someone to help, ultimately, them understand themselves, right. So one of the programs I call is Understanding you, right and literally, this is taking those two concepts and merging them together to say, okay, mind, body, spirit, what's going on with you as the individual, to help you get past whatever's holding you back, what are the barriers? Let's remove those and get you to where you need to be.

Speaker 2: 3:32

Right, absolutely. And I guess if you have any specific healing strategies that you put into place with people that are more personalized to the individual, is there anything like that? You put that on for your?

Speaker 3: 3:49

clients. So everything is really individualized, right, but I will say that there are different modalities, right, that utilize. So some people maybe they feel like they feel the pain specifically in the body. So that's more somatic work, right, we need to work on your breathing techniques. We need to work on where you feel the pain and releasing, you know, that pain from where you feel in the body.

Speaker 3: 4:21

Some people are really more like they like worksheets, right? They, you know, they want to know more about them. They're more, you know, they want to take an assessment that's going to help them figure out, well, what is my personality and you know what is, what are the things that help me? So there are, like different free assessments that I can introduce to them to say, okay, hey, this is, this will help, these are the things that can help you figure out who you are and how you move forward.

Speaker 3: 4:47

There are trauma-based kind of assessments that I utilize to kind of help figure out, well, what is the lie that you're telling yourself? And then, what is the truth, right? Is there shame behind what's going on in your life that you need to get rid of in your life, in the process of walking through and understanding, transform what I like to call transforming shame. So there's a lot of different ways to help people and I just what I do. What I like to say I do is I take the puzzle pieces and help connect them for people through all of those different ways, right? So I try to understand what's going on with the person and then say, oh okay, this puzzle piece will help over here and let's put this puzzle piece over here, let's put these together so that the person, ultimately, is helping to figure out for themselves what's wrong, and they're putting those puzzle pieces together.

Speaker 2: 5:45

Absolutely, and I'm sure they're even goal-oriented approaches that are taken too, and you're welcome to tell us a little more about those approaches Absolutely Right.

Speaker 3: 5:56

So every session is about the goal of the person, right? What is it that you want to accomplish? Right, it's not about me, it's about you. I walk with the person in whatever they want to accomplish, so the goals are everything Like. I absolutely need to know what your goal is so that I can help you right. Without a goal, we're just kind of flandering in the water right.

Speaker 3: 6:21

Every session is built on like goals that you know you want to accomplish, and so I'm very goal-oriented, goal-driven to say, okay, how can we help you reach this specific goal and let's go for that right. And so every session is built upon goals and how we can break those down and like whether they're big, small, whatever that looks like, and help get to that goal for each individual person Very individualized experience for everybody.

Speaker 2: 6:47

Yes, absolutely. Especially the integrating of past experiences and really understanding trauma's impact for an individual and for them to understand it themselves. Yes, it's definitely a big way to meet those goals. So if there's anything else you want to elaborate on in your approach and just making sure that their experiences, you know, are pushed to better ones, we'd love to hear it.

Speaker 3: 7:19

I would just like to say, you know, I think people automatically just think about mental health and then they want to push it away. They don't want to think about it, right, like you know, they think about this idea of they hear the word trauma and it's an immediate run to the other direction. And so part of what I do, though, right, is helping people not run anymore from that trauma. Right, a lot of what I do is being able to help people sit with whatever it is they need to sit with and be okay with it and, like, truly heal from whatever it is that is impacting them and their ability to move on, and a lot of times that is the trauma, and so a lot of what I do is that sitting with them, because I had to sit through my own right and then because it's uncomfortable sometimes to sit by yourself, and I think, as a coach, it is so important that you have someone to sit with you sometimes to really help you work through and sit with some of that pain, and so that is a lot of what I do sometimes.

Speaker 3: 8:27

Sometimes it's sitting through someone just crying, right. Sometimes it's with someone when they figure out the puzzle piece and that puzzle piece sucks, right, but it's okay, right, because I feel like I've been there, and so it's being able to say you know you're not alone and truly mean it. So that is what I'm been there, and so it's being able to say you know you're not alone and truly mean it. Yes, but that that is what I'm all about. That's great.

Speaker 2: 8:49

And we love it, tanisha, and we really hope that you have a wonderful rest of your day and we will see you in our next episode. All right, thank you.

Speaker 1: 9:03

Thank you for tuning in to the Dove's Inner Beauty Podcast, where we foster emotional awareness, one individual at a time. For a complimentary consultation, visit DovesInnerBeautycom or reach out to us via email at InnerBeauty, at DovesInnerBeautycom.