How to Recognize Trauma: An Interview with Jen Taylor

Handling some of the emotions that surface during coaching sessions can be a delicate process. Some instances may lead you to even suspect trauma in the life of a client. What a some signs a caring coach should watch for to know if referral to a licensed therapist is needed? What can a coach do within their own coaching scope to further help a client?

In this episode, Jen Taylor, a licenced trauma therapist with numerous credentials and training in multiple techniques, shares her insights and tips. As Jen and I spoke, one important point stuck out to me that Jen really felt to be most important as well. That is: the relationship a client develops with you is paramount to success. This is true whether a client is dealing with trauma or not. But since trauma is usually experienced within relationship, so can healing be experienced within relationship. So the more you can positively connect with a client, the more you can help them heal and improve their life, which is the goal of all coaching.

What You’ll Learn How Trauma is Defined and some Red-Flags of Potential Trauma

• An unintegrated response to a physical or emotional stressor
• The nervous system’s overwhelm that marks trauma
• Belief whether or not we had agency over what happened
• Survival brain hijacking
• Emotional and physical symptoms to watch for, tracking body movements

How to Tell the Difference between Trauma and Normal Life Ups and Downs

• How quickly does the person recover from an upset?
• Does the person feel overwhelmed and powerless or do they feel they have agency?
• Is it impacting their daily life?

How to Incorporate Help Within the Scope of Coaching

• Help clients develop the ability to be a witness of their own cognitive, emotional and somatic experiences (often referred to as decoupling)
• Increase curiosity to put distance between circumstance and response
• Encourage regulation and staying connected with self during disregulation

The Top-Down Approach Versus the Bottom-Up Approach

• The brain creates thoughts and feelings and sends those down to the body; but the body also creates feelings and sends them up to the brain (how it is all interconnected)
• Using the body as an ally instead of an enemy
• Staying with the emotions that are coming up, creating space
• How to settle into, and make use of, a sensorial response

Contact Info and Recommended Resources Meet Jen Taylor, MA, LPCC

Jen is a somatic trauma therapist, specializing in EMDR Therapy, Sensorimotor Therapy, and Assisted Psychotherapy. She is also a certified Synergetic Play Therapist (SPT), a Certified Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapist, and is trained in multiple techniques. She works with individuals of all ages, from children as young as two to adults in their 70s. She focuses on a mind-body approach that assists in relief from anxiety, depression, grief, disordered eating, chronic illness, and other impacts on the nervous system from trauma and stress. Jen is also a Life Coach and a graduate of The Life Coach School.

Somatic Psychotherapy uses Sensorimotor Therapy that combines cognitive and body based interventions. EMDR Therapy is Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing that involves an 8-step phrase process. Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) uses the only legal psychedelic medicine available for use by mental health providers. Learn more about these techniques and Jen’s services at jentaylorpsychotherapy.com/therapy-services.

Connect with Jen Taylor

• Website (for therapy or connecting within Colorado): jentaylorpsychotherapy.com
• Website (for coaches wanting to connect with Jen regarding somatic training):