Creating Safer Healthcare

Self-Paced Online Trauma Awareness Course &
Interactive Community For Medical Professionals and Their Teams

What if...

…you could feel confident, capable and at ease knowing you had the tools and capacity to create an environment for yourself and your patients that allowed everyone to drop their shoulders and lean into the care they’re receiving?

These past couple of years have intensified healthcare.

Providers report having their nervous systems ramped up, work environments changing drastically, staff decreasing, support shifting, and interpersonal connection impacted by so much separation while trying to keep everyone safe. It’s been a lot. Creating Safer Healthcare is here to give you, the people you work with, and your patients some space.

TRAUMA INFORMED CARE IS ABOUT CONNECTION, COLLABORATION & CHOICE.

Watch Intro Video

Practical Trauma Awareness and Trauma
Informed Care For Helping Professionals

Creating Safer Healthcare is a course and interactive community of healthcare providers dedicated to waking up and bringing more ease, connection and human pulse into their work with patients and their clinics. Once a month you also get a live interactive Zoom call with Shelby to get all your questions answered. If you can’t make it, it’s recorded! You can also email your questions to her ahead of time. The calls are every second Wednesday of the month from 10-11 AM PST.

Everyone has trauma and even if patients look fine, they're often managing an incredible amount of nervous system activation while in the office with you.

Whether it's about past medical trauma or other trauma, many people are managing fight, flight, freeze and other trauma responses just underneath the surface.

When people are in these trauma responses, they're in the past or the future. When we can help them be right here with us in the present moment, we're able to build genuine safety and connection so that they can truly show up for their treatment plans and collaborate with their care.

It is KEY to be trauma informed, now more than ever. You will see increased results and referrals so quickly once implementing these skills and awareness.

Tending to developmental trauma, as you’ll learn in this course, is a key to unlocking so much that is missed - especially in other “trauma informed care” courses. You’ll not only learn about Advanced Childhood Experiences (ACES) and their impacts - you’ll learn how to respond to the unique trauma responses that arise from early trauma.

The program is designed to help Healthcare professionals integrate trauma-informed care into their daily practices in order to improve patient outcomes by:

Improving patient/provider relationship
Increasing patient/provider collaboration
Increasing adherence to treatment plans
Improving the professional working environment

As busy healthcare professionals there are small, simple ways we can increase our humanity, and our efficiency, while truly hearing and being heard by our patients and colleagues.

What’s different about this approach is that involves a way of BE-ing on behalf of the provider whereas other approaches involve scripts like asking questions and phrasing questions in a specific way.

You have had QUITE A JOURNEY to get where you are now.

It can be difficult to allow your full humanity as you’re training to be pretty much anything in the medical field.

Whether you’re a…

Doctor
Nurse
Medical Tech
Holistic Practitioner
Lab Assistant
Office Assistant
Bodyworker
Physical Therapist

The culture of healthcare for many people has been one of having to really push past, push through, and push hard. Like in many other formal education settings, you might feel like you’re often asked to only use our brain instead of feeling into your whole body.

Working in a world of urgency and fast paced care can leave you feeling like you cannot prioritize or support your patients at the level of their humanity — or even take a moment to pause and recognize your own.

But I have a question for you….

What might it feel like to work in, live in, and embody an environment that felt DEEPLY SUPPORTIVE of your own nervous system and limitations, as well as those of your patients and staff?

What would it feel like to make simple changes in how you approach your work life - that would ripple out and create a calm and nurturing state of mind for your patients long after they leave the walls of your practice?

“Being cut off from our own natural self-compassion is one of the greatest impairments we can suffer. Along with our ability to feel our own pain - go our best hopes for healing, dignity and love.”

Dr. Gabor Maté

True Trauma Informed Care Begins Inside Your Own Nervous System.

You can’t just say you’re trauma-informed,
you have to BE it.

The course will support you in

Recognizing, responding to and caring for nervous system and trauma activation in your clients
Bringing empathy and care to the internal and external challenges patients are navigating in their lives
Cultivating a grounded and patient-centered presence in your patient interactions
Regulating activation in your nervous system to respond rather than react to challenging patient experiences where blame and upset are present
Learning the science behind adverse childhood experiences (ACE study) and their manifestations as health challenges and healing opportunities in adult patients

Two people who feel on edge, unsure, rushed, scripted, disconnected - are likely to be unable to really HELP each other and SUPPORT healing in a way that feels generative and create long-lasting healthy changes.

An activated nervous system is a recipe for stagnation in health and personal growth. People can’t fully receive support and care when they’re silently in a state of fight/flight/freeze even when they look “normal” on the outside.

This program is going to begin easing you into ways of approaching each moment in your clinical practice in a way that will CREATE ROOM in your nervous system AND theirs.

Room to feel more present, connected, caring, curious and open with each person you interact with. One really helpful side effect of this is that it becomes much easier to access your own wisdom, clarity and skillset when your nervous system is regulated.

“Safety IS the treatment.”

Stephen Porges

Join Creating Safer Healthcare

An online, go-at-your-own-pace course on practical trauma awareness and everyday shifts in care — for doctors, surgeons, holistic practitioners, techs, nurses, office assistants and staff.

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'Shelby Leigh has created a one of a kind program'

“Shelby Leigh has created a one of a kind program, like nothing else in the healthcare and trauma informed communities.

I found this program to be uplifting, empowering and wonderfully put together. Because of this program, I know I have a greater awareness and ability of taking care of my patients holistically taking into consideration all of their parts and needs.”

— Ash-lee Jeanne, CNA

You might be wondering…

How might I apply these skills and tools in my day-to-day work experience?
Will this make me a better healthcare provider?
Will this improve my patient’s experiences?
How can this change my workplace culture?

Being a helper, being a healer, being a medical practitioner, shouldn’t leave you feeling constantly overextended, at the edge of your attention span, unable to connect to your patients on a human level, and unable to connect with yourself or your colleagues in a way that feels supportive of each other's growth.

But for so many in the medical field, that’s exactly what it feels like.

You might not be able to completely control your environment, and you can’t know what feels safe for every person you hold space for.

So you can’t promise a completely safe space - and neither should you.

But you CAN work towards providing a SAFER space — by learning what that actually means, and how it feels in our own body to begin to develop a more compassionate environment for yourself and others while cultivating a more regulated nervous system which will impact your work for you, your patients and your team.

You can learn tools around how to recognize and meet trauma responses when they are in front of you and also how to prevent many of them from happening every step of the way.

In this course, you learn how to SHOW people you're moving towards creating a space that feels safe enough for them instead of telling them "this is a safe space" which can do the opposite of what's intended.

ALL of us have a responsibility to do that for each other.

Every day there are small, simple, easy ways we can begin to narrow the gap between our humanity, and our efficiency - between our very real time crunches, and our desire to hear and be heard by our patients and colleagues.

This program will gently, easefully (and with your daily reality ever-present) help you to implement these changes, whether you work solo, or within a larger system.

Trauma informed care that doesn’t feel like a list of rules and regulations to follow…

" I appreciate the explanation of trauma because I think it is misunderstood by many folks and you have made it easily understandable. I found it a refreshing reminder of the fact that most of us have trauma induced lack of resiliency in some aspect or another of our being. I love that your path to healing is about encouraging resilience and resourcing; it reminds me of the idea that flooding a room with light just naturally makes the darkness go away - no struggle involved. No further trauma, either. I can use this in both the casual and more formal conversations with our clients in behavioral health settings. Our patients have a very high incidence of repeated trauma and this is definitely applicable and worth listening to more than once."

– K.J, RN, Bend, Oregon

When you join Creating Safer Healthcare…

You’ll learn how to implement these trauma-informed techniques
(and many more):

Learn how to set up your paperwork, reception and team to welcome patients from the first touch point so their nervous systems feel more settled.
Assess before you act (respond instead of react)
Set yourself up for success by learning tools to build trust and safety to preemptively prevent trauma responses
Learn how to tell when someone is having a trauma response and how to skilfully respond to them
Support your own nervous system so you feel balanced and centered in your work
Understand how choosing trauma informed language can positively impact relationships with patients and colleagues
Deepen awareness around how language can exacerbate a trauma response or ease a trauma response.
Experiment with nervous system regulation techniques that you can use for yourself and others.
Know how to make sense of someone’s trauma response to assist in curating their treatment plan.

Frontline workers in the medical field often have quite a bit of unprocessed PTSD (the percentages are wild!) - and hopefully this program is a chance for you to understand your own nervous system and attachment style in a way that can relieve tension and support your daily work with yourself, your team and your patients.

Join Creating Safer Healthcare

…to discover simple, effective tools you can use immediately to support and grow a trauma-informed, deeply human work environment for yourself and your patients.

COUNT ME IN!

What kinds of benefits will I receive from participating in this program?

Now and down the line?

Excellent question!

You’ll notice increased success with treatment plans because of collaborative patient engagement and follow through.
You will feel more at ease and in your body because you won’t be tiptoeing around big emotions anymore, or scared of upsetting someone.
Experiencing booked out waitlists — because word will spread about you and your practice - SO few people are actually deeply trauma informed, and when you are, it SHOWS.
You will see massive results and changes in your patients' response to your care again and again.
You’ll experience patients returning for important follow ups instead of ghosting with no reason.
You will be a badass at taking responsibility for things and not feeling bad if you make a mistake.
You will begin to see and understand WHY you might be reacting to your patients instead of responding to them - and how crucial that difference is to the care they receive. You’ll learn NOW to respond instead of react.

Most of all, you will be a forerunner in Humanizing healthcare.

Who Am I to Support You
on the Journey to Creating Safer Healthcare?

I’m Shelby Leigh.

With a master’s degree in Somatic Psychotherapy, 2 coaching certifications and numerous certifications in the treatment of trauma, and nearly 15 years in direct client care as a therapist, consultant and coach. What has become clear to me is the relationship is a huge part of what determines a person’s ability to receive care. Whether it’s in the hello at the receptionist’s desk or the exam in the treatment room, creating safety in the relationship IS the medicine to helping people feel able to be there to really receive the treatment and care provided, and participate in the follow-through.

I have learned so much about early trauma, complex PTSD and shock trauma through both my own lived experience living with chronic illness.

I want you to be able to TRUST that you can create a safer space so that your patients can heal in your care and YOU can tap more fully into your AUTHENTIC VOICE, DEPTH OF SKILL and DEEP SENSE OF CARE with incredible wisdom, trust, and compassion.

Guest Expert Teachers

Renée Hilliard, MD

Renée currently practices as a certified intimacy and relationship coach after being in private practice as an obstetrician & gynecologist for over 20 yrs. She takes a holistic approach to caring for people mind, body and spirit.

She received a Bachelor of Science in psychobiology and was part of The Autism Project at UCLA before receiving her Medical Doctorate from University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor.

Renée is passionate about the neuroscience of trauma and is deeply committed to bringing trauma awareness to healing spaces.

Judith Sadora M.A., LMFT

Judith, Afro-Haitian American, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Oregon. She completed her master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy and is currently in a Doctoral program for Marriage and Family Therapy with a primary focus in therapeutic programs as it relates to Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI).

Judith is currently Co-Chair of the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Program’s (NATSAP) Diversity and Inclusion Committee and continually finds ways to support health and wellness programs for the black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) communities. Judith believes in the power of generational health and wealth and that it first begins with addressing and processing historical generational trauma related to oppression inflicted on certain communities.

Jen Atkisson, RN

Jen is a certified perinatal nurse and educator, with a Master’s of Science in Clinical Nurse Leadership from the University of Portland. She has practiced in hospitals, birth centers and public health clinics for the past 15 years, supporting thousands of patients as they move through the birth process. She believes in the power of trauma-aware practices to bring joy back into our professional lives and allow us to have the meaningful patient relationships we all went into healthcare originally to have.

Stephen J. Terrell, PsyD, SEP

Stephen is a leading expert in the field of Developmental Trauma and Adoption and is recognized around the world for his work in Developmental Trauma and Healing. He understands Developmental Trauma from the inside out and the outside in.

His background and training began as a Rogerian Approach which involves active listening skills. He continues to incorporate this approach in his work in addition his training in Somatic Experiencing®, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Touch Training for Therapists, Didactic Developmental Psychotherapy, and EMDR for Adopted Children. Stephen combines all his training experiences to see the client holistically (Mind, Body, Psychologically, and Spiritually).

Course Module Breakdown

Module 1: Welcome, Arriving & Orienting

Shelby welcomes you to the course. Experience firsthand what it might be like to show up to a trauma informed experience. Get oriented to what's happening and why. Take some time to become present and drop in to your intentions for moving through CSH.

Module 2: Defining Trauma, Science and ACES

Module 3: Building Safety Inside and Out

Experience the art of creating SAFER space and how to show patients from the very first touchpoint that you are trauma informed and they are welcome to show up as fully as they are able. Shelby breaks down why she says "safer" instead of "safe".

Module 4: Welcoming Your Patients

Shelby, Renée and Jen deliver various perspectives and ways to help patients feel more at ease right away in your care (and the care of your entire team).

Module 5: The Relationship is Everything

Shelby offers a secret that psychotherapists have understood for decades that will help you understand the beauty and power of the relationship as a care provider and simple tools to support trustworthy and connected care.

Module 6: Sharing Power

Power dynamics are inherent in relationships with care providers and by understanding and acknowledging them we can learn to SHARE power which will create more ease in the connection and even increase resiliency and empowerment in patients will support the collaboration and follow through on treatment plans. Shelby, Jen and Renée offer impactful shares around this for a variety of clinicians.

Module 7: Trauma & Intersections of Identity

Judith unpacks the term Brave Spaces and how to meet patients with different identities than ourselves with cultural humility, curiosity, awareness and compassion.

Module 8: Awareness for Leaders & Educators

Jen speaks to Leaders and Educators in medical settings to how to create a safe enough space for their teams so that they can be more regulated in their nervous systems and in turn deliver even more supportive care to patients.

Module 9: Tending to Activated Moments

Learn how to spot trauma when it's showing up in your patients (even when you can see it or they're not telling you). Shelby shows you how to respond skilfully and effectively when active or past trauma arises.

Module 10: Embracing Sexual Trauma

Shelby introduces concept around sexual trauma that normalize and connect you with your patients instead of leave you feeling stressed and nervous. Explore new ways of helping them feel understood, cared for and supported whether you're offering hands on or hands off care.

Module 11: Deepening Trust Through Repairs

Get comfortable making mistakes and owning them for your own peace of mind and your patients. This is the gift that keeps giving both in your personal life and professional. Renee and Shelby offer an easy process around how to meet these kinds of challenges as they arise.

Module 12: Chronic & Complex Health Conditions

Understand connections between early trauma and complex and chronic health conditions and how to tend to these types of trauma as they arise during treatment. Shelby and Stephen deepen the importance of the relationship in these particular kinds of care providing experiences.

Module 13: Marking Transitions and Guided Resourcing Practices

Nervous System Regulation is a lifelong practice. Experiment with many types of practices to support your ongoing steadiness while working with patients. Offer these to them as well and notice, even in a minute, how quickly they're able to become more present to your care.

Scholarships

A portion of every full price enrollment goes towards providing scholarships so Creating Safer Healthcare can get into the hands of all those who need it.

Inside of Creating Safer Healthcare, there are 2 spots available each month for a 50% scholarship.

I prioritize folks who hold marginalized identities - BIPOC, LGBTQI+, folks with disabilities, single moms, refugees, first generation immigrants, etc. If you’d like to apply for one of those spots, click here and fill out the application and I'll be in touch very soon.

When you sign up for Creating Safer Healthcare, you also get access to:

31 videos with simple, incredibly effective tools and practices for creating safer space so you KNOW you’re setting people up for the best possible experience with you. ($2000 value)
Guest expert videos and guided practices from experts in their field around creating safer space - the how to’s and theories of practice. ($1500 value)
Monthly ongoing recorded live zoom call with Shelby answering all your questions about Creating Safer Healthcare (10-months out of the year) (Priceless)
Guided audio practices hear a whole lot of examples of how to use what you’re learning in your own teaching and space holding. ($350 value)
Step by step practices you can use with your clients and students (or even yourself) to help them ground, center and resource. ($350 value)
Lifetime Access to our private community platform to connect with other course participants, and have all your questions answered. (Priceless)

FAQ

How long will the course take me?

Creating Safer Healthcare is designed in bite-size chunks - most of the videos are around 20 minutes. You could watch one each day for a few weeks, or take your time to integrate each new module before moving on which would take about a 4-6 weeks (that last one is my recommendation!).

There are over 20 hours of content, including bite-size videos, audio practices and examples, and guest teacher interviews. There’s also the bonus extra of the interactive call recordings, which are a great extra resource - see how other Creating Safer Healthcare participants are applying these tools in their practices and learn from the questions they ask (not included in the 20 hours).
I work within a bigger organization and there’s lots of red tape - will I be able to practically use this material?

We are aware that you are not in charge of how fast or slow you can go with patients - but our hope is that this course will help you regulate your nervous system (and your patient’s) wherever you’re working so you can naturally feel more at ease no matter the parameters you work within - so yes, this program is SPECIFICALLY for you, if you find yourself within a larger (broken) system of care.
Can you tell me more about what to expect in this course?

This is an INFORMATIONAL and EXPERIENTIAL series - you won’t be a trauma expert at the end of it, but you WILL be trauma aware and trauma informed. You’ll have a lot of tools to support your patients so you feel super confident when they’re in your care.

This course is about creating spaces so your patients with trauma feel more resilient, resourced and held so the trauma they carry doesn’t overwhelm them while being treated by you. They’re more able to receive the results of what you’re offering.

This course doesn’t help you directly heal and/or resolve trauma - that’s for more specialized trauma therapists and is a much longer training process. However, patients may inadvertently heal naturally through these practices and ways of being together.

There are some guided practices AND there is a private facebook group where you can ask lots of questions and get clarifications that you’ve got lifetime access to.

You also have access to one live 60 minute call each month, where you can ask Shelby your questions directly, and hear from other course participants how they’re applying these tools in their work and lives.
Who is this course NOT for?

Folks who have already had in depth trauma awareness or trauma informed training.
Do I get instant access to the course when I buy it?

Yes! When you click “I’M IN!”…

1. You’ll be directed to a payment page

2. Once payment is received, you’ll receive an email with access to the course and an invite to join our private Mighty Networks group where you can ask all of your questions and say hello.
Do you offer a money back guarantee?

We sure do! If you’re not satisfied, just contact us within 30 days of purchase, and we’ll refund your money. No questions asked.
What’s the difference between the payment options?

In order to provide you with the Continuing Education credits that match your credentials, there are a couple of different options depending on your profession. We also offer a licensing option for clinics and healthcare settings with multiple people wanting to go through the course together. There are also scholarships offered each month, scroll up for that information and the link to an application.

For each of these options, there are 3-month payment plans available - let us know if you need one.

You are investing in relationships with people every day…

… with your patients, your team, and yourself — you’re already inside of a pattern of communication that is either inhibiting your humanity and your patient’s, or supporting it.

I’m interested in the kind of return on energetic investment you get from each interaction - and shifting it to FEEL REALLY GOOD through Creating Safer Healthcare, so that it’s deeply supportive, not destructive.

Why not meet patients and colleagues with a level of care that supports THEIR healing, peace, and health as much as it does yours?

I have never felt anything like that...

“ This course is so clearly about applying trauma informed practices. That feels really potent and really good…You also take really big and scary and daunting concepts and make them really relatable and human and gentle.

I was so awestruck at something about your energy which was… the way you hold trauma… your ability… your capacity to be present with the trauma field in a group of people.

I have never felt anything like that. I also love that your examples from your personal life really bring the content alive and make it really relatable and clear. ”

— Dara H. Coach, Ohio

Join me in Creating Safer Healthcare

This will not only help your patients, it will help you breathe better, sleep better and feel more spacious in your work.

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Money Back Guarantee

We believe strongly in the quality and depth inside of Creating Safer Healthcare. This series brings you high quality, simple, easy to apply tools and practices that will have a profound impact on the space you hold for your people every day.

I confidently back it with a 30-Day, Money-Back Guarantee. I want you to dive in deep and experience the full wealth of this course without needing to worry if this is for you.

If you’re not satisfied, just contact us within 30 days of purchase, and we’ll refund your money.

No questions asked.

Join me in Creating Safer Healthcare

…If you see room for improvement within systematic care - this is the first practical step to changing it.

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