Creating Safer Space
In Depth Trauma Informed Care For Coaches, Therapists, Healers & Facilitators
Are you unconsciously holding yourself back from deeper connection?
Learn what to say and do (and what NOT to say and do) so your clients and students get more from what you give them.
An online, go-at-your-own-pace course on trauma awareness for facilitators, coaches and therapists. Creating Safer Space is an interactive community of care providers dedicated to waking up and bringing more care, connection and skill into their work with their clients and students.
The world needs you and your gifts. But so many people rarely understand the necessity of being trauma informed so that your people can be present enough to receive your gifts.
This worldwide course has helped hundreds of participants feel more balanced, confident and clear in the ways they interact with and guide their students with trauma awareness. They report breathing deeper, having more of themselves available to show up genuinely, feeling present and connected to their people, while seriously upleveling their skill, integrity and mission to bring their gifts into the world to help others.
If you want to support the next level of excellence and engagement for your clients and programs, this is the place to be. You will be guided to set a foundation that will support, grow and sustain your work in a way that feels GOOD to your body, heart and mind (and that of those who come to see you).
If you’re someone who is excited to take your biz to the next level by learning with a gorgeous community of healing and growth game changers, read on!
Safety is The Treatment - Stephen Porges
Whether or not it seems obvious, almost everyone has trauma and can experience difficulty connecting.
Think about it... when we don’t feel safe, it’s hard to connect with people. It’s hard to feel curious. It’s hard to learn, take things in, and experience the world when you live with a guarded heart and mind.
It’s uncomfortable feeling anxious, feeling tense, feeling nervous -- so when we walk into experiences, we often do our best to hide the discomfort. We project an exterior that says everything’s fine when we truly show up a little numb and checked out.
Physically we’re there, but the rest of us? Not so much.
And yet, as facilitators, how often do we ASSUME that the people coming to us ARE fine, just because they look that way on the outside?
We can’t know what’s going on inside the people we hold space for.
We can’t know their past history and experiences, their trauma and wounds and hurts and triggers.
We can’t know the childhood they had, or the experiences in adolescence that taught them they don’t belong.
We can’t know that meeting new people makes them anxious, or how this is the first time they’ve decided to try coaching and they’re nervous and scared, or how the last time they tried breathwork they had a terrible time but they’re giving it another go.
We can’t know.
This is why it makes SO MUCH SENSE to make creating safer spaces our top priority.
What would be possible for us as facilitators, and for our students and clients, if the people that come to us feel safe enough to be even more open, to be vulnerable, to get curious with us, to explore and play within an experience that is truly healing?
Imagine the difference we could make.
Imagine the experiences people could have if they felt truly comfortable in our care.
Imagine being the kind of facilitator who can skillfully take people to the edges of their discomfort in a way that feels safe enough for them to go just a little further than they thought they were capable of.
Imagine knowing how to facilitate this dance with discomfort in “safe enough space” and how much MORE our students and clients could receive if we tipped the scales in their favor and knew how to create safer spaces for them.
Pablo
Breathwork Facilitator
For myself, I feel that safety is the thing that dissolves those walls, that peels back those layers, that holds space for those miraculous experiences.
Join Creating Safer Space
to learn simple, effective tools you can use immediately to level up your space holding skills for the people you support.
$597 ($647)
or $175 a month on a 3 month payment plan.
But how?
We can’t MAKE people feel safe.
So many of us who are taught to guide meditations, teach yoga, conduct one-on-ones and workshops, as therapists and as coaches have been conditioned to say ‘this is a safe space’, because in our heart of hearts we want people to feel safe with us.
But telling people they’re safe doesn’t make them feel safe.
We can’t completely control the environment, and we can’t know what feels safe for every person we hold space for.
So we can’t promise a completely safe space - and neither should we.
But we CAN work towards providing a SAFER space. -- and we have a responsibility to do so.
So what do we do?
We create safer space through actions, not through telling someone they are safe.
Luna
Sensual Artistry
I’m not as sensitive as some people. So a big part of this, and why it was really good, was to understand how making small changes on my behalf as a facilitator can really make a huge impact on the way people receive.
I’m getting more empathy for people who’ve been through more than I've been through, and the effect that’s had on their nervous systems.
When you join Creating Safer Space…
…you’ll receive so many tools and practices to create a sense of ease for people, and it all begins with how we set up the experience we’re offering, and how we orient someone to the experience they’re going to have with us.
So, what do I mean by orienting someone to the experience they’re going to have with us?
One piece of orienting means making the unfamiliar familiar, so the nervousness and anxiety of not knowing what to expect can soften, and people can be present with us, ready to receive what we’re offering them.
Another piece of orienting is paying attention to what’s here and now - we’re orienting to the present moment. We invite our clients and students to turn towards what’s here in the room, in themselves, between us - focusing on what feels supportive and comforting so that the present moment can be a welcoming place to rest in together.
Bracing against new experiences goes DEEP for people and often it’s unconscious. Many folks with trauma have NO idea they are even feeling anxious or on guard.
In this survival mode we’re not able to receive information and take in connection.
We’re not able to feel safe enough to experience the edges of our discomfort in a way that supports our healing and growth.
Orienting is about first impressions. You know that first impressions count - we hear it all the time.
Orienting is how you create a first impression for someone - whether it’s the first time or the hundredth time they’re walking into your space. And believe me… they ARE sizing you up whether or not they are even conscious of it!
Bringing intention into how you Orient makes a HUGE difference, as you’ll learn when you listen to the audio examples included in the course. You get to hear Orienting in action, so you can experience what it feels like to be guided and introduced to what’s happening next and tune in to how it feels in your own body and nervous system. Then you can deliver that to your people.
Veronica
Licenced Master Social Worker & Massage Therapist
But Who am I to Tell You This?
Hi, I’m Shelby Leigh, and I’m so glad you’re here.
My journey has been filled with plenty of ups and downs. I became who I am today through quite a few dead end roads, misguided coping mechanisms, a depth of complex trauma, and a strong dose of PTSD.
But everything changed the day I walked into a Buddhist Meditation Class about 15 years ago and devoted myself to my healing.
I ended up getting a coaching certification, then a somatic psychotherapy degree, got another coaching certification in Sex, Love & Relationships, went deep into embodiment, tantra, and sensuality (which I use in my work and life everyday), started working with clients and realized I’m really passionate about this!
I’ve invested years into traveling the world, both teaching and also immersing myself in trainings and workshops. Through it all I would take notes specifically on what people are doing (and not doing) to create space for their students and clients that gives the best opportunity for healing and growth.
With my culmination of experience, I help people heal and grow so they can offer their gifts to others, integrating my somatic psychotherapy background to make sure that we’re navigating trauma in a way that doesn’t cause more.
In other words, I’m here to help people be more of themselves so they can heal their wounds and the world.
I want you to be able to TRUST that you can create a safer space so that your clients can heal, learn and grow with you and YOU can tap more fully into your AUTHENTIC VOICE, WISDOM and SPACE-HOLDING with incredible wisdom, care and compassion.
Scholarships
A portion of every full price enrolment goes towards providing scholarships so Creating Safer Space can get into the hands of all those who need it.
For this special live round of Creating Safer Space, there are a ten spots available for a 50% scholarship and I love supporting folks in this way.
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 Space, you also get access to:
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15 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. ($500 value)
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Guided audio practices - hear a whole lot of examples of how to use what you’re learning in your own teaching and space holding. ($400 value)
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Step by step practices you can use with your clients and students (or even yourself) to help them ground, center and resource. ($400 value)
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Bonus interviews - several videos with a wide variety of guest experts, sharing how they “Create Safer Spaces” well in how they guide. ($500)
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Access to a private Facebook group to connect with other course participants, and have all your questions answered. (Priceless)
Colleen
Breathwork Facilitator, Love & Relationship coach
This is very easy to implement, but it has a huge impact. It’s very powerful. It’s not something that’s so complicated you can’t wrap your head around it, it’s very simple yet profound tools that can make such a difference. That’s what I really liked - it was very easy to implement, but I saw a big shift.
JOIN CREATING SAFER SPACE
to learn simple, effective tools you can use immediately to help people get the most from what you’re offering them.
$597 ($647)
or $175 a month on a 3 month payment plan.
Guest Teachers
Creating Safer Space includes a huge bonus - in depth conversations with a variety of teachers, healers and space holders on the ways they create safer spaces in their work.
You’ll receive incredible wisdom and many different perspectives on topics like consent, choice, empowerment, change, navigating the edges of overwhelm with people and more.
Dr Betty Martin
Betty begins our interview with the powerful statement: “there’s no such thing as safety.”, and in our conversation, goes into depth around the unmistakable importance of consent.
Maira Holzmann
Maira is a somatically trained psychotherapist devoted to healing trauma and attachment wounding.
As we know, the more regulated and integrated we are as care providers, the easier it is to create caring and safe enough space for others.
Maira and Shelby co-faciliate a guided regulation practice with information about the nervous system and how to continued an embodied sense of safety for you as a facilitator AND the people you support.
Bev Martin
Bev shares with us the POWER of being "clean", and we talk about creating client-centered and agenda-less sessions so clients are empowered in their experience.
Enrique Collazo
Enrique shares about the importance of giving folks choice and options and the empowerment and sense of agency that comes out of it.
Giselle Jones (LCSW, CMF, CSAT-C)
Giselle shares how to support folks from a variety of backgrounds genuinely feel more safe in our spaces. We explore the HOW of creating "Safe Enough Space" including Consent, Social Conditioning, Inclusivity, Sex and Sexuality, Privilege, Cultural Humility and Compassion.
Judith Sadora (M.A., LMFT Oregon & Nevada)
Judith shares about intergenerational trauma, cultural humility and looking through a systems lens while welcoming folks from marginalized populations - especially the Black communities. Understand how to tend to your own edges and those of your clients so you can be connected and "real" as you navigate healing and growth together.
Tailor Rae
Tailor Rae shares about how to support Queer, Trans and Gender Non-Conforming folx as care providers, and the importance of understanding power dynamics, of the "how-to's" of learning about folx with different identities from ourselves, about creating repairs, and so much more.
Rick Smith
Rick shares with us how we can create conditions for change without causing overwhelm. He talks about what happens when we try to make someone change and offers his thoughts and tools on how to create transformation without pushing someone over the edge into being triggered by trauma.
Robyn Lynn
Robyn describes what a container is and how important it is to have one - both internally and externally. She also shares how to create a non-judgmental space of allowing so that shifts can happen instead of pushing people into change.
Join Creating Safer Space
…and learn from other incredible space holders.
$597 ($647)
or $175 a month on a 3 month payment plan.
Heather DeVore
Therapist & Coach, Portland, Oregon & Worldwide
I see myself slowing down and being more thoughtful of my words and actions. Loving everything about this training!
So many of the Creating Safer Space participants have been surprised at how they feel after taking the course.
They’ve learned to identify and tend to their own trigger points and wounds with more kindness - both in their work and in their personal lives.
They’ve learned how to care for themselves in deeper ways. They feel more grounded, present and confident in all areas of their lives, not just in their work. They’re naturally using the skills they’ve learned in their lives outside of their work. Their relationships have improved and they say they just feel better. And feeling better feels GOOD.
So not only will you help people who come into your workshops, classes and sessions feeling anxious soften their anxiety and feel calm and ready to receive your gifts, open to having truly transformational experiences…
YOU will feel safer through doing this course - calmer, more able to meet what comes in your sessions and in your own lives.
Creating safer space for your clients and students causes a beautiful ripple effect out into the world - the people you support feel safer, so they are able to transform at a deeper level, and their impact on the world is greater too.
What else will I learn?
Module 1: Welcome
Welcome to the course! You get to experience firsthand what it might be like to show up to a trauma aware experience. Immerse yourself in orienting in action, and feel this in your own nervous system as it’s modeled for you.
Module 2: Arriving
Drop into awareness of how to support others with trauma, and how to support yourselves in the midst of supporting others who have trauma. Get clear on the importance of what happens during arriving for folks with trauma, and play with some experiential exercises so you feel in your own body and nervous system what you’re learning - how it feels, creating a safer space for yourself.
Module 3: Defining Trauma
Getting a little nerdy, in a really accessible way! This module helps you to understand what trauma is, how it impacts pretty much everyone, and the number 1 way to support people with trauma.
Module 4: Orienting, Container and Agreements
This helps you understand what a container is and why it’s fundamentally important to creating safer space for just about everybody. It breaks down how to create a solid and healthy container for the experience you’re giving your people. AND, lots of examples so you can hear what this sounds like and how you might use what you’re learning to do this for your people.
Module 5: Safe Enough Space
As you’ve read about at the top of this page - we go into more detail on the difference between ‘a SAFE space’, which we can’t promise anyone, and ‘SAFER space’ which we can absolutely work towards providing. Learn how to invite people into supportive experiences without making promises about safety.
Module 6: Work With Your Triggers
You know this! It’s so important to care for yourself so you can better care for your students and clients. Learn where your hot spots are and how to tend them. Learn how to lean even more fully into your own internal and external support systems. Creating safer space for you, as well as the people you support.
Module 7: Commands VS. Invitations
Learn how to invite people into the experiences you’re offering in a way they’re likely to be SO much more receptive to your guidance. We’ll also talk about the balance between being direct, and offering empowered choice, and why telling people to ‘close their eyes’, or ‘relax’ is often not so helpful, and what you can say instead.
Module 8: Empowered Touch & Content
Oh the importance of this module! Here you learn to track a truly empowered yes or no, and how healing it can be to honor a ‘no’. You’ll understand how to sense this in your own body and also how to help your client or student convey this to you so you can be fully supportive of what THEY need in any given moment.
Module 9: Power Dynamics & Relationship to Care
It can feel SO GOOD to have people doing what you tell them to, but that’s not giving them the responsibility to learn how to make wise choices for themselves. When we learn how to share power with our people, it’s incredible what healing and growth can occur with high integrity and ease. This is something that’s often been taken from this and we can help them restore their personal power when we can understand what might be happening here.
Module 10: To The Edge But Not Over
Faster & more intense does not equal deeper - as much as many people crave intense, cathartic experiences, these are not always the most skillful way for people to receive the gifts you offer them. Learn some tools for working with people’s edges - how to bring people towards their edge, but not over.
Module 11: Character Types to Look Out For
4 surprising character types to look out for in your classes and sessions, and what each of them needs. By looking through the lens of these types you’ll be able to start recognizing how trauma shows up in the room by paying attention to these various characteristics that people display.
Module 12: Tending to Sexual Trauma
Why it’s important to have an awareness of the cultural conditioning the majority of us have around our sexuality and how it impacts disconnection from our desires. Adding to the conversation around power dynamics, responsibility and a wake up call for embracing our motivations when supporting folks around healing sexual trauma, growing capacity for sexual intimacy and creating permission for ALL parts of our students and clients to be present.
Module 13: Activated Moments
Easy to follow tools you can use to support people who are experiencing an activated moment while in your care, and how to support yourself in this too. When people become really overwhelmed or shut down, you can implement these tools - accessing them immediately so they’re right there when you need them.
Module 14: Co-Creating Brave Space with BIPOC Clients
Learn about intergenerational trauma, cultural humility and looking through a systems lens while welcoming folks from marginalized populations - especially the Black community. Understand how to tend to your own edges and those of your clients so you can be connected and "real" as you navigate healing and growth together.
Module 15: Simple Resourcing Practices
Learn the language you can use to support people in feeling safer, practices you can use with clients/ students (and yourself!), ways to help people come into the present moment and tap into their resilience and how to share and teach resourcing so your people are more and more empowered.
Module 16: Welcoming Queer, Trans and Gender Non Conforming Folx as a Care Provider
Learn about how to support Queer, Trans and Gender Non-Conforming folx as care providers, and the importance of understanding power dynamics, of the "how-to's" of learning about folx with different identities from ourselves, about creating repairs, and so much more.
Module 17: Extra Resources
Where to go next? Additional reading, trauma awareness tips for facilitators, and a beautiful grounding practice for you to explore. Everything you need to deepen your understanding, right at your fingertips. This is a constantly growing resource toolkit that will be a supportive foundation for you to return to over and over again.
Module 18: Recordings of LIVE Q&A Interactive Calls
7 calls where students ask questions, receive coaching and guidance from Shelby about their work, their clients and students. These calls explore many topics from personal to professional and dive into rich content extending your trauma awareness education.
Dawn
Therapeutic Bodyworker, Sex, Love & Relationship Coach
You know when you haven’t really gotten a certain piece of the puzzle, that makes things flow a little bit better… this program is filling in those gaps, filling in those little pieces. The puzzle is all coming together where I have the tools and the voice, and what to say, in a much clearer way.
Join me in Creating Safer Space
For your clients and students, for yourself, and for the world. For the world? Yep, I’m on a mission to change the world and I’d love to have you join me.
$497 ($547)
or $175 a month on a 3 month payment plan.
Daniella
Women’s Empowerment & Female Sexuality Coach
What I really really admire about Shelby is her transmission and her embodiment of what she’s speaking, is more powerful than most teachers I’ve worked with. Her level of integrity between embodiment and speaking is very high.
FAQ
Have questions? We've got answers!
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How long will the course take me?
Creating Safer Space is designed in bite-size chunks - most of the videos are short. You could take one in each day for a couple of weeks, binge watch them all in a day, or really take your time to integrate each new module before moving on (that last one is my recommendation!).
There are 9 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 Space participants are applying these tools in their practices and learn from the questions they ask (not included in the 9 hours). -
Continuing Education
Creating Safer Space now offers participants 6 contact hours by the California State Board of Nursing. Nurses, physical therapists, massage therapists, midwives, and other healthcare providers in the US, check with your board! You most likely qualify to earn these hours.
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Can you tell me more about what to expect in this course?
This is an INFORMATIONAL series - you won’t be a trauma expert at the end of it, but you WILL be trauma aware, and have a lot of tools to support your clients and students so you feel super confident in the spaces you hold.
This course is about creating spaces so your clients and students with trauma feel more resilient, resourced and held so the trauma they carry doesn’t overwhelm them while being guided by you. They’re more able to receive the value 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, clients and students may inadvertently heal naturally through these practices. There are some guided practices AND there is a Facebook group where you can ask lots of Q’s and get clarifications. You also have access to two live 60 minute calls 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?
This is a beginner level trauma awareness training, so it’s not for folks who have specialized body-based trauma training already like Sensorimotor or Somatic Experiencing or Organic Intelligence.
It IS for folks who care about their impact, and are willing to look at their blind spots, and to slow down enough to care about those they might be missing. -
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 Facebook group where you can ask all of your questions. -
Do you offer a money back guarantee?
We sure do! If you’re not satisfied, just contact me within 30 days of purchase, and I’ll refund your money. No questions asked.
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Do you cuss in your videos? (okay this isn’t asked frequently, but I thought it was important to let you know!)
Not a lot but I do drop a few “F-Bombs” for emphasis throughout the modules so proceed at your own risk ;-)
Scholarships
A portion of every full price enrolment goes towards providing scholarships so Creating Safer Space can get into the hands of all those who need it.
For this special live round of Creating Safer Space, there are a ten spots available for a 50% scholarship and I love supporting folks in this way.
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.
Money Back Guarantee
I believe strongly in the quality of Creating Safer Space. I’ve poured my heart and soul into creating this series to bring you simple, easy to apply tools and practices that will have a profound impact on the quality of the space you hold.
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 me within 30 days of purchase, and I’ll refund your money. No questions asked.
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 me within 30 days of purchase, and I’ll refund your money. No questions asked.
Join me in Creating Safer Space
r your clients and students, for yourself, and for the world. For the world? Yep, I’m on a mission to change the world and I’d love to have you join me.
$597 ($647)
or $175 a month on a 3 month payment plan.
“I'VE LEARNED THAT PEOPLE WILL FORGET WHAT YOU SAID, PEOPLE WILL FORGET WHAT YOU DID, BUT PEOPLE WILL NEVER FORGET HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL.”
Maya Angelou
When you create a safer space that enables people to feel safe enough to have a life changing experience in your care - that’s the kind of thing they’ll remember forever.
TESTIMONIALS
Pablo - Breathwork Facilitator, Bali
Taran - Counselor & Therapist
"I have finished your course on creating safer space and I must say, it is VERY GOOD. 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 the casual and more formal conversations with our clients in behavioral health settings. Our clients have a very high incidence of repeated trauma and, "Safe Enough Space" is definitely applicable and worth listening to more than once."
– Kestrel Jean, RN, Bend, Oregon
Anakha Coman (she/her)
Leadership Development, DEI Culture, Mindfulness
Bend Oregon
Dawn - Therapeutic Bodyworker, Sex, Love & Relationship Coach
Daniella - Woman’s Empowerment and Female Sexuality Coach
Join hundreds of other amazing coaches, yoga teachers, therapists, breathwork facilitators and other healers who are Creating Safer Spaces for their clients and students.