Emily Parker, chief executive and founder of Embrace Your Freedom, says she came out of a difficult relationship last year and now offers trauma-informed coaching.
Emily has also been a primary school teacher for eight years, and uses her experiences in that field to specialise in certain niches.
She said: “Through Embrace Your Freedom, I work to embed trauma-informed practice in child-focused settings, because when we understand behaviour as communication, we stop reacting with judgment and start responding with compassion.
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“It’s a vital shift that supports both children and the professionals around them.”
Emily fits the coaching in between her work as a full-time teacher.
She added: “I mainly end up doing it on evenings, weekends, and the school holidays.
“I end up spending a lot of time on it.
“I love it, people say, ‘how can I find the time to do it on top of everything in life.
“But, if I know I’m helping other people, then that’s a bonus for me.”
Emily has partnered with The Mental Wellbeing Company, and delivers CPD accredited workshops to businesses, organisations and charities about how to deliver trauma informed practice, Mental Health First Aid and the Physiology of Domestic Abuse.
The roles Emily can find herself in range from supporting school teams, running parent workshops, or working one-to-one with someone who has experienced trauma.
She added: “It’s all about trying to help people to understand what happens in the body, trauma isn’t an event that’s happened to you.It’s how your body reacts to something that is happening or has happened. Feeling okay doesn’t mean trauma hasn’t left its mark on your brain.
“You could be absolutely fine, but trauma may still have affected your brain.”
Emily, who had been suffering trauma, added: “I stumbled across doing this as I was looking to heal and I wanted to provide support for others going through similar things.”