It's Time. Are You Ready?

It's taken me years of therapy and deep self reflection & awareness to recover from my fall from grace. Since that time, I've worked hard recover and rewire my brain mentally, physically, spiritually, and financially. I have also worked hard to own and accept this part of my life's story. Because of this work, I now understand how my trauma-wired brain is connected to my reluctance to trust, my need for perfection, my emotional reactions and defensiveness, my competitiveness, my leaving when things got tough, and my assumption that everyone close to me would eventually abandon me. It’s been especially enlightening to finally connect these same trauma responses to how I have shown up in the workplace as well. Unraveling the underpinnings of my childhood trauma and its connection to my [past] leadership style was like pulling layers and layers of old and new bubble gum off of a big fuzzy ball of yarn. It was/is painful, frustrating, it's taken time, effort, and courage, and it's been filled with endless opportunities to truly be whole. Because of the commitment to address my hurt and the new found courage to speak about it, I relish my new role as a survivor, a thought-leader, a?LinkedIn Learning instructor, ?a?TEDx Jacksonville ?speaker, and the hurt leader behind the challenge to train 1 million trauma-informed leaders by 2031.

Are you ready to join me in this journey? Are you ready to do the hard work so you can show up as your best self for your staff? Join me on May 2 as I share how I finally connected my childhood trauma and experiences to how I showed up as a team member, as a peer, as a subordinate and as a leader-- from not trusting others, to creating a pacesetting leadership culture, to leaving behind roadkill to now fully working with other leaders to take their pain to purpose.

You don't want to miss this testimony of leadership discovery, recovery, and transformation. UPWARD Women is offering an exclusive 50% discount to 15 of my newsletter subscribers. Register here today and use promo code: Dawn

Join Me

I am on a mission to train 1 million trauma informed leaders in the United States by 2031. ?As a seasoned or emerging leader, it is your responsibility to invest in your team. By participating in my new?LinkedIn Learning Course , you are taking the next step in recognizing how trauma impacts the way we interact with others and how we lead staff through change during these unprecedented times. YOU are truly 1 in a million.

Here are some final recommendations for how you can begin mitigating trauma and support the mental health of your current and future workforce:

1. Assess Your Own Pain and Trauma And Do The Hard Work
2. Assess Your Staff’s Sense Of Well-being And Experiences In The Workplace
3. Address Root Causes Of Stress Responses And Mental Health Challenges at work and at home.
4. Make trauma informed organizations and mental health a part of your company's DNA
5. Require Mental Health First Aid And Trauma Informed Leadership and Workplace Training For All Employees And stakeholders
6. Incorporate The Six Principles Of Trauma-informed Leadership and Systems change Into Performance expectations For Anyone Leading A Team
7. Create An Emotionally Safe And Anti-stigma Culture Through Change Ambassadors And Update Talent Recruitment And Onboarding Policies
8. Provide Comprehensive And Affordable Mental Health Services

Thank you for engaging me and for taking the time to invest in yourself and your team. I encourage you to follow me on?LinkedIn ?or bookmark my website for more content on this topic.

Dawn Emerick, Ed.D