Warning: This article will piss people off. This article will also allow you to create some discerment about who you're actually working with to get more well and be more whole.
Somewhere along the way, “trauma-informed” became a trending label, not just a value or a principle, but a shiny certification. Another line for the Instagram bio. Another badge to earn. Another course to buy.
But here's the thing: what were you doing before you called yourself trauma-informed?
If you’re a coach, psychologist, therapist, energy worker, or leadership facilitator and you weren’t already operating in a trauma-informed way…then what kind of spaces were you holding?
What kind of interactions were you having?
What kind of harm might you have unknowingly caused?
And now that you've completed a trauma-informed course, what has really changed?
Let’s break this down plainly.
Being trauma-informed means you lead, coach or facilitate with:
But if someone only adopted those values after being trained, what were they embodying before? And how do we know the training created real change or just gave them another title to flaunt?
Here’s the tough truth: you can’t certificate your way into integrity.
And you certainly can’t sell “trauma-informed” as a badge of honour when the behaviours still don’t align.
A friend of mine, formerly in the army, was connected with an army psychologist appointed to support a a specific group of veterans. This was someone embedded in their long-term recovery space, someone who should have embodied the utmost confidentiality, respect and professional ethics.
But this psychologist not only shared confidential information between clients, veterans who were working together on a project, she also engaged in sexual relationships with some of the individuals she was working with.
Imagine that now she now has the 'trauma-informed' certification.
No.
A new label doesn’t equal a new standard in a profession that should already be upholding these behaviours.
Not without radical self-awareness, deep change, and a shift in values.
Let’s zoom out for a moment.
This isn’t just about one label. It’s part of a much bigger sales machine that has monetised people’s pain.
We now have:
Most of these were created, branded and marketed in the last 5–7 years.
Why?
Because trauma is trending. And in the business world, trends equal money.
Labels are now used as selling points, not soulful practice.
Certifications have become commodities, not commitments.
And trauma - real, human, painful trauma - is being packaged for passive income and automated email sequences.
What's more, it's not about transmuting the trauma at the root cause from the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual bodies so that the person can be more well. There's no change or growth from the root cause. You end up being 'therapied' on the symptoms.
It’s heartbreaking. And it’s dangerous.
When you create a system that profits from the pain, you are incentivised to create more pain, more labels, more diagnoses, more boxes, and you guessed it, more pharma drugs. Not healing. Not wholeness. Not liberation.
Here’s a radical idea:
What if we didn’t need to be told to treat people with kindness, care, and consent?
What if we didn’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a course to be reminded that people deserve safety?
What if, instead of marketing trauma-informed as an elite badge of awareness, we made it a minimum standard of how we engage with one another?
Because that’s what it should be.
Not a shiny title.
Not a funnel freebie.
Not a line on a website.
But a baseline.
A given.
A quiet standard of conduct, expressed in how people feel in your presence, not what you’ve named yourself or your offer.
This isn’t a slam on learning or evolving.
We can all deepen our awareness, and we should.
But please, let’s not confuse language for embodiment.
Let’s not mistake certification for capacity.
The people I trust most in this work?
They are the ones who don’t need to tell you they’re trauma-informed.
You feel it - in their presence, in their words, in their boundaries, and in the way they listen without trying to fix you.
Let’s stop selling trauma.
Let’s start seeing people.
With hugs, love and magic!
Bhavna xx
Photo credit: Julia Rodriguez
