Empowering leaders to build workplaces where we can heal and grow

The Center for Trauma and Leadership empowers leaders to transform their workplaces to become environments where people not only grow and develop — but where they can heal and repair what has been hurt.

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Emerge. Grow. Lead.

Our mission is to help leaders stay in their fields, love their jobs again, and lead through trauma with emotional intelligence and kindness.

Leading Through Trauma

Leading Through Trauma™ is an intensive development program for leaders who operate in a context of repeated trauma including first responders, journalists, hospitals and mental health centers, nonprofits, and government agencies.

During this six-day course led by Carolyn Murphy and Gretchen Schmelzer, participants join a vibrant cohort of leaders across sectors to develop tools for discussing trauma in the workplace, discover new ways of leading that help build individual and organizational resilience, and strengthen your own leadership capacity to keep doing the work you love.

NOW ENROLLING
Featured
Understanding Trauma at Work: The Three Types of Trauma

Talking about trauma in the workplace can be confusing — the word trauma gets used interchangeably for all situations, but not all trauma is the same. The definition of an acute or single-incident trauma is “an experience or event that overwhelms our capacity to defend or protect ourselves.” The hallmarks of trauma are helplessness and fear.

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Featured
Understanding Trauma at Work: The Three Types of Trauma 
FROM OUR BLOG
Featured
Resilience and the 5-Phase Cycle

In our third episode, we talk about the Preparation Phase of healing from trauma and how we can best set ourselves up for the work ahead — including intentionally leaning into our strengths, preparing for difficult conversations, and gathering the support we need. We’ll also dive into the three types of resilience, and how resilience isn’t about “surviving at all costs” — it’s a set of reserves to draw on when you need it most.

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LATEST PODCAST EPISODE

As leadership consultants, we have supported leaders and teams across multiple sectors.

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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

  • “We were able to embrace the traumas that had been in our way and had us feeling stuck. Through the work we did, we felt empowered to move forward.”

    Tiffany Simmons
    Tribal Government Development, Tanana Chiefs Conference

  • “Gretchen's background and experience with trauma, psychology, and leadership development is hard to find in the consultant world and a unique and powerful gift to teams working through trauma.”

    Sarah Medary
    City Manager, City of Eugene, Oregon

Ready to transform your workplace?

Our resources and learning programs give leaders practical, useful, and supportive tools for leading in a trauma context.