When the Work Gets Heavy: Staying Grounded and Well

YWCA South Florida

UM Team COACH

This live training explores the emotional impact of helping professions, with a focus on recognizing and responding to secondary trauma. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of how trauma exposure shows up through empathic connection, indirect exposure, and cumulative stress over time, and why these responses are a normal part of caring work.

Through practical frameworks and real-world examples, attendees will learn to identify early warning signs across cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral domains, including burnout, hypervigilance, numbing, and shifts in perspective. The training also highlights key workplace and individual risk and protective factors that influence resilience.

Participants will leave with actionable strategies to sustain their well-being, including self-awareness practices, boundary-setting, reflective processing, and daily “anchors” that reconnect them to purpose, gratitude, and balance. Emphasis is placed on self-compassion, intentional focus, and engaging in meaningful life outside of work as essential components of trauma stewardship.

This training is designed to help professionals remain grounded, effective, and connected so they can continue to care for others without losing themselves in the process.