Trauma Informed Leadership

hi!
I’m Renée, a trauma-informed leadership, yoga + practice educator with expertise in capability development and organisational design across sectors. With a Master’s degree in Management, a post-graduate learning diploma and international speaking and work experience, I bring a wealth of knowledge - and enthusiasm - to what I do.
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Drawing on lived experience with complex trauma and mental ill-health, alongside professional qualifications in traumatic stress studies and trauma-informed yoga, I offer a unique perspective on creating safer, more compassionate workplaces, using authentic leadership & trauma-informed practice.
I live on the lands of the Wadawurrung People of the Kulin Nation and pay my respects to them as the custodians. I recognise their leaders, past, present and emerging and acknowledge that this land was stolen and never ceded. It always was and always will be Aboriginal land.
my story
Originally from Aotearoa New Zealand, I now live in Regional Victoria in Australia, with my husband, son, and our nervous system-regulating dog, Jimmy.​
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I left my career leading disability and mental health learning professional education programming for one of Australia's largest nonprofits after years in national/international HR and Leadership functional leadership roles. I did though, become incredibly frustrated by the lack of evidence-based decision making in leadership and organisational design + the lack of follow 'trauma-informed' principles being applied to how employees/volunteers are treated by organisations.
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Given my love of working in for-purpose organisations who do amazing things, you can imagine the frustration in seeing this happen - especially when evidence-informed leadership, organisational design, psychosocial safety and trauma-informed practices are so well researched and practiced to deliver better organisational results. The organisational drift (coincidently the subject of my professional practice Masters' research) that occurs when authentic, trauma-informed leadership isn't embedded into organisational design and leadership strategy is as pointless as it is avoidable.
As any 'people professional' will tell you, poor leadership, organisational mission drift & uninformed decision making inevitably morph into environments where values aren't adhered to, bullying and toxic behaviour becomes rife. In the end the people who do the valuable, frontline, work and the customer, are the ones that lose out with the resulting decrease in psychosocial safety - and all poor behaviour and low productivity that goes along with it.
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So I decided to do something about it - and started a social enterprise to do so.
My mission is to transform workplaces by helping leaders adopt trauma-informed approaches to better support their teams.
Just as trauma-informed practice is vital for service providers supporting clients, trauma-informed leadership should be at the heart of how organisations equip and support leaders to foster true psychosocial safety.
This is where people achieve more through fostering an environment where innovation, creativity and collaboration happen.
experience + learning
I am a little bit of a learning addict, having promised my other half many times 'this is the last degree I'm doing'!
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My professional and academic experience includes:
professional experience
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Founding 'Trauma Informed Leadership' in 2024, an education-focused social enterprise
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Leading the Disability/Mental Health Professional Education function at Life Without Barriers, one of Australia's largest nonprofits
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Leading the Performance & Capability function at bloom hearing specialists/Widex Asia-Pacific - a global retail and wholesale healthcare technology company
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Established and lead the Learning & Organisational Development function and team at YMCA Victoria - at the time one of the world’s largest YMCAs
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Leading the Human Resources function at Nazareth Care Australia and New Zealand
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Master's Degree in Management (with research focusing on organisational drift and corporate functions/leadership’s influence on whether the organisation achieves its core mission or drifts from it)
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Qualified Secondary School Teacher (English and Social Studies) with a Graduate Diploma in Teaching & Learning, alongside a Bachelors’ Degree in Communication & Media Studies
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Having represented my home country (Aotearoa - New Zealand) in the Japanese Government/United Nations Ship for World Youth Program focusing on the Education stream (2011)
traumatic stress studies + trauma-informed practice ​
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Trauma-informed yoga teacher, working with at-risk groups in both voluntary and professional capacities
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My yoga teacher training qualifications include Vinyasa/Flow, Yin, Yoga Nidra, Trauma-Informed Facilitation, Trauma-Sensitive Facilitation among others
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Having recently completed a Certificate in Traumatic Stress Studies with Bessel van der Kolk’s Trauma Research Centre (the author of one of my most-recommended reads - The Body Keeps the Score)
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Currently completing the Boston Justice Research Institute’s Trauma Centre Trauma Sensitive Yoga Teacher Training (TCTSY), advanced yoga teaching
certifications + memberships​
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I am a member of both the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI) and a Global member of the (USA) Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) and am accredited in the administration of Facet5 assessments.
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I am also a Yoga Australia Certified Yoga Teacher with 375 hours of training completed, with an additional trauma-sensitive yoga teaching 300 hour program currently being completed.