Build confidence to help and not hinder women with trauma.

This course is designed to teach clinicians that they have some amazing tools to help clients who have an experience of trauma. It teaches some of the underlying philosophy and physiological principles of trauma, and then gives practical advice to help deliver effective care to clients with trauma, all within the context of women’s health issues. It takes an embodied cognition approach, emphasising the importance of exercise physiology in helping clients act in ways that help rather than hinder trauma.

It is a trauma-informed course, but it is not a course that teaches you how to be ‘trauma-informed’. Rather, it teaches you how to apply the principles of exercise physiology in ways that can help the person with trauma and women’s health concerns to strengthen their recovery. 

Who is this program for?

This course is for exercise physiologists who want to feel capable of helping clients with trauma. It’s designed for allied health clinicians working with clients who are navigating both women’s health issues and traumatic experiences, and who want to go beyond being trauma-informed to having real, practical skills to help people work through trauma using exercise and related tools.

It’s also for any clinician who feels overwhelmed or fearful of causing more harm to traumatised clients, or uncertain if supporting these clients is within their scope of practise. If you’re confronted by the need to work with trauma but unsure how, this course will show you how it is firmly within your scope.

It’s for professionals who care deeply about offering clients compassionate opportunities to thrive within their own body, using their body, no matter their past experiences. And it’s for clinicians who feel the need to understand more about the emotions of trauma and how they manifest in the body but haven’t been able to find education that integrates this with the complexity of women’s health work.

About Stuart

Stuart McDonald is an exercise physiologist with lived experience with complex concerns, a thinker, and quiet creative whose work sits at the intersection of body, belief, and healing.

Stuart has a long history of chronic illness and injury, which has driven him to discover how to help himself when standard medical and health interventions just didn’t work. This continual drive for insight has led him to pursue education across multiple domains in order to help others with similarly complex concerns. This has led him to study three Masters degrees, from his Master of Clinical Exercise Physiology (Rehabilitation), to a Master of Arts, and a Master of Theological Studies, where he researched the physiological basis of interoception and emotion as it relates to stress and beliefs. He began with undergraduate studies in Human Biology and Psychology and has pursued graduate studies in psychology as well. He has more than 25 years experience in the industry.

Stuart began just like you, wanting to help, but worried about working outside his scope

This course was born out of a real clinical challenge.

When Stuart first began working with women experiencing both complex health issues and trauma, he couldn’t find any training that addressed what his clients truly needed, especially within the scope of exercise physiology. Concerned about working beyond his limits, he sought mentorship from a trauma-informed practitioner grounded in embodied cognition and coaching. Through weekly supervision, applied reflection, and deep study, Stuart began integrating these insights into his sessions. Eventually, his pursuit of excellence led him to Europe to learn directly from leading researchers in the field.

The result? A powerful, evidence-informed approach that bridges the gap between movement, trauma, and women’s health, and the foundation of this course.

Learning content:

• Lesson 1 – Defining Trauma and Scope of Practice
• Lesson 2 – What’s Important for the client (Valence, Salience, Longings and Strivings)
• Lesson 3 – Hypervigiliance, Avoidance & Dissociation
• Lesson 4 – Agency, Power of Action and Exercise Physiology
• Bonus recording – Bonus lesson where Stuart runs a session with a real client exploring the concepts within the program

Frequently asked questions:

Q1. Is this ESSA accredited?

This brand new program has not officially been accredited by ESSA (although we do have plans to). There are approximately 7.5 learning hours and you can claim CPD points under further education where 1 learning hour equates to 1 CPD point. As proof for your digital logbooks, upon completion of the live lessons you will be required to sit an assessment and once passing will receive a certificate of completion.

Q2. It mentions Stuart is an Exercise Physiologist and Enactive Psychotherapist. What further training has he done in the space?

In addition to his Master of Clinical Exercise Physiology, Stuart has completed further research at the Masters level, where he investigated the science of mindfulness, and the relationships between the interoceptive nervous system, the construction of emotion, as expressed through stress and anxiety, and their relationship to Protestant Christian teachings about emotion for the last 500 years. This involved an Enactive approach to emotion. In 2023, Stuart visited Belgium to attend the inaugural Enactive Trauma Therapy conference, and is a paying member of Ellert Nijenhuis’ Enactive Trauma eAcademy. He is also trained and experienced in Change Fitness Coaching, StretchFit, Stretch Therapy, and Innovations in Pilates methods, and has had almost 15 years coaching and learning in Ontological Coaching and Ericksonian conversational methods of therapy.

Q3. If you cannot attend live, are lessons recorded?

Yes, all lessons are recorded and  uploaded into the student dashboard. Because we understand people learn in different ways, alongside the video recording there will also be an audio version for you to listen along just like a podcast. 

Q4. How long do I have course access for?

You will have 6 months access to the lesson recordings through your online student portal. The accompanying learning manuals and resources are all downloadable and can be kept as references once the portal is closed.

At HER Education, we value continued support and give you lifetime access to the Trauma and Women’s health community group and the HER Education Super Community. You can ask questions with fellow students, educators and like-minded women’s health practitioners for as long as you choose to be part of the community.

Q5. I have no previous experience in Trauma, is this program still appropriate for me?

Yes definitely!  There are no pre-requisites for this program. We would recommend it to the practitioner who knows that Trauma can play a huge role in holding back clients from healing, and want to provide a service to support this, but doesn’t yet feel equipped to step into that space.

Q6. I don’t currently see trauma clients, is this still appropriate for me?

Yes. This program isn’t just about trauma, it’s about working with humans. It’s about understanding how emotions drive behaviour, and how those behaviours are often tied to what matters most to the person in front of you.

As a health professional, every client you see is someone who cares deeply about what’s going on in their body, they’ve taken action to seek help. This program helps you create exceptional client experiences by giving you the insight and tools to support people as they navigate the challenges they care to fix.

Whether or not a client identifies as having trauma, you’re already working with people carrying emotional complexity. This program gives you the skills to meet them there with confidence, care, and professionalism.