Nadia J Charles

Certified Trauma Recovery Coach for Survivors of Childhood Trauma

I help high-functioning women survivors of childhood trauma deepen their self-awareness, align with their values, and increase their emotional capacity.

About

Caribbean, Immigrant, Bisexual, Lifelong Learner, Personal Development Enthusiast, Analytical Thinker, Problem Solver, and Tea Drinker

Who I am

I am a survivor of childhood sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. In adulthood, the effects of my childhood abuse played out in love/sex addiction, intimacy avoidance, and high achievement. For most of my adult life, I proudly wore the badge of 'victim' because it provided a reason why every aspect of my life was falling apart.

Once I became ready to acknowledge that I was the common denominator in my dysfunctional life and realized that change had to come from within, I committed to learning about the subconscious effects of my traumatic past on my self-worth and relationships.

My personal transformation awakened a desire to help others so I decided to pursue a path of becoming a catalyst for the awakening and healing of other women struggling with self-worth and relationship issues.

Through my training in hypnotherapy and both personal research and professional training in trauma and addiction, I learned how trauma can deeply affect one’s emotional health and ability to live a full, happy and enriching life.

Healing requires courage and support to look at your inner pain and find the fuel to transform that pain into power, self-awareness, intention, confidence, self-trust, self-love, self-worth, happiness, joy, and inner peace.

Using personal experience and professional training to bring clarity, focus, and insight into the challenges of overcoming a traumatic past, I work with women to release past traumas, connect with their true selves, heal their personal and intimate relationships, experience emotional freedom, and live a joyful life.

What I do

I help my clients live courageously and authentically. I create a safe, sacred space for healing to naturally happen and a supportive healing place for you to rediscover your strength, courage, and wisdom.

In working with me, you can expect to grow into a self-aware, self-loving, self-supporting, self-validating, and emotionally healthy creator of your life, able to find emotionally healthy partners, and create and sustain healthy intimate relationships.

Through uncovering and resolving the underlying causes behind why you're struggling, you can expect to feel more self-aware and intentional.

Through identifying the emotional needs not being met in your relationships, you can expect to be able to articulate what you need and be able to enforce your boundaries.

Through connecting the triggers to the patterns of behavior that have sabotaged your growth and development, you can expect to feel confident and committed moving your life forward.

How I work

  • In trauma recovery coaching, you are the expert. You already know everything you need to move forward but you may be experiencing some fear and confusion about how to take action or knowing what is the right action. Together, we will explore what you're struggling with and I will ask clarifying questions to get to the heart of the issue and help move you forward to achieve your goals.

  • I may also use hypnotherapy, a relaxation technique used to remove, release, resolve, and rewind or replace past trauma, negative thought patterns or obstacles keeping you from moving forward in life.

  • I may also employ aromatherapy, suggesting essential oil blends that support emotional healing and bring about positive mood change.

  • I may also employ bibliotherapy, suggesting written works that relate to your issue to help bring insight, healing, and inspire positive change.

Who I can help

High-functioning women survivors of childhood trauma who on the outside seem to have it all together but who on the inside, feel anything but. You might be a woman:

  • who pressures herself to do everything perfectly, has high standards, obsesses over her failures, and fears letting anyone down.

  • with a history of unhealthy relationships or a history of attracting emotionally unavailable or emotionally abusive partners.

  • who feels like you've been operating on autopilot and feels unfulfilled, lacking passion and purpose.

  • who has had therapy but feels there are unresolved issues tied to your past and haven't found the right space to work through them.

You Might Be Ready for Coaching If...

  • you're over toxic hustle culture or you want to be

  • you're over sacrificing your sovereignty or you want to be

  • you're over people-pleasing or you want to be

  • you're over working for someone else or you want to be

  • you're over putting your mental health needs last or you want to be

  • you're over putting your self-care needs last or you want to be

  • you're over making excuses for the people who've hurt you or you want to be

  • you're over feeling ashamed about who you are or you want to be

  • you're over accepting less than you're worth or you want to be

  • you're over putting on a brave face to make others comfortable or you want to be

  • you're over not being totally honest about how you feel or you want to be

  • you're over feeling guilty for saying no or you want to be

  • you're over trying to fit in or you want to be

  • you're over keeping up with the Joneses or you want to be

  • you're over toxic masculinity and toxic femininity or you want to be

  • you're over putting others first or you want to be

  • you're over aspiring to measure up to unrealistic beauty standards or you want to be

  • you're over feeling weird because you think differently or you want to be

  • you're over being told who you should be or you want to be

  • you're over being told how you should behave or you want to be

  • you're over never advocating for your needs for fear of rejection/abandonment or you want to be

  • you're over feeling miserable, broken, unloved, or unsupported or you want to be

  • you're over falling for emotionally unavailable/unhealthy partners or you want to be

  • you're over being disrespected or you want to be

  • you're over being the "strong, black woman" or you want to be

  • you're over sweeping the past under the rug or you want to be

  • you're over doing what's expected of you or you want to be

  • you're over feeling you can't make mistakes or you want to be

  • you're over feeling you have to be perfect or you want to be

  • you're over doubting yourself or you want to be

  • you're over feeling bad about yourself or you want to be

My Philoshophy

In the words of Dr. Gabor Maté, trauma is not what happened to you. Trauma is what happened inside you, as a result of what happened to you. Therefore, the challenges you may be experiencing in adulthood do not mean you are broken. You are having normal responses as a result of what happened to you.

Trauma destabilizes your sense of safety, disorients your sense of belonging, distorts your sense of worth, disrupts your ability to healthily relate, dysregulates your emotions, and disconnects you from your body and your Authentic Self.

Trauma recovery coaching works to restore safety and your Authentic Self and dismantle trauma's toxic effects.

I believe that in order to heal individually, a combination of three things is required, psychoeducation (an understanding of the emotional, psychological, biological, and relational aftereffects of trauma), deep self-awareness, and healthy relating.

Psychological, biological, emotional, and relational aftereffects of trauma

  • Because trauma can alter brain and nervous system functioning, it may trigger an inherited predisposition for mental illness.

  • The earlier and longer trauma is experienced, the greater likelihood of impact on brain development and body chemistry.

  • Trauma can impact one's emotional skills to relate to and engage with others which may result in a desire to isolate and disconnect from themselves, the world, and relationships.

  • Prolonged exposure to overwhelming situations or if kindness, compassion, worthiness, and acceptance were inconsistent or nonexistent in personal relationships can impair relationships with self, family, friends, romantic partners, parents/children, and at work. This can bring challenges related to trust, self-worth, people-pleasing, co-dependence, vulnerability to predators/grooming, push-pull attachment, and feelings of unsafety.

Deep self-awareness includes:

  • Awareness of what you feel, when you feel it, and why you feel it.

  • Awareness of your distress signals, triggers, and responses to triggers.

  • Awareness of your survival strategy, fight, flight, freeze, fawn, feign death.

  • Awareness of your survival coping mechanisms/adaptations and how they contribute to disconnection.

  • Awareness of your inner critic, its protective purpose, and how it blocks your authenticity.

  • Awareness of how your trauma personally affected you biologically, psychologically, relationally, and emotionally.

Healthy relating includes:

  • Healthy relationship role modeling and communication that demonstrates kindness, compassion, and non-judgmental acceptance.

  • Establishing trust through consent, active listening, and seeking clarity of worldview and personal experiences.

  • Creating safety through normalizing trauma responses, emotional and physical attunement, regulating emotional reactions, and reinforcing and respecting boundaries.

  • Supporting getting needs met.

  • Safety, clarity, certainty, and dependability.

I believe that in order to heal communally, we must acknowledge that culturally, abuse has been normalized, minimized, overlooked, ignored, justified, and perpetuated generation after generation and that we must bring care, compassion, consideration, courage, and curiosity into our relationships.

Work With Me

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