Every meeting, workshop, coaching conversation, or performance check-in is shaped by more than its agenda. People arrive carrying lived experiences, stress, identities, power dynamics, and nervous system responses that influence how they engage, contribute, and connect. Whether we acknowledge these realities or not, they shape every interaction, and
This interactive 90-minute session invites facilitators, coaches, leaders, and consultants to explore trauma-informed practice as a design lens rather than a set of techniques. Together, we’ll examine how intentional choices around language, structure, pacing, participation, and power can create the conditions for deeper engagement—especially during challenging or vulnerable conversations. These seemingly small design decisions can have a profound impact on whether people stay engaged or quietly disengage.
Participants will leave with practical strategies, language shifts, and trauma-informed design principles they can immediately apply to meetings, workshops, coaching conversations, and other facilitated experiences to foster greater participation, trust, and meaningful dialogue.
About Dr. Eileen Pippins:
Dr. Eileen Pippins, Psy.D. helps leaders and facilitators design experiences that acknowledge human complexity without losing sight of purpose. As a facilitator, leadership coach, educator, and organizational development practitioner, she has guided strategic planning processes, leadership retreats, coalition initiatives, team development, conflict engagement, organizational learning and DEIB initiatives across government divisions, public health, education, nonprofit, philanthropic, and community organizations. Her doctoral work, combined with years of facilitating change in complex systems, informs her trauma-informed approach to designing meetings, coaching conversations, and learning experiences where people feel empowered to stay engaged, contribute meaningfully, and hold space that invites people to stay present, participate fully, and move important work forward.
