An Invitation To Find Your Way Home

Post-Traumatic Growth can teach us so much wisdom and can reveal the beauty of our existence that, because of trauma, we lost sight of.

Have you experienced traumatic attachment or other traumatic events in your early childhood?

Have you suffered a trauma shock as an adult? From my own trauma recovery, I came to understand that traumatic experiences are shocking to our system when they overwhelm our sensory capacity to adapt to the experience.

When you hear the words post-traumatic growth, do you wonder if learning more about it could be of benefit to you?

If you answered yes and are ready to take the next step, join my Post-Traumatic Growth Coaching Community. Sessions and groups include a blending of evidence-based mindfulness and the science of healing and growth — Each member is finding her way to reconnect with herself, and finding her way to growth, healing, and happiness.

About Post Traumatic Growth Coaching

Our coaching sessions will provide a safe enough space to explore your hopes and dreams, your doubt, uncertainty, or fears. Together, we’ll explore the resources of transformative evidence-based mindfulness practices, the tools of self-compassion, and practical approaches to integrate science and mindful awareness to soothe and regulate your nervous system.

From my trauma recovery I learned how this blending of mindfulness and science is medicine for our nervous system. I learned to blend Interpersonal Neurobiology, often referred to as Relational Neurobiology and PolyVagal theory, learning how to soothe and shift my nervous system from a state of threat to a state of safety.  As the nervous system is soothed and regulated, internal physical changes in the heart, the lungs, the gut, go into a mode where growth can take place.

 

As you find your way to support and nurture your well-being, we’ll work together to:

  • Nurture your resilience by softly being with whatever is there.  

  • Nourish your relationships and connections with others

  • Clarify your purpose as you find your way to bring your unique courage and strength into the world

  • “Esther Sadie [Brandon] has the qualities of an exceptional coach and human being. She is positive, thoughtful, supportive, knowledgeable and curious. Esther is an exceptional listener and her genuine care and empathic approach is evident in all her coaching interactions. As a teacher, as a mother, the benefits I have received from her wisdom and guidance are immeasurable. She is incredibly skilled at helping others tap into their strengths and values.”

    Crista Bode, Lesley University, Student Teaching Supervisor, Classroom Teacher, and Mother

  • “I’m grateful for Esther’s humanity and uniquely skilled guidance…most especially on those days when I am feeling, ‘I don’t need this’! I’m learning to have more compassion for myself from her ability to listen and reflect my words back to me. Being truly heard by Esther releases the built-up steam in my life. And now, I’m discovering a more fully integrated sense of self-awareness, understanding and acceptance.”

    Kathy Hermann, Coaching Client

  • “Esther Sadie Brandon is the real deal—wise and kind and deeply knowledgeable. If well-being coaching appeals, highly recommend you check her out!”

    Yael Shy, CEO of Mindfulness Consulting, LLC - Meditation consultant, teacher and coach for teams and individuals.

  • "There aren't many people like Esther Brandon. She is kind, empathetic, and wise beyond belief. She has a profound ability to make you feel seen and heard, even amidst great struggle. She is authentic and courageous and it shows up in her coaching work. Highly recommend working with her."

    Isabel Mata, Meditation Teacher and Writer

  • I had the pleasure of attending a webinar Esther created entitled “Mindfulness and Coaching.” Clearly, Esther has both the passion and competence to be a leader in this space. The webinar had two important impacts on me. As a human being , I felt more centered, relaxed, and present to the moment at the conclusion of the webinar. As a coach, it validated and energized my own work in this space with my clients.”

    Howard Stanten, Master’s Of Physical Therapy (MPT), Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC),  Certified Professional Coach, International Coaching Federation (PCC)

  • I have known Esther for several years. The more I know her, the deeper my appreciation, respect, and admiration for her. In my mindful practices with her, I have come not only to understand intellectually the concept of being one with one’s body, mind, spirit, gut, emotion, but I have reached depths into my own integration of all of these parts and different levels of my own being. Being in mindful practice with Esther, signifies being on a trip far into the depth of my being.

    Jacqueline Levy, Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC),  Certified Professional Coach, International Coaching Federation (PCC) 

  • "I have had amazing opportunities at Lesley, and great role models, but no one has inspired me like you have. You have been a guide and source of wisdom, and it is difficult for me to imagine what my life would be like without the sense of safety that your office provides. I am grateful for everything that you do and for the person that you are. I hope to one day do for someone all that you have done for me."

    L, Former Student Teacher

A Window Into My Story

“Mindfulness is about being fully awake in our lives. It is about perceiving the exquisite vividness of each moment. We feel more alive.

We also gain immediate access to our own powerful inner resources for insight, transformation and healing.” 

– Jon Kabat Zinn

Thirty-seven years ago, I wandered into a workshop titled Mindfulness, led by Jon Kabat-Zinn, and a way opened for me to repair my trauma woundedness.

For the next 19 years, I was the director of an undergraduate education field training office at a local college. I developed a relationship-based field experience program, which included teaching students, field supervisors, adjunct faculty, and school district administrators, mindfulness tools and practices.

I have warm memories of teaching and practicing with these dedicated educators. I retired from the college, which by then had become a university, in 2012. A community of friends and colleagues, and work that nourished my purpose, were no longer in my life.

After I retired, I was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. I’m 10 years well. My traumatic early childhood experiences had made my nervous system particularly vulnerable, and the stress, the hormones, the fear and uncertainty overwhelmed my system.

I was working with a therapist who was highly recommended and was traditionally trained. She was not trauma-informed. She encouraged me to talk about the memories and feelings from the past that were arising.

What I needed was to slowly become aware of the trauma energy, which had been stuck in my body for too long. I needed to resolve and integrate the energy and information in digestible bits, as I was ready. Talking about what happened was re-traumatizing. My system collapsed, and I became clinically depressed.

And then I was in a time of darkness. I struggled to stay alive. I was taken to a local hospital by two dear friends. In the hospital the cumulative, residual trauma woundedness that had broken my connection with life became a force of resurgence of my life.

Reclaiming my agency opened a gateway to reconnect with myself. My steps forward were a life force that was both wavering and filled with clarity and strength. It was a time of feeling many layers of grief and loss, which has opened my heart to forgiveness and love. A quiet time of finding the light you do not expect to find in the darkness. A time of seeing our quest for wholeness as a heroic journey.

I am looking forward to connecting with you.

“The gift of healing trauma is that the woundedness becomes a gateway to freedom, healing and love.”

— Tara Brach