A coach's reflection on Transform Trauma Oxford 2026

Meeting Prentis Hemphill was one of the highlights for me

I recently came back from the Transform Trauma 2026 four-day conference set in the beautiful old city of Oxford. Following a bit of manifesting and a stroke of luck and generosity, I was given the amazing opportunity to attend this event, the largest of its kind in the world, bursting with the biggest experts globally in the fields of healing trauma – from Gabor Mate, Bessel van der Kolk, Prentis Hemphill, Janina Fisher, David Kessler, Julia Samuel, Kristin Neff and so many more. It was a true gift and I came home full of thoughts, ideas, learning and curiosity to learn more.

I attended as a coach and not a therapist and I was very conscious of that distinction. As coaches, we are told to be aware and maintain the boundary between providing coaching support to our clients and notice and refer if and when our clients need therapeutic support.

As an emotions trained coach too, I know I need to be even more aware of that distinction and the possibility that when working with emotions with my clients, that could unlock trauma and require support provided by a qualified trauma therapist. What I saw and heard the Transform Trauma Oxford 2026 helped me understand and spot that distinction better. It also helped me become a better trauma-informed coach – a coach who can identify when a client’s needs go beyond coaching and have the knowledge and confidence to signpost onwards whilst offering compassion and understanding.  

This year’s event was titled “Science, spirit and the body: the synthesis of healing”, and I found the themes and topics deeply human, and connecting in our experience as human beings. Bringing together science, spirituality and body to support healing felt like a much more holistic and more connected approach. Conversations about what it means to feel safety; of self-compassion being a form of spirituality that is formed of three components – kindness, mindfulness and common humanity; of what it means to move between a body state or relax to reaction and the middle state of respond where we can feel able to make a stand for ourselves and others; about technology and how AI are affecting our lives and our brains…These all felt human, relevant to our everyday lives.

I loved the idea that a lot of the brilliant speakers emphasised, which to me forms the core of spirituality – that we are all part of one consciousness, that we are all connected. Prentis Hemphill’s words “the disillusion that we are separate from each other” resonated deeply and made me think about our roles in society and how individual healing links to collective healing, and about what we can each do to support that collective healing.  

I recognised the use of somatic approaches in coaching and in the treatment of therapy – the focus on how we experience emotions and trauma in our bodies and the mind-body connection. And I felt inspired, lighter and emboldened to be the change I want to see around me, through kindness, compassion, connection and social contribution.

A huge thanks to my amazing friend Julie who I shared this unforgettable experience with.