Trauma-Informed Equity Educator + Coach

I’m a Different Kind

of Coach

Hi, I’m Natasha—a certified trauma recovery coach, educator, social justice advocate, and writer.

My journey to these roles wasn’t linear. My life journey—one that doesn’t quite align with traditional cultural expectations—is part of what makes me such an empathic coach.

Becoming a recovery coach has brought together my experiences, deepening my understanding of my own journey and my longing for deeper connections—something I’m now passionate about helping you create on your path to recovery.

Often struggling with a sense of belonging and lack of community at home in Canada, I’ve historically sought to find a home for my multi-ethnic identity and a merging of my British and Fijian roots.

I know what it’s like to feel like you don’t belong.

While everyone’s journey is unique, trauma recovery coaching became essential to mine, making other supports—like therapy and goal setting—more effective. It was the missing piece that helped me gain capacity and integrate hope and joy into my life again.

Trauma recovery was what allowed me to bring down the protective walls I’d put up—slowly—and open to possibility.

I want that for you, too.

I learned from the best

"The best coaches are those who have done (and continue to do) their own work, truly understand their clients, and both walk the walk and talk the talk. Natasha Steer embodies all of this with flair. Natasha approaches everything with her whole heart. She listens with empathy, insight, logic, authenticity, and a great sense of humour. She never asks her clients to do anything she hasn’t fully explored or grappled with herself. Constantly tending to her own growth, she brings that same commitment to her coaching, connecting with her clients in a loving and productive way. She deeply understands the challenges, pain, and struggles her clients face as they navigate life. Natasha offers and receives feedback with integrity and openness, always honest yet intentionally kind. Her commitment to growth—both her own and that of those around her—shines through in everything she does. One quality I deeply admire in Natasha is her courage to call people out with humility, honesty, care, and forgiveness. What is cool about this is that it’s never a one-sided double standard kind of thing with her—she both gives and receives with love. I highly recommend Natasha for any role, especially ones where she can contribute to healing and growth. She is a beautiful human being."

 

Sherry Yuan Hunter

My Path to Coaching

As a racialized intersectional feminist, I deeply understand, experience, and embody duality: beauty and pain, nuance and complexity, all intricately woven together.

My non-linear journey through motherhood, education, and trauma recovery began when I became a single teen mom at nineteen, shaping my path towards anti-oppression work and healing. A couple of years later, I went on to attend York University where I received my degrees in English Literature and Education in 2010. It was around this time, well before I took my MEd in Social Justice Education and when the rest of the mainstream world was still catching up with me, that I was talking about human rights and systemic injustice in both my personal and professional life.

In 2012, my son and I moved abroad, living in China for four years and exploring over 50 countries together. Our travels offered us deeply beautiful and transformative experiences, enhancing my understanding of the world and deepening my connection to it. Living in another culture and having the opportunity to experience so many others often made me feel more comfortable than in my own home country—a paradox I continue to process and reflect upon.

When we returned home, I pursued my master’s degree and took up writing more earnestly. Writing is a way I process my identity, my experiences, and the world around me. In several of my articles and book chapters, I’ve aimed to challenge mainstream narratives that often overlook the fully complete, loving, and healthy families like the one my son and I have built together. You can find my writing here. 

As I reflect on my journey of healing, something that stands out is my realization that feeling pain didn’t mean I was weak or broken—it simply meant I was human. Pain—often heart-wrenching pain—is an agonizing part of life. By learning to coexist with it, to listen to it and to sit with it, something beautiful happened: I was able to integrate that pain and make room for more pleasure, more laughter, and more genuine delight. I learned to navigate life more holistically, understanding that I could face the inevitable pain while also embracing the beauty and joy life offers.

Through this work, we can learn to not just survive our pain, but to transform it.

The Foundation of My Expertise

MEd in Social Justice Education

2018

My M.Ed from OISE at the University of Toronto allowed me to focus on equity and human rights, something I centre in my practice. I believe that justice, education, and healing are intertwined.

International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching

2024

My certification from the IAOTRC supports standardization and regulation in the field of Trauma Recovery Coaching. The IAOTRC upholds the Trauma Recovery Coaching Code of Ethics and Guiding Principles.

 

CAMH Research Family Advisory Committee

Current

As a member of the CAMH Research Family Advisory Committee, I support research in Canada’s largest mental health teaching hospital. FAC members have firsthand experience supporting loved ones with mental health care needs and work with CAMH to drive improvements.

Sashbear Peer Facilitator

Current

The Sashbear Foundation is a charity focused on supporting families with mental health challenges and suicide prevention. As a peer-facilitator of the Family Connections Program, I collaborate with other facilitators to offer skills, support, and hope through an international, evidence-based program.

 

Somatic Embodiment & Regulation Strategies

 

In Progress

Linda Thai’s certification course focuses on connecting with the body and utilizing somatic techniques that support regulation. The three-part course focuses on strategies for managing the nervous system to address anxiety, overthinking, emotional flooding, and being overwhelmed. It emphasizes bottom-up self-regulation, co-regulation, an expanded window of tolerance, and interoceptive awareness.

My Approach

Every person and journey is unique. I hold spaces that meet you where you’re at and centre your experiences. I deeply listen to what you share and gently offer ways for you to reflect, find new perspective, and shift the paradigms that no longer serve you. 

Connect

Trauma recovery is rooted in connection and a sense of safety. I meet you where you’re at so we can move forward together at a pace that feels right to you.

Support

This time is for you to get the support you need—whatever that looks like for you.

Grow

Together we will co-create your path forward using the tools you find most helpful.

Who I Work With

To live is to experience pain. For some of us, we experience more than our fair share. I work with clients to resolve intergenerational, collective, systemic, and/or individual trauma.

I have the experience and expertise to work with anyone navigating traumatic stress—which is to say, everyone. That said, my specialization lies in supporting those who experience emotional dysregulation, marginalization, and oppression; I’m also skilled in guiding their loved ones in providing more effective and meaningful support.

Book An Appointment

Work with me

Receive support navigating the different seasons of life.

Learn to see yourself through new eyes. 

Connection and care is at the heart of your trauma recovery. 

"Not only can trauma be healed, but with appropriate guidance and support, it can be transformative."

Peter Levine

FAQ

What is complex trauma?

Trauma is defined by the individual. A circumstance or event is considered traumatic to an individual if:

  • They feel powerless to control or change it
  • It’s either profoundly frightening or seen as a moral injury
  • It shifts the individual’s beliefs about themselves, the world, and their interactions with it.
What's the difference between trauma recovery coaching and therapy?

Both therapy and coaching aim to help individuals identify and address behavior patterns, beliefs, and coping mechanisms.

As a trauma recovery coach, I do not treat or diagnose mental illness. I recognize that clients are having normal reactions to trauma – that over time, behaviours, thoughts, and feelings have developed as mechanisms for survival.

I work with my clients as peers and equals: there is no power differential here. I believe my clients have within them the tools to heal from trauma, though they may need resources to help them uncover this knowledge.

Trauma recovery coaches are the only mental health and coaching profession to have standardized, detailed safety protocols in place to ensure every client receives the care they need to cope with behaviours that threaten their health and well-being.

To read more about research that finds coaching to be on par with therapy, click here.

 

What does a typical 1-on-1 session look like?

 Sessions are client-led and structured around each client’s individual needs. Every client is different and each recovery journey is unique: my clients and their experiences are the framework for their recovery. Whether focusing on grounding, unpacking triggers, learning self-compassion, or gaining the capacity to move towards your goals, you set the pace and the direction of every session, and I meet you where you’re at. 

What happens in group coaching sessions?

Often we’re better able to get in touch with ourselves by connecting with others. Group sessions are an opportunity to gather with like-minded individuals and to heal in community. Groups are structured around specific content, but it’s the sharing and listening of members that allows us to co-create an atmosphere of authenticity, connection, and support.

Subscribe

Take the First Step

Subscribe for important updates, to receive the occasional newsletter, and to stay connected.