Hello, I’m Erica Bowen, PhD
– Registered Forensic Psychologist, Chartered Coaching Psychologist, former Full Professor, and someone who believes the best leaders understand how trauma shapes behaviour before they try to change it.
My combined forensic and coaching psychology background means I recognise when ‘performance issues’ or ‘limiting beliefs’ are actually trauma responses that require deep work, when “banter” is part of a wider culture of harm, and when leaders are unconsciously repeating what they’ve survived. I also understand risk and how to manage it.
I work at two levels:
With individual leaders at life crossroads – those facing redundancy, midlife awakening, or the pull towards something bigger – I help you see how past experiences are keeping you small, so you can courageously choose what comes next.
With organisations – I create genuinely trauma-informed cultures by revealing the patterns that shape how people lead, relate, and thrive.
Whether you’re ready to lead differently or build organisations where safety replaces harm, my work helps you stop repeating the past and start creating what you’re actually ready for.
Redundancy and Career Transition Coaching
When redundancy forces you to leave, it's more than losing a job. It's losing who you thought you were.
Even if you've decided you need to move on, questions such as 'who I am?' 'what is really important to me?' 'what do I need?' surface.
My coaching focuses as much on helping you navigate this change in identity as it does connecting you to the wisdom you already have about what you need from your next move.
Drawing on a range of perspectives, I create unique-to-you coaching 1:1 coaching experiences designed to meet you where you are at, and take you to where you need to be.
I help you make the courageous choice of what is next.
Professional Supervision and Reflective Practice
The work you do affects people's lives. But the work also affects you - whether you acknowledge it or not.
You make decisions under pressure. You hold other people's trauma. You navigate impossible organisational demands while trying to maintain your integrity. Perhaps you have moved from an operational to strategic role and although you know the value of taking time to reflect, it's the one thing you've let slip.
My supervision focuses as much on what the work is doing to you as it does on helping you navigate the complexity you're facing. I create space where you can think honestly about your practice, examine what's being activated in you by the work, and reconnect with the professional clarity that sustains you through difficulty.
This is supervision for people doing work that matters, in systems that often make it harder than it needs to be.
Trauma Informed Leadership Training
You've heard the term "trauma-informed practice." But here's the question: what does trauma-informed actually mean for you as a leader?
Most organizations understand trauma-informed practice at the service delivery level - how practitioners work with clients, patients, or service users who've experienced trauma. Far fewer understand what it means for leadership.
How do you make decisions when you understand that change activates threat responses? How do you handle redundancies, restructures, or difficult conversations when you recognize that these aren't just practical events - they're potentially traumatizing experiences? How do you create teams where people can actually think clearly rather than operating from survival mode?
My trauma-informed leadership training helps you understand what you can do differently as a leader to create conditions where people can do their best work without being retraumatised in the process.
Your Invitation to begin...
I offer complimentary discovery conversations to understand your situation and discuss how psychologically-informed approaches might serve your goals.
In our conversation, we’ll explore:
What’s prompting you to consider a different approach at this time
The specific challenges or opportunities you’re navigating
How evidence-based, human-centred methods might serve your situation
Which pathway feels most relevant to your current needs and timeline
Whether this approach resonates with your values and vision
This isn’t about convincing you to choose this path – it’s about helping you understand whether it’s right for your current journey.