Experience the power of being heard.
Healing for Nurses on the Front Lines
Through guided self reflection, debriefing offers clarity surrounding traumatic incidents and assists in establishing a process for recovering a sense of safety in the aftermath of trauma.
We respond to the cumulative toll experienced by nurses exposed to human suffering through heart centered compassionate energy, deep intentional listening, reflective questioning and evidenced-based holistic healing modalities.
Support for Nurses Who Give Their All
Nursing exposes you to repeated trauma—sometimes leaving you exhausted, overwhelmed, or questioning your path. Our Board Certified Nurse Coaches (NC-BC) provide a safe, non-judgmental space to:
Reflect on patient care events or workplace challenges
Process cumulative and childhood trauma
Restore emotional, physical, and spiritual balance
Confidential, compassionate debriefing to help you process trauma, restore balance, and reclaim your well-being.
Inside a Debriefing Session
Every session is guided, evidence-based, and tailored to your needs—so you can heal, regain clarity, and feel supported without any reporting obligations to your employer.
Debriefing the Front Lines is a non-profit organization with no affiliations or reporting obligations to your employer.
HOW WE CAN SUPPORT NURSES
Our Debriefing Nurses facilitate confidential sessions to support those experiencing
Fighting the decision to leave the profession and not look back?
Nursing connects us.
There is an unspoken understanding and shared language. An energetic trust.
Cumulative Care Taking Trauma highlights the insidious nature of repeated exposure to trauma within the nursing profession.
Cumulative Care Taking Trauma often exacerbates personal, childhood and intergenerational trauma. We are here to support you through the depth of this work.
Cumulative Care Taking Trauma®
Overexposure of abnormal and traumatic events with no time for
Acknowledgement
Discussion
Processing
Recovering (a sense of internal safety)
Nourishment of oneself
Normalizing the use of support resources
That results in physical, emotional and spiritual suffering
Are you experiencing any of the following?
Not being able to delineate where one trauma ends and another begins - it all hurts.
Paralyzed in trauma manifesting as decision fatigue - simple decisions like what to eat for dinner feel daunting.
Shame, grief, guilt that spills over into life outside of work
Detachment, disconnection and isolation - often from things you once enjoyed
Episodes and flashbacks of personal and childhood trauma
Inability to be present in the moment, feelings of continual urgency, anxiety, panic and dread
Destructive behaviors, use of alcohol, benzos, stimulants and MJ in excess
Struggling to process layers of trauma that affect your work and life? You don’t have to face it alone.
Institutional Betrayal
Cumulative Care Taking Trauma® encompasses not only the overexposure but also the systemic factors that contribute to and perpetuate trauma, resulting in feelings of institutional betrayal.
Institutional betrayal is a concept described by psychologist Jennifer Freyd, referring to "wrongdoings perpetrated by an institution upon individuals dependent on that institution, including failure to prevent or respond supportively to wrongdoings.”
You are more than a number in the daily bed meeting.
Are you?
Questioning what you thought you knew
Memories of your career feel dislocated and unsafe
Feeling anger without compassion
Called to create systems change but aware you are in need of care first
Feeling let down by the system that should support you? Let’s restore your sense of safety and create a plan to move forward.
Recurring Activation of Childhood Trauma
Those exposed to trauma in childhood develop an increase concern for leading them into the nursing profession. The dual nature of concern, both beautiful and challenging, often leads suffering.
If you have experienced childhood trauma, know you are not alone.
58%
of Debriefing the Front Lines clients note childhood trauma on their intake form without prompt.
(Debriefing the Front Lines, 2024)
68%
of healthcare workers have experienced childhood trauma.
33% before the age of 13
(UCLA-Duke University 2012)
After years of survival and caring for others, we invite you to experience what is like to be cared for by a nurse.
Years of caring for others shouldn’t leave your own wounds unattended. Experience the care you deserve.
We start with nursing but we don’t always stay there, we explore the trails tribulations and triumph of the human experience - bedside and beyond.
Debriefing the Front Lines Client Snap
298 clients in 2025 reported being in therapy
88
52
158
Clients by Specialty
5%
Other
13%
Perinatal Care
19%
Outpatient/Clinic
18%
Education+Leadership
45%
Critical Care
Practice Years
8-15
Average number of years in practice
0-3
Remainder of Clients
44
Longest number of clients years in practice
Find the Support You Need:
Short or Long Term
Whether it’s a single debrief, ongoing support, or reflective sessions, choose your path to healing with a compassionate nurse.
Short Term
Support
-
Discuss a patient care event, challenging interaction with a colleague or leadership you cannot stop thinking about.
Long Term Support + Maintenance
-
Discuss the cumulative toll and occupational trauma within nursing and how it is manifesting physically, emotionally and spiritually within you.
Come for deep conversations, non-pharmacological holistic healing modalities, resources and ongoing support with a board certified nurse coach.
Schedule Once or Keep Coming Back
-
Experience being cared for by a nurse without a specific focus on occupational trauma.
Reflective sessions are for the flooded, weary, confused, unrested, unsure and unsettled. Come for acknowledgement, validation, support, resources and presence away from the world.
Scholarship
Session
-
Info Coming soon.
Debriefing Scholarship Program
Our Scholarship Debriefing Program was created to ensure that nurses facing mental health or financial challenges have access to essential debriefing care.
Debriefing the Front Lines provides support for nurses of all roles, specialties and tenure - everybody in, nobody out.
🤎
The debriefing hour invites discovery and the time in between allows for reflection and practice.
DOWNLOAD YOUR GUIDE TODAY
Post-Shift Support Toolkit
Designed for healthcare professionals, this guide offers practical steps to complete the stress cycle, reflect on patient care, and restore psychological balance after demanding shifts.
Meet the team Debriefing the Front Lines
Tara Kosmas
MSN, RN, NC-BC, CHSE, SOAR
Michelle Oakley
MSN, RN, NC-BC, CHSE, SOAR
Kacie Salas
MSN, RN, NC-BC, CHSE, SOAR
Janaye Decker
MSN, RN, NC-BC, CHSE, SOAR
