Intrapersonal safety
Help divers notice sensation, interpret information, and retain agency without requiring disclosure.
Online instructor development · November 2026
Teach the whole diver—not just the skill.
The Trauma-Informed Freediving Instructor Course gives instructors a practical, evidence-informed framework for designing safer, more adaptive learning environments—before a diver struggles or shares a personal history.
For instructor and assistant-instructor level professionals across all freediving agencies, safety freedivers, and mental health professionals.
“Compassion doesn’t make freediving trauma-informed. Design does.”
Nov 16, 23 & 30Three live online sessions$650 USDTuition and course resources3 hoursPer session; time set by cohort
The TIFD framework
Design before disclosure.
Trauma-Informed Freediving recognizes that divers bring their whole selves into the water—nervous-system patterns, adaptive survival strategies, previous experiences, and unspoken stories. Instructors do not need a trauma history to offer better conditions.
Relational safety
Use predictability, consent, attunement, and clear communication to shape what happens between diver, buddy, and instructor.
Environmental safety
Design progression, briefings, surface intervals, and learning pathways around the diver who is present today.
Regulation is not the goal. Capacity is.
The goal is not to keep every diver “calm.” Instructors learn to consider the state that is present, the capacity available in that state, whether the response fits the dive, and whether the diver can shift when conditions change.
What you will learn
Move from good intentions to observable practice.
The course joins nervous-system literacy, freediving physiology, ethics, communication, and practical dive design. Case discussion and instructor presentations turn theory into decisions you can use in the water.
Recognize nervous-system states without diagnosing students
Distinguish observation from interpretation
Build meaningful choice into briefings and skill progression
Respond to hesitation, early turns, and interrupted dives without shame
Use the TIFD framework across agencies and teaching styles
Translate compassion into observable instructor behavior
UnderstandTrauma, adaptive physiology, nervous-system variation, and the mammalian dive response.
DesignPredictability, consent, flexible progression, relational safety, and multiple learning pathways.
ApplyBriefings, buddy systems, equalization coaching, surface intervals, early turns, and recovery.
More than nine hours on Zoom
A working toolkit for real instructors.
TIFD course manual
A substantial reference for applying the framework beyond class.
Five-Dive Warm-Up
A trauma-informed sequence for gradual MDR activation, observation, and adaptive progression.
Scripts and design tools
Language, reflection prompts, case applications, and practical planning resources.
Professional community
Join an international network of instructors developing a more nuanced standard of care.
125freedivers in the global study
Research foundation
Built from the water outward.
The course draws from Elaine Hicks’s research into freediving, psychological well-being, the mammalian dive response, embodied mastery, and relational safety. In the study, 85% of participants reported positive changes in self-concept, 74% described stronger trust, and 71% reported movement from panic toward control through CO₂ adaptation.
These findings inform instructor education; they do not position freediving as mental health treatment or ask instructors to practice outside their scope.
Eligibility
Who belongs in the room?
Freediving professionals
Current instructors or assistant instructors from any freediving agency.
Safety freedivers
Experienced safety professionals ready to deepen their relational and nervous-system lens.
Mental health professionals
Clinicians and allied professionals interested in the intersection of freediving, embodiment, and trauma-informed practice.
Your educator
Elaine Hicks, LCSW, CSAC
Elaine is a trauma therapist, freediving instructor, nervous-system educator, researcher, university-level educator, and author of Behind the Mask: A Freediver’s Guide to Nervous System Regulation, Recovery & Resilience.
Her work bridges clinical depth with the lived realities of freediving—without collapsing one discipline into the other. She created the TIFD framework to help instructors coach the state, preserve agency, and build learning environments in which challenge and safety can coexist.
November 2026 cohort
Help shape what safer instruction looks like.
November 16, 23, and 30 · Online · $650 USD
Apply now Complete the course application form