Trauma-informed coaching
Somatic, trauma-informed coaching for people whose growth has been shaped by hard experiences. The work moves gently with the body and nervous system to build safety, capacity and real choice.
InquireLeadership & Somatic Coaching
Lead with presence. Open the flow.
For nearly twenty years, Bebe Hansen has coached leaders across business, nonprofit and government work, and trained the coaches who now do the same. She brings a business owner’s practicality, a therapist’s depth and a lifelong practitioner’s calm to the moments that ask the most of you.
- MSSW
- ICF Professional Certified Coach
- Somatic Experiencing Practitioner
Beatrice W. Hansen, MSSW, PCCPrincipal, Open The Flow, LLC
23yrsin the helping professions, as a psychotherapist and coach
13professional certifications in coaching, somatics, systems and assessment
PCCcredentialed by the International Coaching Federation since 2015
3sectors served: private, nonprofit and government leaders
Precise. Compassionate. Unhurried.
Bebe works with capable people at an edge: a new role, a demanding season, or a quiet sense that the old way of leading has stopped working.
She isn’t there to fix you. She helps you notice how you’re actually meeting your work and your life, then builds the presence, resilience and choice to meet it differently.
Sessions stay rooted in the present and oriented toward what’s next. Simple practices between conversations turn insight into capacity that lasts.
Read Bebe’s storyThe approach
What it means to open the flow
Most leaders don’t lack insight. What holds them back lives beneath thought: in the breath, the posture, the reflex to push harder or pull away. Bebe’s work loosens those patterns so attention, energy and choice can move freely again.
- 01
Presence
Slowing down enough to see what is really happening, in the room and in yourself. Presence is where new options appear.
- 02
The body
Insight that lives only in the head fades by Monday. Somatic work builds new ways of leading into how you stand, breathe and respond.
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Story
The stories we tell about ourselves quietly set the limits of what feels possible. Narrative work helps you author a truer one.
- 04
Practice
Small, steady practices between sessions turn understanding into skill, so growth keeps compounding after the coaching ends.
Informed by mindfulness, somatics, neuroscience, adult development, narrative, trauma-informed care and the practice of presence.
Work together
Ways to begin
Every engagement starts with a conversation about where you are and what you’re reaching for.
Coaching through grief
A steady, unhurried space for the losses that come with life and leadership: endings, transitions, illness and the death of someone close.
InquireMentoring & supervision
Deepen your craft with someone who has trained and certified coaches for more than a decade, including bringing somatic and trauma-informed skills into your work.
InquireLeadership coaching
One-on-one coaching for leaders in transition, with customized development programs for leadership teams, in person or online.
InquireHealing circles & retreats
Small, in-person or online gatherings for healing, presence and renewal, held in quiet natural settings.
Ask to be notifiedThe journey
Five chapters, one thread
Bebe didn’t arrive at coaching through theory. She arrived through a seven-day-a-week business, years in the therapy room and decades of her own inner work. Every chapter still shows up in how she coaches today.
“At heart, we all want the same things.”
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1990s Chapter one
The business owner
With a business degree from Trinity University, Bebe took the helm of her family’s 30-year-old enterprise, the largest flea market in the Southwest. Over seven years she found her own leadership style, turned the business around and brought a diverse team together, through to its sale.
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1997 Chapter two
The therapist
Called to serve people more personally, she earned her MSSW at the University of Texas at Austin, then built and ran a private psychotherapy practice for five years.
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2001 Chapter three
The practitioner
She began a lasting commitment to the Diamond Approach spiritual path, yoga and meditation. That practice is the ground she stands on to hold her own growth, and her clients’.
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2009 Chapter four
The coach
Coaching joined her business sense with her gift for helping. She has since coached leaders across the private, nonprofit and government sectors, deepening her craft with every year of practice.
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2010s Chapter five
The teacher
As teaching and business partner to Presence-Based® Coaching founder Doug Silsbee, she helped develop the curriculum of its ICF-approved training. She went on to lead the program as Principal and now serves as its Chief of Learning & Legacy, guiding a global community of coaches through certification.
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Today
Open the Flow
Her private practice brings every chapter together: grounded, embodied coaching for leaders and coaches ready for their next stage of growth.
Credentials
A lifetime of learning
An avid student of her craft, Bebe has trained across coaching, somatics, trauma, systems and assessment, and she keeps going.
Education & coaching
- MSSW, Social WorkUniversity of Texas at Austin · 1991
- BA, BusinessTrinity University, San Antonio · 1980
- Professional Certified Coach (PCC)International Coaching Federation · 2015 (ACC 2012)
- ICF Mentor Coaching Specialization (MCS)2026
- Certified Presence-Based® Coach2013
- Narrative Coach™ Certified Practitioner2020
Somatics & trauma
- Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP)2025
- Integrated Somatic Trauma Therapy2023
- Trauma-Informed Coaching2023
- Certified Somatic CoachThe Strozzi Institute · 2011
- Founding member, DC Somatics Practice GroupSince 2011
Systems & assessment
- FEBI, Focus Energy Balance Indicator2018
- Systemic ConstellationsInstitute for Integrative System Dynamics · 2017
- Barrett Values, CTT Level 12017
- The Leadership Circle Profile2016
Development
- Certified Enneagram TeacherThe Enneagram Institute · 2008
- Relationship & Body-Mind Vibrance CoachHendricks Institute · 2007
- Diamond Approach practitionerSince 2001
Writing
Notes on change & growth
Reflections from Bebe on the inner work of growing: in leadership, in relationships and in hard seasons.
inner & outer
What Changes?
When change is everywhere, what is actually ours to change? On outer conditions, inner patterns and where our real leverage lies.
Readmind, heart, body
The Pace of Change
Why good ideas take so long to become new behavior, and what the different speeds of mind, heart and body ask of us.
Readthree words
Grief, Gifts, and Gratitude
A year-end reflection that distills a hard year into three words, with an invitation to find your own.
Read
Beyond the work
Bebe enjoys road trips with her husband, and traveling with her two grown daughters and son-in-law. Bebe’s granddaughter never ceases to spark love and joy in her heart. Bebe can occasionally be found walking in the mountains of North Carolina or dancing to live music in Asheville.
Begin
Start with a conversation.
A complimentary call to talk through what you’re navigating and whether working together is the right fit. No pressure, and no pitch.