ESPOIR
/ɛs.pwaʁ/ noun (French)
Hope for Healing
The Espoir Trauma Clinic is the Caribbean’s only Somatic Healing and Trauma Recovery Center, founded by Trauma Expert & Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner Shervana Francis
Espoir is a holistic trauma-focused therapy clinic offering a blend of therapeutic care and holistic wellness services. The clinic focuses on providing outpatient services designed to support individuals dealing with burnout, anxiety, depression, and unresolved trauma through trauma-informed care, integrative wellness practices, and lifestyle coaching
Our approach goes beyond traditional mental health care. We provide trauma-informed, integrative care that empowers individuals to overcome emotional distress, take full control of their mental and emotional health, build confidence and resilience, and lead balanced and fulfilling lives after trauma
Espoir operates through two synergistic divisions:
The Trauma Treatment Centre: a transformative healing space focused on somatic therapy, a body-based approach to healing chronic and traumatic stress while building emotional resilience and long-term wellness without the clinical, hospital-like feel of traditional therapy
The Trauma Education Institute: dedicated to raising trauma awareness and providing professional training, to equip leaders and helping professionals with the skills to create trauma-responsive environments that foster safety, empathy, and support in schools, workplaces, and communities.
At Espoir, the work we do focuses on three core pillars:
CONFIDENCE
(Self-Trust & Self-Esteem)
We help you build the audacity to believe that you can transcend every circumstance--no matter what
COMPETENCE
(Skill-Building & Strengths)
We teach you practical skills and give you the tools you need to feel empowered and in control of your life
CAPACITY
(Space & Support)
We work with your nervous system to build your resilience and support in creating full, healthy life for yourself
The Mission
The mission of the Espoir Trauma Clinic is to revolutionize the landscape of mental health and healing for the Caribbean collective by bringing the body into mental health care, making the tools to trauma healing and personal transformation available and accessible to all, removing the stigma around mental health and changing the narrative that mental healthcare is only for deranged people by making therapy sexy
The Vision
To become a beacon of hope and healing in the space of trauma work and mental health care and to help create a world where excellence, equity, and empowerment intersect to transform lives.
Guided by a commitment to quality mental health care and innovation, we aspire to create a safe, inclusive space where every individual, regardless of background, finds solace and support on their journey to healing.
We hope for a future where social justice prevails, and the multidimensionality and intersectionality of trauma is understood and addressed with compassion and cultural sensitivity.
We aim to empower individuals to reclaim their power, rebuild their lives, and move from adversity to prosperity, creating a ripple effect of positive change across communities and beyond.
Our Core Values
Excellence & Quality Care:
We strive for excellence through innovative approaches to quality mental health care that prioritize safety, healing and cultural responsiveness. Our team of highly qualified, compassionate and supportive trauma-trained practitioners adhere to best practices in trauma-informed care and foster healing and empowerment for all our clients
Equity & Social Justice:
We champion equity and social justice by acknowledging the multidimensionality and intersectionality of trauma, particularly in the Caribbean, and by taking a nonviolent approach that focuses on client autonomy, dignity, respect and integrity. We aim to expand the scope of possibility and access to resources and work to move our clients from poverty to prosperity through financial literacy and entrepreneurship.
Education & Empowerment:
We believe in education and empowerment, reclaiming power lost through trauma and the restoration of human dignity. Our work focuses on building confidence, competence, and capacity, extending beyond therapy to advocacy and action in schools, workplaces, and communities. And our inclusive practice welcomes the diversity of the Caribbean community and our impact transcends genders, generations, borders and cultures to restore hope for healing across the region.
Our Work
Empowerment Over Pathology
At Espoir Trauma Clinic, we take pride in offering nurturing, affirming, and transformative care that prioritizes the wellness and wholeness of our clients. Our focus is on empowerment, not pathology—a place where you are here to rebuild and reclaim your life, not to be treated as a patient.
We offer a lifestyle-focused approach to healing that blends personal growth, reflection, and wellness with the structured support of trauma-informed care. This means deep emotional healing in an environment that feels empowering, not clinical.
Our individualized treatment plans combine somatic therapies, mindfulness practices, and behavior change therapies in both 1:1 and group settings, ensuring a personalized path to healing.
Our integrated model promotes preventative and restorative mental health care, focusing on recovery, recalibration, and realignment. We help our clients build emotional resilience, improve coping mechanisms, and manage stress, anxiety, and depression in a sustainable, long-term way.
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Our Clientele:
High-achievers and professionals struggling with burnout, chronic stress, or anxiety.
Individuals dealing with mild to moderate depression who are seeking a non-clinical, holistic and humanistic approach to recovery and emotional wellness.
Clients navigating life transitions such as divorce, separation or career changes, relationship challenges, grief or emotional challenges who want to heal and find balance without hospitalization.
Professionals in high-stress environments (corporate, entrepreneurial, healthcare) who are looking for balance, wellness, and recovery before their emotional health worsens.
...
We support our clients to do the following:
- Permanently HEAL psychological trauma from your body and restore your mental health using somatic experiencing and other healing modalities
- Rebuild your confidence and reclaim your personal power through body-based belief shifting, identity change and Neurocoding™ (somatic repatterning of your biochemistry)
- Change your circumstances and create a new reality for yourself where you are more empowered emotionally and financially through ownership and entrepreneurship
The financial aspect is what makes our work so different. We believe that there is a direct relationship between money and mental health so we prioritize both your wealth and your wellness
It’s not just about healing from pain, it’s also about creating a life that brings you immense pleasure and one of the best ways to do that is by building a business that makes an impact and creates positive social change and adds to your financial safety
Trauma Healing Modalities
Our primary healing modality at ESPOIR is Somatic Experiencing® (SE), a body-oriented therapeutic model for healing trauma and other stress disorders. SE is a clinically applied multidisciplinary framework created by Dr. Peter A. Levine for understanding and addressing trauma physiology.
In a therapeutic SE process, the practitioner assesses where a person is “stuck” in the fight, flight or freeze responses and provides clinical tools to resolve these fixated physiological states. The client is then gently guided to develop tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotions so they can release traumatic shock from their bodies in order to heal.
SE supports regulation of the autonomic nervous system, which underlies every aspect of our physical, emotional, and psychological functioning. By working directly with a client’s physiology, SE enhances the depth, effectiveness, and outcome of psychotherapeutic interventions in healing.
SE supports mood regulation, the reworking of addictive patterns, and the prevention or resolution of PTSD, unwinding complex medical syndromes and diseases caused by trauma and reducing or eliminating chronic pain and trauma-related symptoms present in the musculoskeletal system.
Our work at ESPOIR is also informed and influenced by a range of Sciences and healing methodologies including: DBT, CBT, ACT, Epigenetics, Neuroscience, Indigenous Medicine, Somatics, Breathwork, Movement, Touchwork, Polyvagal Theory, IFS, Compassionate Inquiry, Inner Relationship Focusing, EFT Tapping, Spirituality, Positive Psychology and more, hence the term “Somatic Therapy”
Through our offering of Somatic Therapy, we help our clients heal PTSD and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma as well as resolving and overcoming anxiety and depression.
Talk Therapy vs Somatic Therapy
When you experience something traumatic, your body adapts to keep you alive by taking 1 of 5 courses of action (based on how dangerous the threat is perceived to be): fight, flight, freeze, fawn, faint. This is known as a stress response.
Some people's nervous system can get stuck in this state and the defense patterns become integrated into their personality & their 'normal' behavior becomes a trauma response. This happens because the action becomes registered neurologically (in your subconscious memory) as the way to respond to any situation that activates the same feelings in your body.
In talk therapy, you talk about and think about your past experiences a lot and this triggers the trauma response in your body. If that isn't addressed, which most times it's not, your body just repeats the pattern over and over and reinforces it as your default. This is called retraumatizing.
In Somatic Therapy, the practitioner assesses where a person is “stuck” in the fight, flight or freeze responses and provides clinical tools to resolve these fixated physiological states. The client is then gently guided to develop tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotions so they can release traumatic shock from their bodies in order to heal.
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The ESPOIR Somatic Therapy Experience walks you through three phases:
01 Stabilization & Safety
This is the initial stage of healing work where we work on repairing your nervous system, adding resources and expanding your resilience and capacity to hold big emotions. This is an integral part in regulating your system from current distress and preparing you BEFORE starting to explore and heal your trauma imprints.
02 Trauma Memory Processing
This is where we start to explore the patterns coded in your body, beliefs and biology by trauma. We work with trauma memories (pain, shame, fragmentation and disconnection) in your somatic system (nervous system, muscular system and gut) and rewire and recode these patterns through Neurocoding™
03 Integration & Empowerment
This is the depth work of healing to move you beyond baseline into badassery. We focus on Emotion Regulation Skills, Restoring Personal Power, Personal Branding & Identity Work, Setting Boundaries, Building Healthier Relationships and more.
Meet SHERVANA
Shervana Francis is an internationally Certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, Trauma Specialist and Coach born and raised in the beautiful island of Saint Lucia.
Over the last few years, she has gained notoriety across the Caribbean for her work in mental health & trauma education and women’s empowerment in the region.
Shervana is deeply devoted to transforming the lived experience of Caribbean people by helping them become emotionally and economically empowered through emotional healing (trauma recovery), education and entrepreneurship
Her work in Trauma & Mental Health began with her own battle with mental illness and feeling unsupported by the mental health care system in her country. Since then, she has made it her personal mission to revolutionize mental health care in the Caribbean and thus, the Espoir Trauma Clinic was born
[read Shervana's story]
"After just 2 weeks of working with Shervana, I've made some massive shifts in my mindset and my daily routine. I am hopeful for the new future I'm creating."
Maisy Bouchey
"This time last year, I was a frazzled mother of 2, just barely getting by. Thanks to Shervana's courses, I'm a happier, healthier person for myself and my family."
