Heather Hernandez, MSW
Trauma-Informed Organizational Consultant
What I Do
I help leaders, helpers, and mission-driven organizations navigate the places where work stops making sense.
Not by fixing people.
But by reading the patterns inside systems.
Why This Work Found Me
I have spent more than 20 years inside systems that were meant to help people but were collapsing under the weight of trauma, scarcity, and chronic overwhelm.
As a clinical social worker, I sat with families, staff, volunteers, and leaders who were doing their best inside structures that were not designed for the level of need they carried.
I learned early that most “workplace problems” are actually system injuries.
Most burnout is structural.
Most conflict is predictable.
Most shutdown is a nervous system doing its job.
And most people blame themselves for patterns that were never personal.
This work is my answer to that.
Professional Background
I am a clinical social worker and trauma-informed systems practitioner. Across my career I’ve specialized in:
trauma-informed leadership
communication systems
moral injury + burnout
identity-level leadership transitions
My approach is grounded, non-pathologizing, and designed to bring people back to clarity when they’re standing in the rubble of what used to work.
My Framework: The Steadywork Method
A trauma-informed framework for seeing collapse as data — not failure.
It integrates:
systems analysis
collapse curve mapping
narrative clarity
nervous system literacy
It Helps People Understand:
what’s ending
what’s trying to emerge
how to make decisions from clarity
the forces shaping burnout
It is not coaching. It is not therapy. It is something in between: structural clarity.
Who I Work With
I work with:
Public-sector leaders
Nonprofit teams in distress
Academics and helpers at the edge of transition
Clinicians, directors, and changemakers carrying moral injury
If you’re standing at the edge of something collapsing, I help you discern what it means.
My Throughline
Systems collapse when the truth is trying to surface.
People collapse when they’re carrying that truth alone.
My work is to help you see the pattern, name what’s ending, and step into what’s calling you next.
Next Step
Ready to explore what’s shifting