Tired of freezing up around suicidality? Gain the confidence you need to support multiply marginalized complex trauma survivors.

Learn how to hold safer spaces and respond comfortably, no matter how difficult the conversation.

Our Stronger U HOLD Model will teach you how to formulate responses that are meaningful, non-judgmental, and open up safer space for healing dialogue. Stop second-guessing yourself - our non-carceral peer supporter educational programs give you the tools to adapt your responses to each Supportee's unique needs. No expertise required to get started - just a commitment to learning, unlearning, and holding space in trauma-informed ways that honor lived experiences.

Non-Carceral Peer Supporter Training Options

Tailor your learning journey: Choose the Full Certificate Program or one of our 3 specialized course bundles to fit your peer support goals!

Start Your Non-Carceral Community Care Practitioner Journey Today!

Peer Support Training is the first of four certificate programs in the Stronger U Non-Carceral Community Care Practitioner series, each designed to progressively deepen your expertise. Whether you're an experienced practitioner seeking to address internalized carceral biases, a community supporter ready to formalize your non-carceral values, or just beginning your journey, our programs meet you where you are. In this foundational program, you'll unlock the power of PEER support, learning to hold mutually vulnerable spaces where your humanity connects with the humanity of those you support. By the end of this program, you'll be equipped to: (1) Master each supportee's unique definition of safety, (2) Depathologize and normalize trauma responses, (3) Become comfortable discussing suicide and other challenging topics, and (4) Break cycles of harm with a compassionate, non-punitive approach.

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Basic Course

30 hours of self-guided content: $600

  • Full Peer Support for Multiply Marginalized Communities textbook

  • Instructor videos, reinforcing primary concepts in each module

  • Quizzes, example peer supportive conversations, concrete strategies and pitfalls

  • Stronger U proprietary HOLD Model; adeptly hold non-carceral spaces

  • Dual Cycle for Chronic Marginalization and Suicidality; impacts of systemic marginalization on mental health

  • Complete in up to 10 weeks! Includes verification of course hours upon successful completion

Advanced Course

45 hours of self-guided content plus exercise sets and shadowing sessions: $1000

  • Everything included in the Basic Course

  • Deepen your understanding through self-reflective questions in exercise sets of increasing difficulty within each course module.

  • Minimum of 5 opportunities to shadow experienced Peer Supporters and gain personalized mentorship; option to purchase additional hours

  • Complete in up to 15 weeks! Includes verification of course hours upon successful completion

Comprehensive Course

90 hours of self-guided content, exercises, shadowing, real-time conversational practices, 6-hour summit, and group coaching: $2500

  • Everything included in the Advanced Course

  • Minimum of 5 peer supportive conversational practices scheduled synchronously with experienced Training Assistants

  • Individual coaching feedback for all exercise sets, shadowing, and practice hours

  • 5 Non-Carceral Collaborator group coaching sessions: deepen collaborator dialogue and expand your perspectives

  • 6-hour live summit: ask the tougher questions, gain nuanced perspectives, implement your skills practice

  • Complete in up to 6 months! Includes verification of course hours upon successful completion

Full Certificate Program

Year-long certificate program; gain the same personalized coaching and career guidance as THRIVE Lifeline and Stronger U Peer Supporters!

  • Everything included in the Comprehensive Course

  • 150 supervised peer supportive practicum hours

  • Minimum once-monthly peer support meetings

  • Minimum once-monthly Non-Carceral Collaborators group coaching sessions

  • Once-monthly individual coaching meetings; weekly coaching feedback

  • Complete in up to 15 months! Includes Certificate of Completion

Your Instructor

Ryder Fox

Lead Educator

Ryder Fox is the Founder and CEO of Stronger U and the Founder and President of THRIVE Lifeline. They are a trauma-informed wellness coach, educator, systems strategist, and curriculum developer with nearly 30 years of experience supporting people navigating chronic illness, disability, trauma, and other complex life experiences.

Over the course of their career, Ryder has logged more than 60,000 coaching hours, mentored hundreds of practitioners, and educated thousands of professionals internationally through courses, conferences, and organizational partnerships. They specialize in helping practitioners develop sustainable, relationship-centered approaches that support clients through chronic health conditions, trauma histories, periods of crisis, and the realities of long-term care.

Since founding Stronger U in 2007, Ryder has had the privilege of supporting some clients continuously for nearly two decades—walking alongside them through flare cycles, evolving diagnoses, disability progression, grief, recovery, and life's many uncertainties. Their work emphasizes client autonomy, trauma-informed care, ethical practice, and building helping relationships that remain effective over time.

In 2020, Ryder founded THRIVE Lifeline, a nonprofit dedicated to identity-affirming, non-carceral crisis intervention and peer support for multiply marginalized communities. Through THRIVE, they have helped develop innovative educational programs that train practitioners to engage in more humane, autonomy-supportive conversations around suicide, crisis, and complex mental health experiences.

Ryder also brings lived experience as a neurodivergent, nonbinary person living with chronic physical and mental health conditions. Their teaching is grounded in the belief that professional expertise and lived experience can work together to create more compassionate, ethical, and effective care. Across every course they teach, Ryder's goal is to help professionals become more thoughtful, confident, and deeply human in the relationships they build with those they serve.