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My connection to the trades started long before Healing with Katie or the TRADES Framework™. I grew up as the daughter of a trades worker, and I experienced firsthand how what happens to a worker doesn't stay at work it comes home to the family.

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My father worked long hours. He was emotionally disconnected, rarely talked about what he was carrying, and alcohol became one of the primary ways he coped with life. At the time, I didn't understand the culture surrounding him. I only understood what it felt like to be his daughter.

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When I was seven years old, my mother died by suicide. My father was left carrying tremendous grief, shame, guilt, responsibility, and emotions he did not know how to process. There wasn't a culture around him that encouraged conversations about grief, mental health, trauma, or healthy coping. Instead, much of what I witnessed was what so many people had been taught to do: work, push through, don't talk about it, and find a way to keep going.

 

For my father, alcohol became an even greater escape. His addiction worsened, our family experienced significant consequences, and his life eventually took a path that affected all of us.

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I cannot say what would have happened differently if the right support had existed. But I often wonder what might have changed if someone had reached him earlier.

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What if he had been taught healthier ways to cope? What if grief support had been normalized? What if asking for help didn't feel like weakness? What if his workplace had been equipped to recognize when someone was struggling—not to diagnose him or fix him, but simply to know how to start the conversation and connect him with support?

And what if someone had understood that supporting the worker can also mean supporting the family behind them?

Years later, I had my own experience working within the trades, allowing me to see the culture from another perspective. Then, beginning in 2020, my professional work brought me directly alongside tradespeople, crews, leaders, safety professionals, and families. I began recognizing some of the same patterns I had experienced growing up—but I also began seeing what can happen when we approach those patterns differently.

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Those experiences became part of the foundation for the TRADES Framework™.

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Our goal isn't to change what makes the trades strong. It's to build upon it. The pride, loyalty, resilience, work ethic, and commitment to looking out for one another are already deeply rooted in this workforce. The TRADES Framework™ builds on those strengths while creating more space for connection, healthier coping, support, and conversations that haven't always been easy to have.

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We're helping expand what strength can look like within the trades.

Strength can be speaking up.
Strength can be checking on the person beside you.
Strength can be learning healthier ways to cope.
Strength can be a leader admitting they don't have all the answers.
Strength can be asking for support before life reaches a breaking point.

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I can't change what my family experienced. But I can use what it taught me to help create something I wish families like mine had been given years ago.

— Katie Anderson
Founder, TRADES Framework™ & Healing with Katie