About Condition Red Coaching
Trauma-informed coaching to help you come down from constant high alert, heal your relationships (including with yourself), and build a life that actually feels worth living.
Whether your history includes service, high-pressure work, childhood chaos, or relationship fallout, we’ll slow things down, make sense of what happened, and look at how it’s still living in your body and behavior today.
Using attachment-based frameworks, nervous system education, and clear action steps, we’ll work together to build steadier habits, healthier connections, and a way of living that reflects who you are now—not just what you’ve survived.
Meet Dave Boyd
Attachment and Nervous System Regulation Coach
With nearly 20 years of combined service as a United States Marine, firefighter, 911 dispatcher, and police officer, I know what it's like to live in Condition Red for a long damn time.
I've worked in patrol, SWAT, community policing, as a school resource officer, field training officer, and as an Explorer post commander. I led Marines and deployed to Afghanistan, I've answered more 911 calls than I can remember while being the calm voice on the other end of the radio or the phone, and I've responded to more emergency calls on the streets than I can count. Through all of my experiences, I've walked alongside people through some of the worst days of their lives and helped them emerge on the other side.
I also know what it costs. I've navigated divorce after spousal infidelity while in the service, rebuilt my life, and am now 17 years into my current marriage. I'm a father of two, a long-time youth mentor, and I've logged almost a decade as a CrossFit coach after I transitioned from being a former MMA fighter—so I understand both the physical and emotional toll of pushing your body and your nervous system to the absolute edge.
For the last 8 years, I've shifted that experience into trauma-informed, attachment-based coaching and mentorship. I help veterans, first responders, and civilians untangle how their history, their nervous system, and their relationships are all tied together. Then we get to work building something better: steadier and stronger bodies, calmer minds, clearer boundaries, healthier partnerships, and a sense of purpose that isn't dependent on a uniform, a job title, or a relationship.
I hold a B.S. in Psychology with a concentration in Life Coaching, where I spent years diving deep into the complexities, structure, and methods of effective coaching, not just after a weekend with a "guru" and starting to call myself "Coach."
Condition Red Coaching is where all of that comes together. You're not getting a guru on a mountain; you're getting someone who's walked through the fire, done his own work, and knows how to walk beside you while you do yours.
Education:
B.S. in Psychology with a concentration in Life Coaching
Certifications:
Foundations of Positive Psychology - University of Pennsylvania
Certified UNcivilized Coach
How Best To Work With Men
Psychological First Aid - The Johns Hopkins University
Crisis Intervention - NAMI Wake County, NC
Veterans Crisis Intervention - NAMI Wake County, NC
Trauma Informed Coaching - The Centre for Healing
CrossFit Level 2 Trainer
SWAT Officer 1
Field Training Officer
Why Condition Red?
Why Condition Red?
In the military and public safety worlds, a lot of us were trained on Cooper’s Colors—a system created by Jeff Cooper, a Marine officer and firearms/tactics instructor. He used simple colors to describe your state of awareness and ability to respond:
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White: Unaware and unprepared. Zoned out on the couch, startled by a car backfiring outside.
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Yellow: Relaxed but alert. You’re paying attention, even if nothing’s wrong yet.
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Orange: Alert and focused. Something has your attention, and you’re preparing to act.
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Red: The fight is on. It’s time to move, or there will be consequences.
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Black: Overwhelmed and shut down. You’ve lost the ability to respond effectively.
Most of my clients find me when they’re living in some version of Condition Red; they're fighting for their marriage, their sanity, their kids, their health, or their sense of self after spending years in survival mode. Some are already slipping toward Condition Black, where burnout, collapse, or self-destruction feels way too close.
Condition Red Coaching exists to meet you right there and help you do something different with all that fight. Instead of wasting energy spinning in crisis, we slow things down, check in honestly, and turn that survival drive into clear action toward a more complete, grounded life. You don’t have to go to Black. You don’t have to do it alone.