Benjamin "Benny" Lichtenwalner (born ) is an American entrepreneur and relationship coach. A United States Marine Corps veteran who served as a mortuary affairs specialist in the Iraq War, he co-founded Biotrauma, a Georgia crime- and trauma-scene cleanup company, in 2006. Since the late 2010s he has worked as a breakup coach under the name "Coach Benny", building a TikTok following of more than 280,000 and drawing national press attention to the "get your ex back" coaching industry.
Military service Lichtenwalner served in the United States Marine Corps as a mortuary affairs specialist, and was described by The Washington Times as among the first Marines trained and deployed in that role. According to the Los Angeles Times, he was part of the first Marine mortuary unit sent into combat and, as a sergeant, handled the remains of hundreds of war victims in Iraq. His service included duty in Ramadi, where his unit recovered and processed the remains of fallen service members.
Biotrauma In January 2006, Lichtenwalner and fellow Marine veteran Ryan Sawyer founded Biotrauma, Inc., a crime- and trauma-scene cleanup company based in Gainesville, Georgia, applying the skills of their military mortuary work to civilian death scenes. According to Fortune Small Business, the company grew from roughly $90,000 in revenue in its first year to $498,000 in 2008.
The company received national press attention in 2009, in part following interest in crime-scene cleanup generated by the film Sunshine Cleaning. A Los Angeles Times feature by David Zucchino followed Lichtenwalner on a cleanup in Opelika, Alabama, and profiled the company's work for bereaved families. Lichtenwalner told Fortune Small Business the work was a duty to help families "attain closure". He and Sawyer were also interviewed about the company by Time.
Relationship coaching By the early 2020s, Lichtenwalner had become a relationship coach specializing in breakups, operating as "Coach Benny". A 2024 Slate feature on the "get your ex back" coaching industry profiled him as one of its most visible figures, reporting that he had more than 280,000 TikTok followers, offered one-on-one video coaching sessions and a tier of direct phone access, and said of his path into the work: "I walked the path of a lot of this stuff, and I realized I could help other people." The article characterized the wider ex-back coaching industry as largely uncertified and was critical of its premise, while noting the demand that coaches like Lichtenwalner serve.
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