Trauma: More Than a “Buzzword”
Defining Trauma.
I was inspired to write this blog post shortly after my podcast interview with Amy Goodman, owner and founder of Kindred Nutrition and Wellness, which you can listen to here. In this podcast, we discussed how trauma-informed yoga can assist individuals in eating disorder recovery and help them develop crucial skills that support healing, including emotional regulation, interoceptive awareness, resiliency, improved sense of self, and self-advocacy. However, the foundation of trauma-informed yoga is based on our understanding of its root term: trauma.
When we think about trauma, many of us may imagine trauma the way it is depicted in the movies, such as through the experiences of an individual exposed to war, a violent or abusive relationship, or a tumultuous childhood or another upbringing… and while these are certainly traumatic experiences, our pre-wired schemas of what defines “trauma” ignores all of those other moments that share the same feelings of vulnerability, fear, and entrapment. Simply defined, trauma is any event that overwhelms an individual’s resources to cope at any given time (Eat Breathe Thrive™️, 2021).
“Trauma is any event that overwhelms an individual’s resources to cope at any given time.”
When we look at this definition of trauma, we can see how trauma is unique to the individual and is based on that individual’s internal resources and external support systems during the time of the traumatic event. This means that what triggers trauma symptoms in one individual may not necessarily trigger them in another, depending on their resources to cope at that time. This also means that what triggers trauma when we are children may not necessarily trigger trauma when we are adults because we typically have more internal resources and external support systems to help us acknowledge, address, and work through that potentially traumatic event with more ease.
This description of trauma highlights the idea that there is no universal definition or classification for what qualifies an event as “traumatic”, and this understanding is vital in ensuring that all individuals receive timely trauma care and support, not just if they fall under our preconceived categories of what it means to experience trauma. Typically, when I describe trauma using this definition, many of my clients (and even friends!) disclose that they too have experienced trauma at some point in their lives… and that acknowledgment of our shared human experience without a comparison of which event was more or less ‘traumatic’, begins to pave the road to collective post-traumatic growth and recovery.
“There is no universal definition or classification for what qualifies an event as “traumatic”… and that acknowledgment of our shared human experience without comparison… begins to pave the road to collective post-traumatic growth and recovery.”
Now that we understand the definition of trauma, let’s briefly explore why yoga is effective in helping individuals access and process through their trauma. In Peter Levine’s book Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, he discusses the phenomenon of somatic memory, or the idea that trauma is stored as residual energy within the body. Levine further highlights the importance of movement in accessing, identifying, and healing from these hidden trauma stores:
“Traumatic symptoms are not caused by the ‘triggering’ event itself. They stem from the frozen residue of energy that has not been resolved and discharged; this residue remains trapped in the nervous system… and wreaks havoc on our bodies and spirits The long-term, alarming, [and] debilitating… symptoms of [trauma] develop when we cannot complete the process of moving in, through, and out of the ‘immobility’ or ‘freezing’ state.”
In other words, the ‘residual energy’ from the traumatic event becomes trapped in the body and triggers an over-activation of the sympathetic nervous system (our “fight, flight, or freeze” network). This over-activation results in energy “overload” that manifests in our understanding of trauma symptoms (such as panic attacks, increased heart rate, shortness of breath, dissociation, flashbacks, etc.). This is why a combination of joyful movement (such as yoga) and traditional talk therapy is so effective when assisting individuals to recover from chronic stress and traumatic events. Trauma-informed yoga is designed specifically to dispel the residual energy stored in the body from a stressful or traumatic event and assist the individual in moving out of the “fight, flight, or freeze” state.
Understanding Trauma-Informed Yoga.
Let’s circle back to our understanding of trauma-informed yoga. It is well-known in the yoga community that there is no way to standardize trauma-informed yoga. No certification process offers this designation, rather it is achieved through intentional and life-long continuing education. Unfortunately for the average consumer of yoga, this means that it is nearly impossible to determine whether a school or provider is truly “trauma-informed”. After all, the buzzword “trauma” is often used in many yoga schools’ marketing schemes to target the individuals seeking those services and increase their school roster without ever acknowledging or integrating this powerful work into their practices at all.
Now you may find yourself asking, “Ok Alyssa, if trauma-informed yoga is so effective, how can I find someone who knows what the heck they are talking about then?” and I want to offer you some insight on what a trauma-informed class looks like and how it is different from a standard yoga class or provider. While this is certainly not an exhaustive list of supports or approaches used in trauma-informed yoga, it’s a helpful place to start in identifying whether your prospective school or provider is a good fit for you and your stage of healing.
Your trauma-informed school or provider should…
1. Focus on creating a sense of safety in every practice.
This means being intentional about the environment of the class (how students are positioned in the room, whether external distractors are minimized, etc.), the language used in class, and the progression of forms used throughout practice to minimize the risk of triggering trauma symptoms and protecting both the physical, spiritual, and emotional body. However, this doesn’t mean eliminating these triggers completely, but rather supporting you in trauma recovery to develop the self-regulation, resiliency, and self-agency skills required to effectively cope with those triggers in real time.
With this said, if you are in the acute phases of your trauma journey, you may require more external support (or guidance) than when you are further in your recovery and have started to learn how to cope more effectively. But the overarching goal is still the same: trauma-informed yoga providers help to create a ‘just right’ challenge in practice to assist you in developing and honing your resiliency and self-regulation skills so you are equipped to safely tackle your trauma as it arises both on and off the mat.
2. Know what to do when symptoms of trauma arise during practice and assist you in strengthening your internal ability to tackle those symptoms head-on.
Because trauma-informed yoga is specifically built to access trauma stores, it is not uncommon for traumatic symptoms to arise during practice. Though we try to minimize this in the early stages of recovery, learning how to manage trauma symptoms, with support provided by your trauma-informed yoga provider, is a normal part of post-traumatic growth and healing. If you begin to experience one of these events in practice, your trauma-informed yoga provider is specifically trained to assist you in identifying the event and deciding what to do about it by using a combination of both internal tools (such as emotional regulation, resiliency, breath work, etc.) and external supports. Trauma-informed yoga providers work with you in developing your unique strength, autonomy, and resiliency in the face of trauma symptoms.
3. Provide invitations to practice certain forms or offer alternatives.
Have you ever been in a yoga class and thought this is not what my body needs right now? Trauma-informed yoga aims to invite participants into certain forms while encouraging them to reflect inward to determine if it is appropriate for their body at that moment. This means supporting interoceptive awareness skills (our understanding of what’s going on “inside” the body) and offering alternative forms or modifications to make those forms feel safer or more accessible. Not feeling a certain shape? That’s ok! Your trauma-informed yoga provider will invite and encourage you to explore a form that is more supportive of your body’s needs at that moment and help you to respond to those needs with more clarity.
4. Use intentional, explicit, and informed consent throughout practice.
Many traditional yoga classes offer ‘adjustments’ in class to help students achieve a certain alignment or yoga form. However, in trauma-informed yoga, the purpose of the practice is not to force the body into a certain alignment using physical touch. Instead, we invite students to feel in and through the body to achieve an alignment that feels good in their body. This means not forcing (or touching) the body into alignment without explicit informed consent. If your school or provider does use touch assistance, they will have a good understanding of how to establish and maintain explicit informed consent throughout practice. This may include an extensive intake process in which your trauma-informed yoga provider discusses informed consent and works collaboratively with you to create boundaries that feel supportive throughout practice and in every stage of your recovery.
It is important to note that many schools claiming to be trauma-informed may use some type of sign or signal in their class that communicates to them whether the student is consenting to physical touch or assistance. Some examples include but are not limited to: students choosing to place a colored disk on the floor near their mat with one color signaling physical touch is ok and another color signaling it is not ok (and the ability to change which side is facing up during practice), certain positioning of the hands in a given form to communicate consent (in child’s pose, raising your hand to indicate you are ok with physical assistance, etc.), and/or asking for explicit informed consent at the beginning of practice.
However, there are some innate challenges with these approaches to touch consent. Many individuals who have experienced trauma, may submit, withdraw, or avoid these invitations altogether. This submission, also known as the “Fawn Response” (Walker, 2003), is common in individuals who have experienced trauma and can look and sound like consent, even if that individual is not explicitly communicating their desire for assistance. Your yoga school or provider should establish what informed consent looks like for you before even entering practice and regularly collaborate with you to re-establish that boundary safely throughout your yoga journey.
4. Offer opportunities to utilize external supports for trauma recovery.
One of my favorite parts of trauma-informed yoga is being able to use external supports, such as bolsters, blocks, and blankets. While many of these external supports are used in traditional yoga classes, the use of them in trauma-informed classes is specifically designed to create a sense of safety, support, and grounding in a specific form. For example, your yoga provider may encourage you to place a blanket over your body in the final resting shape to create a sense of neutral warmth and security, or during other forms that present with a higher risk of triggering trauma symptoms that the individual may not be ready to address based on their stage in recovery. Your trauma-informed yoga provider will collaborate with you to help you determine which of these supports are the most useful for you throughout practice. An essential part of this practice is also teaching you how to make informed decisions about using (or not using) these supports throughout the class for your own comfort and trauma healing.
5. Use an intentional balance of movement, breath, and stillness.
In fairness, yoga schools and providers of all kinds use some combination of these practices, but a trauma-informed yoga provider will create a sequence of forms that allows for a balance between movement, breath, and stillness. It is in these moments of breath and stillness that we can strengthen our interoceptive skills (our awareness of what’s going on “inside” the body) for use in trauma recovery. If you are in a class where you are in constant motion without the opportunity for breath or stillness, chances are your yoga provider is missing this foundational component of trauma-informed yoga.
6. Be transparent about the sources of their training in trauma-informed yoga and be able to apply those principles effectively.
I encourage every student to ask their yoga school or provider for a copy of their resume or curriculum vitae if it is not already available on their website. While this may seem like an invasion of privacy to some yoga schools or providers, if there is any hesitation when you ask about their training or background, this is likely a clear indication that they have not been trained in the approach they are marketing. However, education alone does not always mean that the yoga provider is equipped to use that skill set effectively. It is equally, if not more, important to ‘interview’ your prospective yoga school or provider to review their qualifications and determine whether their skill set is a good fit for your recovery journey.
Some important questions to consider may include:
What is your approach to trauma-informed yoga?
What does trauma-informed yoga mean to you?
What makes you passionate about trauma-informed yoga?
How do you establish and maintain informed consent throughout practice?
What is your overarching goal for your trauma-informed classes or sessions?
How do you involve your students in collaborative goal- and boundary-setting?
How do you support students when they experience trauma symptoms during practice?
Do you have references or previous clients that I could talk with about what to expect in your sessions, groups, and/or classes?
How many clients have you worked with? How many clients are you currently working with?
What options for classes do you have available (e.g., virtual, in-person, 1:1, group, etc.)?
*It is important to note that a trauma-informed provider does not need to know what your trauma is to help support you and we need to take caution with those providers who say they do. You do not need to relive your trauma to receive trauma-informed care. If this becomes a theme during your interview or intake process, this may be an indication that your provider is not truly trauma-informed. You get to decide if, when, and how to share your story.
7. Adopt a client-centered vs. profit-centered approach to care.
As yoga providers and yoga schools, it is important to note that we are still businesses in the sense that we must consider our financial wellness when leading an individual session, class, or group. This financial soundness allows us to not only support our well-being, but also continue to support the well-being of future students and ensure the continuity of their care over time. However, trauma-informed providers and schools should not be solely concerned about profit, but rather the collective wellness of their students and the larger community.
A client-centered approach should include an extensive intake process in which the trauma-informed yoga provider co-creates a treatment plan or program for you that meets your unique recovery goals. A client-centered approach may also look like offering scholarships for underserved groups or students experiencing financial hardship and/or adjusting their policies to best support their students who may not be able to afford long-term care. This also means not excessively pushing classes, groups, or training and supporting the student’s autonomy in selecting a program or class that best supports their overall wellness.
A profit-centered provider may be focused solely on promoting or pushing a certain class, group, or program without regard to the unique factors of the student that inspired them to seek out trauma-informed care in the first place. A profit-centered provider does not involve the student in decision-making, but rather tells that student what they need to do to recover. This is commonly seen in the yoga “gurus” who market themselves as the only provider who can help students with their trauma. Your trauma-informed yoga provider or school shouldn’t feel like a used car salesman, but a mentor that works to co-create a program uniquely tailored to you and your recovery goals. This also involves your provider setting aside their spiritual ego and knowing when to refer to other providers for support.
“Your trauma-informed yoga provider or school shouldn’t feel like a used car salesman, but a mentor that works to co-create a program uniquely tailored to you and your recovery goals. This also involves your provider setting aside their spiritual ego and knowing when to refer to other providers for support.”
8. Facilitate healing and skill development throughout every stage of recovery, not just the prevention of trauma symptoms.
For this blog post, I had the honor of collaborating with my yoga mentor, Melanie Taylor, and interviewing her about what it means to be a trauma-informed provider. Melanie Taylor is the owner and founder of the Life of Wellness Institute, the Director of Education at Eat Breathe Thrive, and is also a trauma expert with over 20 years of experience in trauma-informed care. When I asked Melanie what it meant to her to be a trauma-informed provider, she wrote me back with a level of compassion, knowledge, and wisdom that I could not rightly paraphrase. Melanie writes:
“In my opinion, having a trauma-informed lens means that we can create and maintain a safe environment, recognize the signs of trauma, know how to support someone through a trauma response, know when to refer or engage other scopes of support, and how to prevent triggers that are unsafe in a stage of someone’s recovery. However, when we limit the approach to training prevention, we also take away a valuable opportunity! Which is to develop a safe relationship in a safe environment, where someone can safely explore and practice healthy coping, agency, autonomy, and safe engagement with others.”
“Overall, I am trying to say that people with trauma deserve to be treated like human beings capable of healing. And that trauma-informed caring professionals need to be held to a higher standard of care than prevention. To use an ED [Eating Disorder] analogy, when is the ED healed? Is it when we no longer engage in the behaviors (prevention)? Or when we have the skills to engage in life without the maladaptive and self-harming behaviors (abstinence)? Or when we have healthy coping skills to live our life fully and have healed the cause of our suffering? Being trauma-informed to me means being able to adapt my approach to all of those stages and the ones in between.”
Melanie highlights the importance of facilitating healing and skill development throughout every stage of recovery, not just prevention during the acute phases of trauma. Melanie calls yoga providers and consumers of yoga to action by holding our trauma-informed community accountable for support at every stage of recovery, not just prevention training. Individuals who have experienced trauma do not need to be held with gentle hands, rather should be acknowledged as human beings capable of self-directed healing. This also requires trauma-informed yoga providers to be able to adapt to where each student is at in their trauma recovery so that they receive the most effective support and opportunities for skill development on their recovery timeline. After all, healing from trauma is a dynamic journey, one that requires a co-relationship with your yoga provider that is just as flexible and dynamic.
“Having a trauma-informed lens means that we can create and maintain a safe environment, recognize the signs of trauma, know how to support someone through a trauma response, know when to refer or engage other scopes of support, and how to prevent triggers that are unsafe in a stage of someone’s recovery.”
My hope from writing this blog post is that you now have a better understanding of what trauma-informed yoga looks like and how to find a trauma-informed provider or school that works best for your trauma journey. While trauma is often used as a “buzzword” across social media outlets and yoga schools, it is important that you connect with a provider who has been trained in these processes to support your collective wellness and post-traumatic healing across every stage of recovery. I invite you to email me directly with any additional questions or concerns you have related to trauma-informed yoga and have included resources below for common approaches to, and trusted providers of, trauma-informed yoga in our community.
Warmly,
Alyssa Gremban, OTD, OTR/L, CPST, RYT-200
Afterword.
A special thank you to Melanie Taylor for her contributing edits and recommendations to make this blog post truly spectacular. I am always grateful to Melanie for her late-night wisdom and guidance. If you are interested in learning more from Melanie, or learning how to integrate trauma-informed care into your own practice, Melanie offers a live virtual Stress and Trauma-Informed Continuing Education Series, available on her website here.
References:
Eat Breathe Thrive™ (2021). Facilitator Training Manual. Retrieved from: www.eatbreathethrive.org/facilitator-training
Levine, P. A. (1997). Waking the Tiger: Healing trauma: The innate capacity to transform overwhelming experiences. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books.
Stoller, L. (2019). Sensory-Enhanced Yoga® for Self-Regulation and Trauma Healing. United Kingdom: Handspring Publishing, Limited.
Walker, P. (2003). Codependency, trauma, and the fawn response. The East Bay Therapist. Retrieved from: http://www.pete-walker.com/codependencyFawnResponse.htm
Trusted Providers of Trauma-Informed Yoga:
Sensory Enhanced Yoga® Institute
Recommended Readings for Trauma Healing:
The Body Keeps the Score, Besser van der Kolk, MD
Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, Peter Levine
It Didn’t Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are, Mark Wolynn
Embodiment and the Treatment of Eating Disorders, Catherine Cook-Cottone