Trauma informed: What is it and why you should be
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“It’s about having an understanding and awareness that we aren’t only working out the body with our students. Everything we offer and how we offer it is going to affect the nervous system in some way. Challenging the nervous system is part of how we build resilience through movement”
- Ericka Thomas
Transcript
Trauma Informed: What is it and why should you care
Ep 162
Trauma informed. It sounds good but that term isn’t well understood by the general public and has been diluted by the wellness community by click bait, quick buck certifications. There’s an assumption that because yoga is often recommended for ptsd, chronic pain, anxiety and depression that any and all yoga is trauma informed and that is simply not true. Today on The Work IN we’re taking a look at what being trauma informed means, what it looks like in yoga classes and why it’s something that all fit pros should understand. Today's discussion is going to focus on yoga but it applies across the fitness industry to all formats.
I teach trauma informed yoga. I own a trauma informed studio. I market my coaching and training as trauma informed. I have hundreds of hours of training in the trauma informed space and trauma release exercise. But it wasn’t always so.
I’ll never forget my first trauma-informed training. I showed up on my mat all fresh faced ready to learn how to help veterans overcome ptsd with yoga. Little did I know how my own deeply ingrained trauma’s had been affecting me. Little did I know how much work I needed to do on myself. Little did I know how misguided I had been about what trauma is, what it looks like and what it takes to help other people with invisible injuries.
The biggest learning I came away with from that training was how unprepared I was to step into this world and how much work I had to do on myself. It was humbling to think about all the people who had come through my classes and how easily I could have retraumatized them without knowing it.
I think that was the moment I realized I needed to take my training and career more seriously. Leading an exercise class seems like a small unimportant luxury. And for many fit pros it is “just” a side gig. A hobby that keeps them in shape or feeds their ego. But our students come into our classrooms and studios for all kinds of reasons that go beyond what the eyes can see. They bring their whole selves to us and while it’s not within our scope to do any kind of full mental and physical health intake we do need to understand what that means.
In any kind of group fitness, yoga included, we have people sign all the appropriate waivers to participate. Those waivers are usually limited to the physical aspects of movement. We don’t spend any time thinking about where people are mentally or emotionally.
I am not a therapist or a psychologist. But I know, and neuroscience backs this up, that we can and do affect the mind through our body and that we can change the body through the mind and of course the nervous system.
There's a popular story out there about the Cherokee grandfather and the little boy. He tells the little boy that inside of everyone there are two wolves fighting. One is vicious and angry, full of malice and evil. The other is peaceful, compassionate, courageous and good. The little boy asks which one wins? The grandfather says, “The one you feed.”
This is the basis of what being trauma informed is. We can use trauma- informed tools to help bring those wolves into balance. We are feeding the good.
The way I see it is that being trauma informed in yoga or wellness isn’t about never triggering someone or never challenging your students. No. It’s about having an understanding and awareness that we aren’t only working out the body with our students. Everything we offer and how we offer it is going to affect the nervous system in some way. Challenging the nervous system is part of how we build resilience through movement. It’s how people get fit. And in the trauma-informed space we are working on multiple sensory levels to purposefully rebuild that mind-body connection (the brain to muscle) and establish a deeper sense of trust and confidence in our own skin.
We use directed awareness through all of our sensory systems (Visual, hearing, smell, taste, touch and somatosensory) along with muscle activation, rest and integration to re-educate and re-pattern our nervous system responses. All of it matters in a trauma informed class.
We can apply these things in any format, not only yoga.
So what might that look like? Because the truth is every yoga class isn’t trauma informed just because it’s yoga. There is intention behind it.
It kind of depends a little on the students but here are a few differences that you might notice in a trauma informed yoga class that aren’t in your typical studio.
The lights might stay on.
There may or may not be aromatherapy offered. Smell is powerful to the brain.
The room may be arranged differently. Doors might stay open.
No straps. Limited props.
No hands on adjustments.
The instructor may not walk around the room. Permission is always asked.
The pose selection will be simpler.
Trauma informed classes aren’t performative.
Students are encouraged to change the pose to fit their body.
There are a lot of cues to build awareness of sensations in the body without judgment.
There are a lot of options given.
Rest is encouraged.
There is often guided meditation or yoga nidra.
The language that the instructor uses may feel different. More inclusive, focusing on the process, the action and simple awareness over the “drill sergeant” style of instruction.
The breath becomes a powerful tool to change our nervous system state.
This list are things that I bring to my yoga classes but they can also filter into other formats without too much hard thought. I think the key to applying trauma informed principles is to understand the purpose is to help people work with their body to reach their goals. So much of typical fitness reinforces an adversarial relationship to our body when culturally we’re already there. It becomes about changing the body to fit some ideal. When in reality we could be using our body and the keys it holds to change our mind. Soothing the wolves in our limbic system.
In fact our brain is set up to do that with the motor cortex and somatosensory cortex living right next door to each other and intimately connected to our stress response and areas of the brain responsible for our sense of self.
Anything that disturbs the nervous system like an injury, stress, trauma or even humiliation can affect our entire system and change the way we see the world.
The good news is that improving how we move through our world, building sensory awareness within the body, mindful movement and intentional muscle activation like what we do in trauma informed yoga and fitness can recalibrate and re-pattern our nervous system response to stress. This can make us less reactive, alleviate chronic pain, improve symptoms of anxiety and depression as well as improving balance, mobility, strength and proprioception.
None of us are getting out of this life without some hits to the nervous system and that is the number one reason why we in the fitness and wellness space need to take this piece of our training more seriously. People are coming to us for more than what the eyes can see. We are offering more than just calories burned and inches lost.
And none of us mean to hurt our students. This is supposed to be wellness. We do this to help people. Being more trauma informed in and out of classrooms starts with ourselves. We can not hold space for anyone else until we do our own work. As uncomfortable as that might be, it’s our personal experiences that make us uniquely qualified to serve others in a trauma informed space.
Don’t just take the training and check the box. Your trauma journey will build your own self awareness so you can teach it. When you learn how to create and hold boundaries you can model them, and when you can connect with yourself and others you’ll be better able to hold a trauma informed space for your students. And not only students because the beauty of this work is that it filters out into every other part of your life for the better.
Thanks for listening. If you like what you heard and you want to learn more head over to savagegracecoaching.com/theworkin there’s some free resilience resources and of course the show notes for this and other episodes of The Work IN podcast.
Hey there!
I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a resilience coach and fit-preneur offering an authentic, actionable realistic approach to personal and professional balance for coaches in any format.
Savage Grace Coaching is all about bringing resilience and burnout recovery. Especially for overwhelmed entrepreneurs, creators and coaches in the fitness industry.
Schedule a free consultation call to see if my brand of actionable accountability is right for you and your business.