More About Trauma and Trauma-Informed Approaches
|
|
|
|
"As Nkem Ndefo so eloquently reminds us, trauma is more than a single event.
It disrupts and overwhelms our ability to adapt, to connect, to flourish. The symptoms aren’t always felt immediately; they often emerge over time—hijacking thoughts and behavior, damaging relationships, undermining health, stealing the future. Nkem says, 'We can’t afford to let trauma steal anything more from us. . . . We need all of us healing trauma together to reclaim the freedom, vitality, and love that is our birthright."' —The Embody Lab email 8/19/22 |
Trauma is becoming more widely understood and there is a body of fascinating research that helps us to understand the ways in which trauma impacts our minds and our bodies in a variety of ways. Part of the SGC's mission and vision is to provide opportunities and resources for members of our community to learn more about trauma and the ways in which we can manage the effects of trauma for ourselves, our children, our friends and families, and our communities.
Toxic stress, social and cultural inequalities, adverse childhood experiences (ACES), accidents, surgeries, and natural disasters can all cause trauma and result in symptoms like anxiety, depression, addiction, and a variety of dis-ease in the body. As Arielle Schwartz writes in Therapeutic Yoga for Trauma Recovery, "Trauma, by definition, refers to any frightening, shocking, or life-threatening event that overwhelms your capacity to physically cope with or emotionally process your experience." Further, multiple traumas or prolonged trauma can result in complex trauma and life-long adverse impacts on mental and physical health.
An event or experience that is traumatic for one person may not be traumatic for another person. For instance, we are only beginning to see the effects of the collective trauma that we have experienced throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Even before Covid, we were already experiencing a mental health crisis in the U.S. and around the world. Mental health resources, and the stigmas related to mental health needs, make therapy and other tools difficult to access for many people, in and beyond our community. And the best mental health treatments are often expensive in addition to being inaccessible. How do we even begin to find the support and healing that we need as individuals, let alone as communities and a country?
In trauma-informed yoga and conscious dance, we often refer to a common phrases like: "the issues are in our tissues" and "you have to feel it to heal it." In other words, trauma is not in our heads, it is in our bodies as well. If we don't address trauma, it takes a toll on our minds, bodies, emotions, and relationships. We cannot talk our way out of a trauma response (fight, flight, freeze, or appease), but we can engage in embodied practices that help to manage and alleviate our symptoms and help us to be more present in our lives.
At SGC, our trauma-informed programs and approaches are not meant to replace therapy and they are not a magic pill that cures all of our physical and mental health challenges. What we offer are resources and tools toward empowerment, balance, and embodiment as well as mind/body/spirit health and wellness. We cannot provide a "safe space" because such a thing does not exist because sometimes we don't know that we have been impacted by trauma. We might not know how it manifests in our body, and we don't necessarily know what might trigger us. Instead, we provide a "brave space," a container where we can explore and process through embodied movements, breathwork, and meditation.
Yoga and conscious dance are two useful modalities for managing PTSD and the impacts of collective, complex, and intergenerational trauma. The work that we do on, and for, ourselves is not easy, but the positive impacts on our mental, physical, and emotional well-being can be transformative.
Toxic stress, social and cultural inequalities, adverse childhood experiences (ACES), accidents, surgeries, and natural disasters can all cause trauma and result in symptoms like anxiety, depression, addiction, and a variety of dis-ease in the body. As Arielle Schwartz writes in Therapeutic Yoga for Trauma Recovery, "Trauma, by definition, refers to any frightening, shocking, or life-threatening event that overwhelms your capacity to physically cope with or emotionally process your experience." Further, multiple traumas or prolonged trauma can result in complex trauma and life-long adverse impacts on mental and physical health.
An event or experience that is traumatic for one person may not be traumatic for another person. For instance, we are only beginning to see the effects of the collective trauma that we have experienced throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Even before Covid, we were already experiencing a mental health crisis in the U.S. and around the world. Mental health resources, and the stigmas related to mental health needs, make therapy and other tools difficult to access for many people, in and beyond our community. And the best mental health treatments are often expensive in addition to being inaccessible. How do we even begin to find the support and healing that we need as individuals, let alone as communities and a country?
In trauma-informed yoga and conscious dance, we often refer to a common phrases like: "the issues are in our tissues" and "you have to feel it to heal it." In other words, trauma is not in our heads, it is in our bodies as well. If we don't address trauma, it takes a toll on our minds, bodies, emotions, and relationships. We cannot talk our way out of a trauma response (fight, flight, freeze, or appease), but we can engage in embodied practices that help to manage and alleviate our symptoms and help us to be more present in our lives.
At SGC, our trauma-informed programs and approaches are not meant to replace therapy and they are not a magic pill that cures all of our physical and mental health challenges. What we offer are resources and tools toward empowerment, balance, and embodiment as well as mind/body/spirit health and wellness. We cannot provide a "safe space" because such a thing does not exist because sometimes we don't know that we have been impacted by trauma. We might not know how it manifests in our body, and we don't necessarily know what might trigger us. Instead, we provide a "brave space," a container where we can explore and process through embodied movements, breathwork, and meditation.
Yoga and conscious dance are two useful modalities for managing PTSD and the impacts of collective, complex, and intergenerational trauma. The work that we do on, and for, ourselves is not easy, but the positive impacts on our mental, physical, and emotional well-being can be transformative.