Have you lost count how many times you were scrolling your feed and saw the words “trauma-informed” without ever really knowing what they mean? You are not alone. These words are more than just wellness buzzwords - they represent a radically different approach to healing, especially in yoga.

Before I dive into what trauma-informed means in the context of yoga, I think its also important I take a moment to destigmatize some common preconceived notions surrounding “trauma” itself. These misconceptions are often accepted widespread by many cultures and individuals - and can cause re-traumatization to someone on their healing journey, creating a never ending cycle of up and down.

1. “It is the survivors fault, they provoked it, they deserved it.” First and foremost, every single one of these statements aloud to the principle that SOMETIMES abuse and neglect are an appropriate response. Which, pardon my language, is complete bullshit. Abuse and neglect are never an ok response to anyone or anything. Second, we have come to understand abuse and neglect only in the very most awful of its contexts, often forgetting the “smaller” forms of everyday abuse and neglect that takes place regularly within our society, which can minimize the experiences of others if they do not meet our societal expectations.

2. “The survivor should just move on and get over it.” THIS is my favorite one, I’m going to try to keep it short but there’s a lot to be said here (lookout for future posts where I dive deeper into traumas effects on the brain and body). There is literal brain damage that takes place with traumatized individuals and the process of healing isn’t some magical self indulged journey - it is literally an individual learning and working to rewire their damaged or impacted neural pathways. LITERAL alchemy. As we know, our brains have a sort of plasticity to them, and with regular exercises and tools can be reshaped. THIS is what healing is, and its an absolute incredible thing to do, so to undermine that is just silly. The survivor IS MOVING ON and by retraining their brain, getting over it. Trauma also causes TONS of not so helpful physiological changes, which can set off a string of trouble in a survivor. This can become trapped, so when you hear the phrase “trauma gets trapped in the body”, this is why. Our fascia and tissue hold on to the inflammation caused from all of the physiological damage, which makes it very hard to complete the healing journey without addressing the body in addition to the brain (ahem, YOGA). So while “just getting over it” sounds incredible, ITS A PROCESS, and that’s what people who are healing are doing, working to get over it. Piece by piece.

3. “The survivor is lying or exaggerating. It wasn’t that bad.” So you were there, you experienced it too? Kidding, because even if you did experience the same exact thing, no you didn’t. Our individual perception and previous life experiences vary so two people who experience the EXACT SAME things, will have to very different reactions to it based on said perception and past experiences. And who the hell is anyone else to decide how something made someone else feel? Or decide how it impacted them? No one, that’s who, so case closed. What’s chaos to the fly, is normal to the spider. Copy and paste that until it makes perfect sense.

4. “Men can’t be a survivor.” This one makes me somewhat sick. I’m not sure when and where we started treating both sexes very differently, maybe its always been this way, but it seems to me along the way we have forgotten that the range of HUMAN emotions applies to ALL sexes, ALL races, ALL cultures, ALL HUMANS. Do men not get angry just like women? Do men not feel insecure sometimes just like women? Do men not feel pain or sadness just like women do? Society has taught men they aren’t SUPPOSED to feel these things or acknowledge them, so they’ve been indoctrinated to suppress them instead. This has caused its own mental health crisis in men, never allowing them the safety to have HUMAN emotion out loud. It doesn’t matter if its men or women, human emotions belong to all humans and we should treat all humans as such. Men are absolutely survivors, just often in silence (will also surely be future blog posts exploring the awful implications of the “men can’t” mindset).

So what exactly is “trauma-informed” and how does this apply to yoga? A couple key words come to mind when I think trauma healing, safety, choice, empowerment, autonomy, calm, grounding. This is exactly what trauma-informed yoga aims to do, create an all welcomed, safe judgment free and empowering environment where we can reconnect and ground into our own bodies, while offering autonomy and choice.

Why is this important? Individuals who are dealing with trauma have a nervous system that can no longer regulate properly, causing it to remain in a state of constant alert. It often makes it extremely challenging for them to process trauma, past or present, causing a disconnect from their internal sense of self and safety. They move through the world in a hyper vigilant state processing everything as a perceived threat. This can lead to a range of reactive behaviors, rather than well informed choices grounded in reality.

During a trauma-informed yoga class, you see a shift in focal points in order to help down regulate already hyper aroused nervous systems. One of the more major differences will be shifting our attention from our physical alignments and perfecting our form in specific poses, to a more interoceptive perspective, focusing on how our bodies feel and respond while we work through the sequences. We shake the notion that we need to come to our mats and push ourselves to perfect a pose, and honor coming to our mats and meeting our bodies where they are at in that moment on that given day.

You will find an bigger exposure to meditation and mindfulness practices weaved into the classes. This will help allow a survivor to work towards being fully present and aware of the current experiences here and now, thoughts and emotions they are having in the moment, without judgement. Utilizing practices like body scans or breathing techniques can help us stay grounded in the moment, and over time rewire our brains reaction of clinging to past memories to observing the present moment in the here and now, allowing us to learn to respond rather than react.

Trauma-informed yoga also uses language to promote choice and autonomy. It aims to empower the practitioner to make their own choices based on how and what they are feeling, rather than instruction, consider all things an invitation. No pose is required, every move you make is optional based on how you’re own senses. Listening to your body is key.

Through this regular practice we begin to reconnect, notice, feel, and begin to regain our internal sense of safety and self trust. We begin to notice patterns of how we show up on the mat can easily transfer to how we show up in the world. And eventually with committed effort, these practices that once took you a large amount of conscious effort to show up for, have become an autonomous way of being.

Are you unsure if trauma-informed yoga is right for you? Feel free to reach out at brittanyoga.prana@yahoo.com.

Stay tuned for updates surrounding in person classes, my physical location is a unique non-traditional concept and requires a key component be custom built. This will take some additional time to complete. I am looking forward to sharing more information once it is closer to completion! If you are interested in one on one work, always feel free to reach out and we can discuss options.