Holistic Modalities for Healing Trauma
This is a description of some great healing modalities that are available to support trauma survivors in their healing journey as well as when and how each may be applicable.
Aside from therapy and Western medicine, there are a ton of natural and alternative approaches that address different parts of your body, mind, and spirit when you’re healing trauma.
It’s important to take a holistic approach and address all three at different points in your healing journey.
Here are the topics we’ll cover to explore your options:
Healing Trauma through the Mind
Coaching and therapy are two modalities that can holistically help with your mind, body, and spirit, but the primary focus and methods used in session are talking. So, I’d say the main focus is healing your mind while in session. However, regardless of our different approaches in practice and clinical status, coaches and therapists can both support you in healing your body through your mind and reinvigorating your spirit by helping you find strategies to bring more joy and fulfillment into your life.
One other important component to healing trauma in and through your mind is mindfulness and meditation practice. Mindfulness and meditation (whether guided or not) can help you remain in the present moment, be intentional about your thoughts, balance your emotions, and gain clarity on who you are and what you want. It has all sorts of proven benefits when healing trauma.
However, for some trauma survivors, the silence and sitting with yourself, thoughts, and emotions in an unguided meditation can be overwhelming. If that’s the case, meditation may not be your first stop on your healing journey, but you can eventually get there.
For those particularly stuck in the past, hypnotherapy can also be helpful. If you choose this modality, be sure to choose a reputable practitioner (as with all modalities) and I’d encourage you to look for your strengths in whatever is uncovered so you can bring those into the here and now.
Healing Trauma in the Body
Trauma can become stuck in the body. Perhaps you have mystery pain for example that doctors can’t find on any type of scan or through their tests. It’s important to make sure that there’s no disease or physical diagnosis, but once you do that, it’s important to start working on releasing trauma from your body as well as your mind. Modalities that can help you do that include, but aren’t limited to:
Somatic work
Yoga
Acupuncture
Reiki
Aromatherapy
Gut healing (functional diagnostic nutrition)
Biofield tuning
Infrared sauna
Myofascial release
There are trauma-informed versions of these modalities that are emerging in some cities that you can look for.
These modalities not only work with different systems in your body, like your muscles, lymphatic system, and digestive system, for instance, which are all impacted by your experiences, but many of these modalities also move energy in, away from, and through your body. Movement is important to your healing process to promote detoxification from all the hormones and chemicals pumped through your body when you’ve experienced trauma and chronic stress (and also our polluted environment), but it also increases our ability to feel like we’re not trapped. So again, you see a symbiotic relationship of body with mind.
Healing Trauma with Your Spirit
I believe spirit to be the least addressed part of our selves when it comes to healing trauma. Our spirits tend to become diminished with chronic stress and trauma. Even if you haven’t had major traumatic events in your past, the chronic stress of grinding at work day in and day out can wear you down and diminish your spirit.
But your spirit is the part of you that contains your passion, motivation, hope, and faith. It’s the part of you that you trust when you follow your heart and love yourself and others. It's the part of you that connects you to yourself, other humans, animals, nature, and the universe. (Your body and mind do too, but not in the same way.) Your spirit can be bolstered or diminished based on who you surround yourself with and what’s happening int he world, for instance.
When you dissociate, you’re not only detaching from your body, but you’re also detaching from your spirit — you’re leaving the present moment to be somewhere else — but your spirit operates in the present moment.
What does this all mean?
Perhaps you haven’t had time to paint in years or sing a song, even though you used to sing all the time. Maybe you don’t go out on hikes, even though that brings you so much joy, because you don’t have time. Maybe you don’t speak your mind in your relationship because you’re afraid of rejection if you do.
If these examples sound like you, ways you can start healing your spirit include:
Listening to or making music
Making art
Writing or journaling
Reading something fun
Making time for your hobbies
Helping someone in need
Going out in nature
Taking care of yourself
Practicing gratitude
Expanding your safe spiritual practice, whatever that may be (as long as you don’t have trauma around it)
Spending time with friends who are aligned with your values (not the ones who help you repeat trauma loops)
You don’t need practitioners or people you pay to do these things, even though you can find external support for these things too, like taking lessons with teachers or finding a group to hike with, for example. Either way, it’s important to play. Play is essential to our wellbeing, even if you’ve been conditioned to think it’s immature and unnecessary.
Concluding Thoughts
There are many starting points that can support you in healing trauma. The most important thing to remember is that it takes time and involves all parts of you. The options can be overwhelming, but if you break them into small pieces and pay attention to the indicators and guideposts occurring in your mind, body, and spirit, you can determine the best starting point for where you are currently. Each person’s healing journey has similarities but is ultimately different. If you try one thing and it helps, keep at it until you don’t need it anymore. When you’re ready add in the next thing. If that option doesn’t help, it’s okay — you’ve learned something, can incorporate that knowledge in your life, and move on. Keep trying things until you find what works for you. Enjoy the learning process you’re going through as you heal and find new ways to support yourself in that process. After all, this is your life and where you are for a reason. Find the meaning in it all and practice gratitude to assist with motivation.
Remember, you can totally do it.
If you’re going through a coaching program, I would be honored to help you determine how to navigate which modalities you want to try, finding good fits, tracking progress, and staying on track.
Questions or Comments?
Feel free to let me know if you have any questions in the comments, or you can schedule a free consultation.
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Hey there!
I’m Brandi Fleck, TICC. I’m a private practice, certified trauma-informed life coach and trauma recovery coach. All genders, sexualities, and races are welcome here. I primarily serve clients via one-on-one coaching and self-paced trauma education.
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