Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness

There is a lot of advice out there that meditation and mindfulness practices are ‘good for you’ and it can be confusing when you try them and feel awful. Maybe you feel irritated in a yoga class, uncomfortable lying on your back and annoyed by the aromatherapy or the gong or the instructor’s voice. Maybe paying attention to your breath creates a sinkhole kind of feeling in your chest and a bad feeling that reminds you of a panic attack. 

Something that isn’t talked about enough in wellness and mental health is that these ways of doing mindfulness don’t work for all people. They especially don’t work for people who have experienced trauma or felt very alone in childhood. For those folks, it’s important to approach mindfulness differently. The body isn’t always a safe place to turn one’s attention to.

The good news is that there are ways to connect with yourself that won’t feel like too much for your nervous system. There are ways to use more stable anchors for mindfulness than your breath or your bodily sensations.  I’d love to meet with you and share some of them with you.