Trauma Healing Reading List

Wendell and Wild For starters, a little something to prime your system. Embedded within this movie are themes of trauma recovery and triumph over systemic oppression. There is a scene towards the end that beautifully illustrates the compassion and space required to integrate one’s trauma, and there are the goofballs Key and Peele– what more…

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The Polyvagal Theory

The Polyvagal theory as described by Dr. Stephen Porges helps us to understand our physiological responses to stress. Knowing why our bodies do what they do can be SUCH A RELIEF for our minds, which love to find meaning for the states we find ourselves in, even when those states don’t match the current environment.…

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The science of Mind over Body

Released Jan 26, 2016 Fresh Air with Terry Gross interviews Jo Marchant on topics that may be relevant to your interests. They certainly were to mine, pinging especially my trauma training and the physiology of PTSD. The blurb: “The mind has the ability to directly affect our health, from pain and depression to heart disease.…

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The Allowing Will

Some time ago the magazine of the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration® published an excerpt from Dr. Jeffrey Maitland’s book Spacious Body: Explorations in Somatic Ontology. It was a dense and chewy read by a philosopher and Rolfer, and though it took me a while to read the whole article, his ideas have resonated in…

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On Birthing

Last week I spent three days as a doula, helping a friend give birth. It was exhausting, extremely challenging, at times demoralizing, and ultimately hugely rewarding when baby finally made it out. I’m left with a loud echo in the chamber of my think tank: How do we empower without calling up shame? If I…

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