Trauma, impact, and healing
What is Trauma?
According to the American Psychology Association “Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape, or natural disaster.”
Who suffers from Trauma?
In a research study of 24 countries across 6 continents researchers found that “…over 70% of respondents reported a traumatic event; 30.5% were exposed to four or more.”
Women typically suffer more trauma than men; and at earlier ages. In the United States a female is forcibly raped every 6 minutes.
More than 33% of youths exposed to community violence will experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a very severe reaction to traumatic events.
What is the impact from Trauma?
Long-term trauma symptoms occur when a person becomes overwhelmed by events or circumstances. Their response to a terrifying life experience results in intense fear, horror, and helplessness. Extreme stress overwhelms the person’s capacity to cope.
Immediately after the event, shock and denial are typical. Longer term reactions include unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, strained relationships, and even physical symptoms like headaches or nausea.
Trauma is a risk factor in nearly all behavioral health and substance use disorders. There is a direct correlation between trauma and physical health conditions such as diabetes, COPD, heart disease, cancer, and high blood pressure.
How to heal from Trauma?
There is a wide range of healing treatments empirically proven to help trauma recovery. A few evidence-based options are community support, healing circles, holistic treatments, exercise, traditional behavioral health treatment, pet therapy, and mindfulness-based practices. The social sciences and medical field continue to research what works best for varying patient populations.
Why Mindfulness Connection?
Mindfulness Connection is the result of a group of women’s passion for mindfulness-based practices’ ability to lower anxiety, increase self-trust, and create connection where a sense of belonging was once lost. We each have our own unique story how mindfulness-based yoga gave us the ability to thrive within our families, work, and communities. We want to share what has worked for us with the world.
How we approach our program development and implementation is rooted in Wendy Cook’s 20+ years of mindfulness-based yoga practices, 10+ years as a mindfulness-based yoga teacher trainer, an ability to develop evidence-based programs through an MPS from the Clinton School of Public Service, and feedback from thousands of students across the world. Our team collaborates with a commitment to active listening skills, so that we may create inclusive programs and environments that provide the safety and trust needed to reverse the impacts of trauma for individuals and their communities.
References:
American Psychology Association. (n.d.). Trauma. https://www.apa.org/topics/trauma
Benjet, C. et al. (2015, October). The epidemiology of traumatic event exposure worldwide: results from the World Mental Health Survey Consortium. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291715001981
National Council for Mental Wellbeing. (2022, August). How to manage trauma. https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Trauma-infographic.pdf