Trauma-Informed Training - by Chelsea Haverly & Emily Young (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A vital new guide to trauma-informed exercise--yoga, strength-training, and more--for trainers and fitness pros to foster safer workouts and build empowering fitness communities

As much as we talk about the mind-body connection, we seldom consider how certain workout movements can trigger past traumas--pushing us back into a state of vulnerability at the exact times we want to be (and, sometimes, need to be) strong. Our brains mean well: They're trying to protect us. And so do our trainers: They're trying to empower us. But when we encounter these exercises, it can be shocking, painful, or demoralizing--and they can prevent us from becoming as healthy as we can be.

For more than seven years, Chelsea Haverly and Emily Young have been teaching trainers about the impact that a client's trauma history can have on their workout performance and how to build sessions that accommodate people's psychology and past experiences.

In Letting the Body Lead, the two authors apply their expertise in therapy, fitness, and social work to a vital new guidebook that helps people heal through movement.

In particular, the book introduces us to two psychological states associated with trauma--hyperarousal and hypoarousal. Haverly and Young explain how each may be embodied in our nervous systems and, finally, how awareness of them can be incorporated into exercises. For example: While some people may need to move fast, others may need to move slow--and should not be shamed for it.

At the very worst, when we don't understand what people need and why, we risk harming them--either physically or psychologically. Letting the Body Lead shows us that fully understanding all of what people walk into the gym with--body and mind--and tailoring their exercise regimens to that knowledge is the best way to help people become their strongest selves.

About the Author

Chelsea Haverly is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW-C) and the creator/founder of Hope Ignited Training, an organization dedicated to educating and providing training to other organizations and professionals about trauma-informed practices. Haverly also works and co-owns Anchored Hope Therapy, a collaborative trauma-specific therapy practice in her community. Her areas of expertise include, survivors of commercial sexual exploitation (children and adults), adolescent & adult survivors of physical, sexual, emotional abuse, and neglect, somatization of trauma, brain-based psychotherapy for trauma, trauma bonding, betrayal trauma, self-injurious behaviors/harm reduction, depression and anxiety, dissociative disorders, vicarious traumatization, professional burnout, and first responder support.

Emily Young is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW-C) and a Certified Personal Trainer (NSCA-CPT). Emily majored in Public Health at the University of Maryland, College Park and then graduated with her Masters in Social Work from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Emilly's career both clinically and within the personal training field has focused on integrating trauma-informed embodied interventions with her clients. She is a co-creator and the lead presenter of the Trauma-Informed Personal Training (TI-PT) Certification program through Hope Ignited Training.