If you landed here and you haven’t listened to the episode “Reclaiming My Body: A Personal Journal About Trauma, you should listen to the episode first. Have no fear; I’ve conveniently placed it below for you to listen to. 

As a follow-up to the episode, I’ve included some resources referenced in the episode and other helpful tools for the process of reclaiming your physical being. 

Insight Timer

Insight Timer is a website/mobile app I’ve used for myself and with therapy clients for guided meditations. That way, I didn’t have to find a soothing yogi voice within that I knew I didn’t have. There’s a range of meditations, soundscapes, etc., available. Insight Timer is free to use. Here are some specific meditations I’ve used in past sessions:

• Smiling Meditation, 4:49. A short but transformative 5-minute practice that will tap you into good feelings and positive vibes. How? By smiling! This quick practice will have you smiling, beaming, and radiating joy in just a few minutes.

• Stomach Relaxation, 4:42. Along with the shoulders and neck, the stomach is where most people feel stress, nerves, and anxiety. This relaxation allows you to focus on releasing the stomach muscles. Suitable for anyone regardless of previous experience.

• Trauma Sensitive 54321 Grounding Exercise, 8:31. This is a simple mindfulness exercise designed to use the five senses to help you ground into the present moment. It can be used at any time that you would like to feel more present and can also be helpful for moments when you feel overwhelmed with emotion. This exercise may also be useful for those that experience traumatic stress responses such as intrusive memories and minor dissociation. The language in this exercise is designed to be trauma-sensitive.

Learn More About Trauma

• My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of our Bodies and Hearts – This book discusses trauma residing in the body, with the added lens of the particular harm inflicted by American racism. “This book paves the way for a new, body-centered understanding of white supremacy – how it is literally in our blood and our nervous system.” – Goodreads.

• What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma – This one has been recommended a few times after discussing my likelihood of having C-PTSD. From the description on Goodreads: “She returns to her hometown of San Jose, California, to investigate the effects of immigrant trauma on the community, and she uncovers family secrets in the country of her birth, Malaysia, to learn how trauma can be inherited through generations.

• It Didn’t Start With You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle – “…Memory and feelings can live on. These emotional legacies are often hidden, encoded in everything from gene expression to everyday language, and they play a far greater role in our emotional and physical health than has ever been understood.” – Goodreads.

It Might Be Time for (Trauma) Therapy

At the end of the day, some of this work must be done in therapy. Need to find a therapist? I recommend Alma. Not only does it generate a therapist directory, but you can also search according to the type of therapy you’re looking for and the type of mental health professional, and you’re able to insert your insurance information to get a pretty accurate estimate of what your co-pays would be before you even reach out to the therapist. You can also book free consultations directly through the site. I’ve found almost all the therapists I’ve contacted there to be very responsive. 

Of course, if you have any questions about starting therapy (Not with me, of course, lol), feel free to Contact Me, and I’m more than willing to chat with you about what to look for.

Do you have any resources you want to share regarding body reclamation from the effects of trauma? Feel free to leave a comment below.