Embodiment Practices for Healing Trauma
How much can I feel?
“When we experience trauma, whether shock trauma (too much too fast) or developmental trauma (too little too long), it is common to disassociate. The healing process begins with reconnecting to the body and courageously experiencing all that we reject and hold inside. Tina Nance, a yin yoga and yoga therapy teacher in Bali, is a true master of the art of cultivating interoception (the internal felt sense of the body) and meeting her edge with mindfulness and compassion. Two years ago I trained as a yin yoga teacher with Tina at Yoga Barn in Ubud and it is an honor to share her wisdom with you today.
Our wide-ranging conversation on healing trauma weaves through Tina’s journey and my own. We talk through attachment theory, PTSD, yin yoga, Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, and above all radical compassion. Along the way we explore yin and yang, a mystical perspective on menstruation, and a menagerie of wisdom teachers. Finally we rest with how personal healing leads to service and how we can work with trauma during a time of global isolation.
A student of Yin Yoga founder Sara Powers, Tina Nance has been teaching yoga and women's work globally since 2001. Tina’s current focus is embodied somatic trauma integration. She teaches in Ubud, Bali.
They say you have to feel it to heal it, but with the right embodiment practices, the healing journey can be a sacred and joyful dance.”
—Eamon Armstrong (https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/tina-nance)
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Timestamps:
:09 - From Shiatsu message to meeting the founders of yin yoga in Taiwan, Tina explores the mind body connection
:17 - Yin and Yang and how the pandemic creates a yin experience
:24 - The menstrual cycle dipping into the underworld
:35 - Attachment theory and Eamon’s attachment wound
:40 - Tina’s personal experience with trauma and the difference between PTSD and CPTSD
:47 - Using the Internal Family Systems model for healing
:54 - How to help our internal drill sergeant evolve through radical compassion
1:05 - Big Ts, Little Ts and the twin wings of equanimity and compassion
1:10 - Yin Yoga and somatic experiencing
1:17 - Depression, anxiety and other aspects of mental health
1:21 - When does the personal healing journey become self indulgent?
1:31 - What practices can we use for dealing with trauma in the era of shelter-in-place?