Over the past 11 years, while working as a Child & Family Therapist, and specializing in supporting individuals and families who have experienced trauma, I have also been teaching about mindfulness. But it wasn’t until +/- 3.5 years ago, when I began my own Kindfulness journey, that I became really curious about mindfulness as a tool for self-healing.

At first glance, mindfulness seems like the perfect tool to work through issues of grief and trauma, since mindfulness, like grief and trauma, is rooted in embodiment. Furthermore, while trauma activates our stress response, mindfulness effectively has been shown to reduce or eliminate it. So, it would seem perfectly reasonable that anyone seeking to overcome and heal from grief and trauma would benefit from practicing mindfulness meditation. Right?

Well, maybe, but maybe not. For some individuals who have experienced trauma, mindfulness can actually exacerbate symptoms of traumatic stress. In my work with survivors, I have met individuals who, despite their best intentions and efforts, ended up feeling more distressed and overwhelmed after practising mindfulness. This is because asking someone who has experienced trauma to focus on their internal experience is akin to inviting them to sustain attention on potentially traumatic stimuli—thoughts, images, memories, and physical sensations that may relate to a traumatic experience. This can trigger flashbacks, heighten emotional arousal, aggravate and intensify symptoms of traumatic stress and even lead to re-traumatization. Other potential risks of mindfulness for trauma survivors include psychological dissociation, depersonalization and the spontaneous surfacing of painful repressed memories. While mindfulness doesn’t cause trauma it can certainly uncover it, thereby situating survivors directly in the experiences that traumatized them—which may require more than mindful awareness to heal from.

That said, mindfulness can also be a valuable tool for overcoming the symptoms of trauma and becoming more resilient. By enhancing present-moment awareness, increasing self-compassion, and strengthening one’s ability to self-regulate, mindfulness can enable us to develop critical skills that support trauma recovery. Mindfulness practices have also been found to greatly decrease the frequency, intensity and duration of trauma symptoms.

While most trauma survivors respond favourably to mindfulness, some do unintentionally experience discomfort pain, so knowing how to modify one’s practise can help to ensure that those seeking to heal from their pain are not re-traumatizing themselves in practice.

Therefore, the question for those of us who teach and utilize mindfulness in our work is how we can help minimize the potential dangers of mindfulness for trauma survivors while simultaneously leveraging its potential benefits.

I have found, through research, literature reviews and my own experience, that it is possible to approach mindfulness, including mindfulness meditation, in a manner that is trauma-informed. This not only requires having an understanding of trauma in the context of one’s work (i.e. recognizing trauma symptoms and responding to them skillfully, taking precautions to ensure that individuals are not being re-traumatized under our guidance, inquiring with individuals about a comfortable sitting distance), but also providing ample options about how to practice mindfulness, encouraging breaks and teaching about how to anchor attention (i.e. breath, mantras, bodily sensations, sounds).

One particular strategy that I have found to work very well for many of the clients I have worked with, young and not-so-young, is to start off by practising informal mindfulness (read this Blog Post for more information on Informal VS. Formal Mindfulness). Interestingly enough, my own practise began with incorporating informal mindfulness practises into my life~ wether it was deep breathing while washing my hands, noticing the physical sensations of washing dishes, walking or folding laundry, mindful sensing while waiting in line…etc.. Once I became aware of how these practises were positively impacting my mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well-being, it was far much easier for me to allocate time in my schedule for more formal practises, such as sitting meditation and mindful movement (i.e. yoga). 

The combination of formal and informal practises is still very much how I prefer to engage in Mindfulness, because it ensures I can practise as much as possible (including when I need it most!), be flexible with my practise as well as practise in a myriad of ways. I also hear from many trauma survivors that I have worked with that information methods allow them to achieve all of the above, in addition to being perceived as less threatening to their nervous systems. For this reason, they are able to sustain their practises and for many, their practise only ever includes informal methods.

By practicing mindfulness, even if only informal methods, survivors of trauma can become empowered to (re-)position themselves in present moment awareness. Trauma and presence (or mindful awareness) cannot coexist, therefore mindfulness practice can help bring trauma victims back to the present and heal from disturbing past events. A traumatized brain is the opposite of a mindful one—whereas trauma has the power to pull us back into the past, mindfulness can help to thrust us back into the present moment, which is the only place we can feel joy, calm, and at peace.

If you would like to learn more about how a colleague and friend of mine, Carm of Girls Gotta Heal, used Mindfulness in her personal journey of healing, please check out her inspiring story here