According to Bessel van der Kolk, MD, trauma treatment pioneer and bestselling author of The Body Keeps the Score (https://www.besselvanderkolk.com/resources/the-body-keeps-the-score), research shows that when it comes to trauma, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

For some people, working with bilateral stimulation to desensitize traumatic memories through Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) (https://villakalima.com/sustainable-recovery/emdr-therapy/) will be the most expedient way to bring a problematic trauma narrative to its end.

When the time comes to heal deep attachment wounding, on the other hand, it may be more powerful to work on restoring inner relationships between burdened parts and the Self, through Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/internal-family-systems-therapy). During phases when stabilization are front and center (https://traumapractice.net/tri-phasic-model), learning to shift polyvagal states (https://themovementparadigm.com/how-to-map-your-own-nervous-sytem-the-polyvagal-theory/) or regulate arousal through breath, posture, and movement may be the most direct path to feeling better.

Trauma treatment means addressing multiple distinct systems of a person’s being. At the very least, trauma treatment will need to address the role of thoughts, physiology (the brain, nervous system, and other vital systems), emotions, and behaviors (including substance use).

Holistic Trauma Healing: A Whole-Person Approach to Recovery

At Villa Kali Ma, we also consider the role of spirituality, creativity, and nature. We look at intra-psychic (inner dynamics and relationship to Self), interpersonal (relationship with others), and transpersonal pieces (relationship to God/Source/Universe/Divine) too, when relevant for a woman’s journey.

Each of these systems may respond differently to different treatment approaches, and have different needs. Within any category, many wonderful treatment modalities can serve. Working with the body alone, we consider nutrition, exercise, mindfulness, somatic experiencing, massage, yoga, reiki, acupuncture, ecotherapy…and more!

The purpose of a holistic approach to trauma healing is to integrate. Integrative practitioners take interventions from many healing systems and use them sensitively. At Villa Kali Ma, we aim to adapt mindsets and models to serve the live unfolding healing process, rather than to expect any woman to fit into a pre-existing protocol.

Integrating Mindfulness, Movement, and Meaning

Trauma affects the body in a specific way: it restricts movement. Not only the big, expressive, playful movement we see children and animals, but also the natural fluid flow of aliveness that all bodies have. Even in stillness, bodies are movement, according to Somatic Therapist Manuela Mischke-Reeds (https://embodywise.com/isitta-resources/), author of Trauma-Sensitive Movement: 96 Somatic Techniques to Support Nervous System Regulation and Embodied Transformation in Therapy (https://www.amazon.com/Trauma-Sensitive-Movement-Techniques-Regulation-Transformation/dp/168373811X). Trauma forces movement into rigid, repetitive conditions, that create pain and hold emotion back from resolution.

Trauma also affects the meaning that we make of our experiences in the now. This happens as we are forced to carry extreme beliefs, which are false conclusions about the self and the world. The meaning trauma compels us towards is distorted, overgeneralized, and self-centered. We believe not only that the world isn’t safe, that bad things can happen at any time, but also that we ourselves, in our worthlessness or inadequacy, are to blame for what happened.

What trauma does to our cognition and to our body is reflected in our attention. Rather than being able to flow our attention freely and organically, our attention gets burdened, stuck, and dysfunctional. We lose capacity to be openly mindful, receptive, exploratory. With our attention hijacked by strategies meant to protect us from re-experiencing unresolved trauma, the benefits of the alpha brainwave flow state (https://www.mindfulnessstrategies.com/blog/how-are-mindfulness-and-flow-state-connected) are unavailable to us.

The path of healing holistically from trauma removes trauma’s blockages and burdens. Trauma healing takes constraints away, permitting us to slip back into free-flowing movement, meaning, and mindfulness. Rather than efforting, we come to rely on what naturally and organically emerges from our aliveness. Holistic trauma healing approaches all work with how attention, movement, and meaning can be restored back to health.

Evidence-Based Practices for Mind-Body Healing

At Villa Kali Ma, we use many evidence-based practices (https://www.naatp.org/addiction-treatment-resources/treatment-methods) to help women find recovery.

The key clinical modalities we use are generally considered to be gold-standard approaches for healing trauma and addiction. Evidence-based modalities we offer include:

Individual, family, and group psychotherapy

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)

Experiential therapies (Expressive Arts Therapy, Equine Therapy, and Ecotherapy) Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Motivational Interviewing (MI)

Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS)

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

12 Step

and more!

In addition to those clinical approaches, we use holistic treatment approaches, some of which stand out in the literature as being especially supported by evidence.

The ancient Indian healing system of yoga is widely acknowledged and accepted as having an important role to play in clinical applications at this point. Randomized control trials and other formal studies have helped remaining skeptics over the hump (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3156498/).

The practices and principles of yoga inform all of our programs. We love yoga, not only as a form of exercise, but for its salubrious effects on the nervous system and its natural enhancement of mindfulness. Yoga alone is an admirably comprehensive path to wholeness.

In addition to yoga, we incorporate mindfulness-based approaches into all of our offerings. In particular, we love Kristin Neff and her Mindfulness and Self Compassion program (https://self-compassion.org/self-compassion-practices/#guided-practices). Mindfulness-based approaches have benefited from a fair number of formalized studies, which we appreciate for the extra scientific verification of what we experience in ourselves and in our clients: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/?term=mindfulness.

Explore Holistic Trauma Treatment at Villa Kali Ma

Villa Kali Ma has a dedicated residential trauma treatment program, the Retreat (https://villakalima.com/residential-trauma-treatment/), for those women among us who need trauma treatment primarily. Our residential addiction treatment program, the Villa (https://villakalima.com/the-villa/), helps women who also have substance use disorders recover from their trauma holistically. We offer holistic treatment in our intensive outpatient treatment program (https://villakalima.com/intensive-outpatient-program-for-women/), as well.

The essence of holistic trauma recovery is a focus on wholeness. When wholeness is recognized to underlie all symptoms, no matter how severe, distorted or destructive those symptoms seem to be, we get much further. When trauma-generated burdens, beliefs, and behaviors are given the opportunity to resolve out of the body, mind, emotions, and energetic field, women bounce back into a natural state of wholeness on their own.

Are you curious to find out if this could be true for you, too? We believe that it could be. Whatever you decide, and whatever your journey back to wholeness,  we wish you the very best! You can do it!