Body Scanning: Meditative Healing Practice

By Holly Madden

This 20 minute embodiment practice goes through the practice of body scanning. Starting with orienting to the room, it checks in with major parts of the body to tend to tension, pain, and extend gratitude to the miracle that is our body.

Trauma Training Takeaway: For many who have a history of trauma, especially trauma to their bodies like sexual assault or physical violence, checking in/coming back into the body can feel really uncomfortable as a symptom of trauma is disassociation. Disassociation is defined by Psychotherapist, Dr. Peter A. Levine, as “one of the most classic and subtle symptoms of trauma…in it’s mildest forms, it manifests as a kind of spaciness. At the other end of the spectrum, it can develop into a so-called multiple personality syndrome. Because disassociation is a breakdown in the continuity of a person’s felt sense, it almost always includes distortions of time and perception"(1). Honor the struggle to come back into your body. Honor the trauma that has been experienced. If embodiment work brings up a lot of dysregulation, anxiety, or memories, pursue professional therapeutic help that works for you.

(1)Levine, Peter A., and Ann Frederick. Walking the tiger healing trauma: The innate capacity to transform overwhelming experiences. Berkeley, Calif: North Atlantic Books, 1997.