What Is TIPT?
Trauma-Informed Personal Training serves people differently than traditional training in two major ways:
It skillfully applies movement and exercise in support of healing nervous systems dis-regulated by past trauma.
It seeks to undo the harm done by the traditional fitness industry.
As a trauma-informed trainer, I go out of my way to establish safety, support bodily autonomy, recognize individual agency, and partner with my clients in their training practice. For clients who want to focus on trauma healing, we spend more time with embodied movement, to fully feel and activate muscular activity with greater intention and control. We also use movement to recognize the activation of our nervous system while increasing skill in nervous system regulation. Over time, this approach helps people to expand their ‘window of tolerance’ and apply these gains to life outside of exercise.
The myriad ways that the health and fitness industry has caused harm are beyond the scope of one blog post to fully identify. For starters, it has perpetuated unrealistic beauty standards, equated ‘thin’ with ‘healthy,’ perpetuated all manner of dieting and supplement schemes, and created fitness environments that are outright hostile to many bodies. The fitness industry has also been expensive, creating economic barriers as well as social barriers to inclusion.
For folks whose bodies are caught up in perpetual flight/fight/freeze cycles, who have struggled to move or found exercise to be triggering, TIPT can help! For folks who want to be healthy but have had bad experiences in gyms and/or with traditional trainers and need a trainer who will not use shame, or touch without asking, or talk down to them, or otherwise perpetuate past harms, TIPT can help!
So how does this actually look in a training session, you might ask?
I will work with you to determine which elements of TIPT are desirable for you. We may do some movements more slowly in order to facilitate deeper mind-body connection. While we monitor exercise intensity, as in traditional training, we will also monitor nervous system activation. We will consciously connect elements of physical fitness with mental and emotional fitness, using movement to strengthen the whole person. Workouts may shift to accommodate how your body is feeling at the time. Every aspect of personal training is accomplished through the values and intentions of trauma-informed practice.
A disclaimer…
TIPT is not a substitute for other forms of trauma treatment, such as skilled therapy. I will never ask you to talk about your trauma history, and will not use personal training time for trauma processing. TIPT is an excellent additional support for healing from trauma, but is not intended to be exclusive or universally effective on its own.