So, as you may know, Childhood Trauma Coaching is my latest brainchild. It’s interesting, as I’ve tried for years to “get it together” with a group for Substance Use Disorder (addiction) and Yoga. It just somehow didn’t feel like an authentic fit for me because, while I AM a yoga therapist who works with people with use disorders. I am not a person in recovery from use disorders. Needless to say, if I didn’t feel like I fit, I also wasn’t exactly successful with it either.

I’m a family member, and I identify as a family member in recovery. But it just didn’t feel TO ME like I belonged there, telling people how to get better from something I don’t really have firsthand experience with.

I’m incredibly grateful for the journey, because it’s brought me to my truth. It’s not that Everybody Did it To Me, it’s that who I was from childhood, and how I showed up, brought me into The Frequency of Trauma (Thank you Tommy Rosen, for your very insightful talks about The Frequency of Addiction), along with many others who share the same issue as I do, regardless of how we manifest it – Trauma.

I am of the belief that EVERYONE who has a use disorder has trauma in their background. That doesn’t mean that everyone with trauma has a use disorder. We each deal with our demons in our own way. Maybe one person isolates. Another person shops too much. Someone else gambles. Yet another person tries to Fix other people, whether those people want fixing or not. Our lack of comfort in our own skin and the NEED to look outside ourselves for something to make us feel
normal IS the identifying behavior.

Yes, I still go to the meetings that helped me 24+ years ago, because I haven’t outgrown them. I’m way better than I was, but I am still me, with tendencies that, left unchecked, will send me on the downward spiral that leads to anxiety, depression, isolation and despair. I still need to remember to pick up the tools that have helped me to heal or I risk creating new wounds in both myself, and in others. The root of it all, though, is the trauma. I believe that Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. C-PTSD, is an epidemic in our society.

If you or someone you know fits this profile, there IS help and hope. Yes, I work with trauma survivors as a yoga therapist and coach. I started the website Treating Trauma with Yoga and the private Facebook Group of the same name, to help others find useful tools for relief from the shame, the denial, the overwhelming isolation and sadness that accompanies those of us who walk this road.

But, I’m not the only one out there working with trauma survivors. More and more, this issue is starting to be addressed. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk started a wave or awareness with his book, The Body Keeps the Score. I know it opened up my eyes. The Crappy Childhood Fairy ( I LOVE that name!) is on Facebook and on YouTube, where Anna Runkle offers Her solutions to the problems of living with and healing from C-PTSD. Lisa Danylchuk uses yoga as well, to help people with PTSD and C-PTSD on YouTube. Her website is Y4T, or www.yogafortrauma.com I’m sure there are more that I don’t yet know. But I feel a kinship with everyone who has this history and particularly with those who found it necessary to their OWN healing path to speak out, be transparent and talk about the realities of trauma and the ways we’ve found to heal and help.

If you’re new to this idea, I recommend going to the website www.AcesTooHigh.com for more information and resources. And, if you want to talk, if I can be of service, please let me know.

In Gratitude,
Celeste Mendelsohn