Processing Abortion Trauma Through Yoga
Our guest today is Sandra Maurer. Sandra is a Registered, Experienced Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance (E-RYT) through the Yoga Life Institute in Pennsylvania, Certified Birth Doula (Birth Arts International), BA in Art Therapy (Arcadia University), Trauma-Informed Yoga Trained through Center for Yoga and Trauma Recovery and Firefly Yoga International. Sandra has completed the Advanced Provider training through Postpartum Support International. Additionally, Sandra is currently completing her MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Adler Graduate School and is a therapist working with individuals and families at Mindful Families.
You can learn more at Sandra and her Terra Firma practice at their website: https://www.terrafirmampls.com or their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/terrafirmampls
In every episode of this podcast I read a blog post I’ve written and we follow up with a conversation about the topic at hand and what it means for women and their ability to thrive after abortion. Happy listening and as always feel free to send me your reflections and questions.
Show notes:
7:25
“Terra Firma helps people find their way back to safe and solid ground by tapping into the wisdom of the body.”8:17
Sandra’s introduction to her Terra Firma Partnership practice11:53
Supporting cognitive and physical connections, East meets West treatment13:42
Book reference My Grandmother’s Hands14:55
Book reference The Body Keeps the Score16:04
“When we start to work with the body in a really specific way, it allows room for healing.”17:29
Building resilience18:28
The female body and trauma19:06
“I think that any care we give to women around their health can be either a space where we create empowerment or we create trauma”20:26
The power of language in healing21:07
“Everyone’s coming into your room with something; how can I give the power back to them”21:52
Support reduces the chances of trauma showing up later in the mind and body22:46
The culture of abortion can invite trauma23:30
“For some reason babies feel like public property…”25:26
Generational and racialized trauma
28:10
Finding Trauma Informed Yoga facilitators
The post:
Most of us know the tension of a long day stored in our shoulders, the gut wrenching feeling when the phone rings in the middle of the night, the headache at the end of a day that took “all” our brain power.
Our body gives us clues. It alerts us when we’ve pushed too hard on a project deadline, or when we’ve put other people’s needs too far ahead of our own. If you’ve ever found yourself saying “I’m sick and tired of ___.” Then you know the feeling of crossing that line from mental exhaustion or trauma into physical manifestation of dis-ease.
My very limited knowledge of Traditional Chinese Medicine taught me enough to know that some of the most common emotions women feel after abortion have a clear and direct connection to the body. For women who have given ample time and space to explore their post abortion emotions, it’s unlikely that the event will manifest into physical symptoms, but for the numbers of women who have deep and lingering feelings regarding their past experience, here are five possible connections between abortion and the physical body.
Study of the mind body connection teaches us that if left unaddressed, WORRY can reveal itself through the spleen. This may arise for women who find themselves dwelling or focusing significant amounts of time thinking about, or hiding, their abortion. If worry is weighing you down you may find yourself tired, lacking appetite, struggling with digestion, experiencing weak muscles, having pale lips, bruising, or heavy menstrual blood flow.
Research also shows us that the lungs are one of the organs that hold on to GRIEF and DETACHMENT. If grief, sadness, or detachment are affecting your daily life after abortion you may find yourself with dry skin, frequent colds, allergies, lung conditions, or depression that lands you struggling to function on a daily basis.
Another organ affected by our feelings is the liver. Anger, resentment, irritability, and frustration reside in the liver. If these are feelings you continue to have after abortion you may experience breast enlargement, menstrual pain, headaches, dizziness, irritated eyes, or tendonitis.
It might not surprise many that abortion can also influence the heart. Emotionally it may look like lack of enthusiasm and vitality, despair, or depression, or apathy. Unresolved emotions in the heart can manifest as insomnia, irregular heartbeats, excessive dreaming, poor long term memory, and psychological disorders.
For our purposes here, the last emotions I’d like to look at are related to the kidneys. They include fear, insecurity, isolation, and weakened willpower. The kidneys are our most life-sustaining organ and symptoms of unresolved emotion may express as frequent urination or infection, night sweats, poor short term memory, lower back pain, conditions related to the ears, premature graying hair or hair loss, or bone conditions.
