Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness

Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing

By: David A. Treleaven, Willoughby Britton - Foreword

Narrated by: Paul Brion

From elementary schools to psychotherapy offices, mindfulness meditation is an increasingly mainstream practice. At the same time, trauma remains a fact of life: The majority of us will experience a traumatic event in our lifetime, and up to 20 percent of us will develop post-traumatic stress. This means that anywhere mindfulness is being practiced, someone in the room is likely to be struggling with trauma. At first glance, this appears to be a good thing: Trauma creates stress, and mindfulness is a proven tool for reducing it. But the reality is not so simple.

Drawing on a decade of research and clinical experience, psychotherapist and educator David Treleaven shows that mindfulness meditation - practiced without an awareness of trauma - can exacerbate symptoms of traumatic stress. Instructed to pay close, sustained attention to their inner world, survivors can experience flashbacks, dissociation, and even retraumatization. This raises a crucial question for mindfulness teachers, trauma professionals, and survivors everywhere: How can we minimize the potential dangers of mindfulness for survivors while leveraging its powerful benefits?

Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness offers answers to this question. Part I provides an insightful and concise review of the histories of mindfulness and trauma, including the way modern neuroscience is shaping our understanding of both. Through grounded scholarship and wide-ranging case examples, Treleaven illustrates the ways mindfulness can help - or hinder - trauma recovery.

Part II distills these insights into five key principles for trauma-sensitive mindfulness. Covering the role of attention, arousal, relationship, dissociation, and social context within trauma-informed practice, Treleaven offers 36 specific modifications designed to support survivors' safety and stability. The result is a groundbreaking and practical approach that empowers those looking to practice mindfulness in a safe, transformative way.

©2018 David A. Treleaven (P)2018 Tantor

Excellent book for trauma survivors engaging in mindfulness

I’m a trauma survivor (multiple times over), a licensed therapist working with trauma survivors, and a meditator and mindfulness enthusiast. This book is truly a gift to helping us understand how the legacy of trauma can show up in mindfulness practices and provides concrete solutions for how to address and work with it. I’ll be bringing what I’ve learned in this book into both my personal and professional life.

Excellent professional resource

This is clearly intended for practitioners (I was actually surprised that readers would expect otherwise). As such, it is an excellent reminder of the many ways in which people experience trauma - from individual to cultural - and how mental health professionals and others who teach mindfulness can be aware of its limitations in certain situations.

Relevant! Relevant! Relevant!

For those who recognize that the perpetuation of humanities systemic trauma and abuse is probably not going to go away by itself. For those who want to become actively involved in seeing humanity live together in a peaceful, expansive joyous way. Not just cartoon fantasy but actually doing the honest work of allowing that potential to bloom in our lifetime. For those who are not afraid to wake up to what’s really happening inside themselves and around themselves. For those who are more interested in truth then disassociated fantasy. for those who just want the tools to create a safe space for their clients to engage in a mindfulness meditation practice. This book is for you! (This book was most definitely for me. Five stars all around!)

Very informative book

This is a very informative book which will help alot in Meditation Teacher training.

Great concepts and practical advice for understanding trauma and how it affects more than the brain.

This book shed light on the importance of integration of traumatic events, and how that is an additional hurdle to be overcome when dysregulation occurs. A fantastic read, full of useful insights about trauma-informed therapy and the need for trauma-informed meditation and mindfulness practices.