For many people living with trauma, traditional exercise routines can feel overwhelming, disconnected, or even triggering. While movement has long been promoted as a tool for mental and emotional health, not all forms of movement are created equal, especially when trauma is involved.
This is where trauma-informed movement comes in. Rooted in safety, choice, and nervous system awareness, trauma-informed practices offer a powerful and accessible path toward healing. They're not just about fitness, they're about reconnecting with your body in a way that feels safe, supportive, and empowering.
What Is Trauma-Informed Movement?
Trauma-informed movement is an approach to physical activity that takes into account how trauma affects the body and mind. It prioritizes:
* Safety over intensity
* Internal awareness over performance
* Choice over command
* Connection over correction
Rather than forcing movement through discomfort or pain, trauma-informed sessions invite participants to move at their own pace, listen to their body, and make choices moment-to-moment. This is especially important for people with a history of trauma, whose nervous systems may be in a constant state of fight, flight, freeze, or fawn.
Why Traditional Fitness Can Be Harmful After Trauma
Conventional fitness programs often rely on external cues, “push through,” “no pain, no gain,” “go harder.” For someone healing from trauma, this can recreate patterns of disassociation, hypervigilance, or body distrust.
Trauma affects the nervous system, often making it difficult to feel safe inside the body. Without a sense of agency or bodily autonomy, high-intensity or rigid exercise can reinforce trauma rather than release it.
Trauma-informed movement instead supports regulation, presence, and healing. It's about helping the body feel safe again, not punishing it for what it's been through.
How Somatic Practices Fit In
Somatic exercise is a foundational piece of trauma-informed movement. It uses gentle, mindful, and often floor-based movements to calm the nervous system, release stored tension, and retrain the brain-body connection.
These practices are slow by design, encouraging interoception (inner awareness) and allowing space for emotional processing. Somatic movement helps integrate trauma by teaching the body that movement can be safe, soothing, and non-threatening.
The Workout Witch and Trauma-Informed Movement
One well-known resource in the trauma-informed movement space is The Workout Witch, a somatic-based platform created by Liz Tenuto. Unlike typical fitness programs, The Workout Witch offers slow, body-led sessions designed specifically to regulate the nervous system and release trauma held in the muscles, fascia, and breath.
The program is grounded in consent, compassion, and choice — three core principles of trauma-informed care. Whether you're managing chronic stress, anxiety, or the lingering effects of trauma, this approach is designed to help you come back home to your body.
Reading through the workout witch reviews, it's clear that this isn't just another fitness trend. One user shared, “For the first time, I felt like someone understood how my body reacts to stress.” Another wrote, “I always felt like workouts were punishing. The Workout Witch showed me that movement could actually feel nurturing and healing.”
When people say these sessions helped them sleep better, release emotion, or finally feel calm after years of chaos, they're describing what trauma-informed movement is all about.
Who Is It For?
Trauma-informed movement is beneficial for:
* Trauma survivors
* People with anxiety or panic disorders
* Individuals recovering from chronic stress or burnout
* Anyone who feels disconnected from their body
* Those new to movement and nervous about injury or pressure
It's also ideal for those who've felt excluded or judged in traditional fitness spaces. In trauma-informed classes, there is no “right” way to move, only your way.
Final Thoughts
Movement can be medicine — but only when it's done in a way that honors your history, your nervous system, and your current needs. Trauma-informed movement offers a compassionate and powerful path to reconnect with your body and restore a sense of control, safety, and inner peace.
For those looking to begin this journey, The Workout Witch provides a trauma-aware, somatically guided space to start. And based on the volume of positive the workout witch reviews, it's clear that this kind of movement is changing lives, one safe, slow breath at a time.
