Episode 8 - Taking a Trauma Informed Approach with Beth Sandlin
By Jessica Garrison
If you’ve tuned into our radio show before, then this guest may sound a little familiar. Beth Sandlin was featured before on our radio show episode, The Role of Safety (Emotional, Physical, Mental) in Embracing our Layers. Beth is a hilarious, fun, light, and adaptable woman who likes to meet people where they’re at. Although you got a little glimpse of her in the radio show, this episode allows us to further explore her work and comprehend more from her experiences.
Beth has been a pilates teacher for 20 years, and she uses this connection between her mind and body to support other women in their journeys to do the same. With an understanding of the nervous system, she is more intune with its cycles and is able to pick up on clues to help clients. She even exchanged the pilates studio she worked at for a university setting so she could reach more people with her work on the mind and body.
You can start with slowly moving the body and feeling that close connection for yourself. Beth says she doesn’t follow social media trends with her pilates classes because it’s a constant moving target, and just because it’s mainstream doesn’t mean it’s beneficial. However, the effects of simply moving the body never goes out of style, and she is proving that to people day after day.
Beth’s pilates techniques are trauma informed, allowing her clients to work out what’s going on internally and moving that through their body rather than keeping it trapped in one spot to grow tense. Beth and Melissa discuss the spectrum of trauma, which is a different idea than what we usually think of when it comes to trauma. Sometimes a trauma in your body is more intense or prevalent than another, but that doesn’t mean it should be ignored or go untreated.
There isn’t a one size fits all solution when it comes to your mental health or even your physical health—it’s all about finding the right balance. You can find our radio show episode that features Beth on our Substack page along with a few other guests with like-minded thoughts on the connections between our physical, mental, and emotional health. Beth says there is no “right” path all the time but rather what is right for you right now. Although we have to take our own journey to find empowerment and embrace our layers, there is still a great community surrounding you that wants to see you succeed.
Ways to Engage: Are there unprocessed traumas in your body you’ve thought about lately? Take the time to work your body through the trauma, work your mind through it, and process what you need to in order to heal properly.