Trauma-Informed Bodywork: A Professional's Guide to Somatic Awareness, Movement Techniques, and Nervous System Regulation

A vital framework for understanding embodied trauma and helping clients heal—a trauma-informed guide for somatic practitioners, movement therapists, bodyworkers, and personal trainers

Guided by the principle that if trauma happens to the body, healing happens through the body, Trauma-Informed Bodywork offers an inclusive, consent-driven, and mutually empowering approach to trauma-informed healing.

Authors Chelsea Haverly and Emily Young explain how trauma is stored in the body—and how this makes movement-based practices an essential tool for trauma recovery. Haverly and Young cover key concepts—like complex trauma, vicarious trauma, body-related trauma, and nervous system regulation—and explore how they present when working with clients.

Haverly and Young walk you step-by-step through insightful guidance on
topics like:

• What movement professionals need to know about trauma and nervous system dysregulation: different kinds of trauma, how they’re experienced, and how they show up in the body
• Embodiment in the face of stress: how trauma disrupts our ability to inhabit our bodies—and how movement can facilitate healing and release
• Letting the body lead: a practical guide for implementing trauma-informed personal training (TI-PT) principles
• How to facilitate coregulation with clients, nurture a “brave space,” expand clients’ windows of tolerance, and offer support through somatic releases
• Trauma-informed business frameworks: decolonial, whole-heart principles for values-driven, person-first care
• What’s next: practical guidance for applying and embodying the work

Chelsea Haverly is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW-C) and the creator/founder of Hope Ignited Training, an organization dedicated to educating and providing training to other organizations and professionals about trauma-informed practices. Haverly also works and co-owns Anchored Hope Therapy, a collaborative trauma-specific therapy practice in her community. Her areas of expertise include, survivors of commercial sexual exploitation (children and adults), adolescent & adult survivors of physical, sexual, emotional abuse, and neglect, somatization of trauma, brain-based psychotherapy for trauma, trauma bonding, betrayal trauma, self-injurious behaviors/harm reduction, depression and anxiety, dissociative disorders, vicarious traumatization, professional burnout, and first responder support.

Emily Young is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW-C) and a Certified Personal Trainer (NSCA-CPT). Emily majored in Public Health at the University of Maryland, College Park and then graduated with her Masters in Social Work from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Emilly’s career both clinically and within the personal training field has focused on integrating trauma-informed embodied interventions with her clients. She is a co-creator and the lead presenter of the Trauma-Informed Personal Training (TI-PT) Certification program through Hope Ignited Training.