Episode 61: What It Takes to Safely Guide Another Through Trauma Work with Licia Sky

Listen to Episode 61 with Licia Sky →

When You Can't Lead Where You Haven't Been

You want to help others heal from trauma because you understand their pain. You've learned techniques and studied approaches for trauma treatment. But something feels missing when you try to guide others through processes that still trigger your own unresolved trauma.

What if the most important qualification for guiding trauma work isn't what you know but who you are in your body?

Guiding someone through trauma work requires specific qualities in you first before you can safely hold space for another person's healing. You can't lead others where you haven't gone yourself in embodiment and regulation.

Licia Sky joins me today as an artist, singer-songwriter, and bodyworker who works with traumatized individuals. She trains mental health professionals in Embodied Self Experience using movement, theater, writing, and voice work. We discuss what you need within yourself to safely guide trauma healing whether for yourself or for others.

Understanding Embodiment

How do you need to be internally to safely guide yourself or another through trauma healing? This question isn't about techniques you've learned or credentials you've earned. It's about your own embodiment and regulated presence that allows you to hold space for difficult emotional territory.

Being embodied means living in your body rather than just occupying it. Feeling your sensations moment by moment. Staying present with what arises internally without dissociating or shutting down. Most people live disconnected from their bodies as a protection from uncomfortable feelings or trauma they haven't processed. Embodiment changes that disconnection by bringing awareness back into the body.

Specific emotions support embodiment work while others block your capacity to stay present. Licia explains which emotions create the foundation for staying present in your body during difficult work. Curiosity, compassion, and groundedness support embodiment. Shame, judgment, and urgency block your ability to remain connected to bodily sensations and present-moment experience.

Understanding the Biology of Trauma® reveals why embodiment matters so much for trauma healing work. Trauma lives in your body as stored activation, collapsed energy, and dysregulated nervous system patterns. You can't heal trauma by thinking about it or talking about it alone. You must access the body where trauma is held and create conditions for that stored energy to release and repattern.

Becoming a Regulated Guide

If you guide others through trauma work, you must embody enough regulation yourself to hold space for their dysregulation. You don't need to be perfect or completely healed from all your own trauma. But you need to be regulated enough that another person's activation doesn't trigger your own unprocessed material in ways that compromise their safety.

Becoming a strong leader in trauma work means doing your own healing work consistently. This isn't optional or something you can skip because you have professional training. Your clients' or students' nervous systems will sense your level of embodiment and regulation through neuroception. They can't feel safe with you if your own nervous system is dysregulated or reactive.

Licia uses specific tools in her Embodied Self Experience approach including movement practices, theater exercises, writing prompts, and voice work. These modalities help people access their bodies when talk therapy alone keeps them in their heads. They create attunement between mind and body. They build connection to sensations that trauma survivors often avoid or can't feel.

Attunement in the healing journey means sensing what's happening in another person's nervous system through your own embodied awareness. You can't manufacture this capacity through learning techniques. It comes from your own embodiment work that develops your ability to sense subtle shifts in activation, shutdown, or regulation in yourself and others.

Creating Safety Through Presence

Trust must exist between guide and person healing for trauma work to proceed safely. Without that trust, the nervous system won't feel safe enough to access vulnerable material or release protective patterns. Your embodied presence creates that trust more than your words or credentials ever could.

Many mental health professionals work primarily from their heads rather than from their bodies. They've been trained in cognitive approaches that don't require embodiment. Licia trains these professionals to embody their work so they can guide from regulated presence rather than just intellectual understanding.

Training mental health professionals in embodiment challenges many assumptions about what makes someone qualified to do trauma work. Academic degrees and clinical licenses matter for legal and ethical practice. But they don't automatically confer the embodied presence that trauma healing requires. Therapists need their own embodiment training to work with trauma effectively.

The qualities you need within yourself to guide trauma work include your own nervous system regulation that allows you to stay present with activation. Your embodiment that lets you sense what's happening beneath words. Your capacity to hold space without needing to fix or rescue. Your willingness to sit with difficult emotions without rushing to resolution.

The Path to Embodied Leadership

Understanding what it takes to safely guide trauma work changes how you approach your own healing and your professional development. You recognize that continuing education in techniques isn't enough without ongoing work on your own embodiment and regulation. You prioritize your personal healing as essential preparation for holding space for others.

Licia's work demonstrates that effective trauma healing requires guides who have done their own embodiment work deeply. You can't shortcut this process by learning more techniques or accumulating more training hours. Your clients need you to be regulated and embodied more than they need you to know the latest trauma treatment approach.

The integration of arts-based modalities that Licia brings to trauma work addresses something that talk therapy often misses. Movement, voice, theater, and writing access the body and nervous system directly. They create pathways for expression and release that words alone can't reach. This embodied approach aligns with the Biology of Trauma® understanding that healing happens through the body.

For practitioners guiding others, this episode offers an essential perspective on what really matters in trauma work. Your presence and embodiment create safety that allows healing to happen. Your techniques and knowledge support that process but can't substitute for your regulated nervous system and embodied awareness.

For individuals navigating their own healing, understanding these principles helps you recognize what to look for in practitioners who guide you. You need someone who can hold space from their own embodiment rather than just offering techniques or advice. You need a guide who has traveled the path of their own healing and can stay present with yours.

This Episode Is For:

✓ Practitioners guiding others through trauma work 

✓ Anyone wanting to safely navigate their own healing journey 

✓ Mental health professionals seeking embodiment-based training 

✓ Those questioning whether they're ready to hold space for others 

✓ Therapists recognizing they work too much from their heads 

✓ Anyone interested in arts-based approaches to trauma healing

What You'll Learn

Listen to understand what qualities you need within yourself to safely guide trauma healing and why embodiment comes before technique in this work. Discover how movement, voice, theater, and writing support embodied healing. Learn what makes someone qualified to hold space beyond credentials and training.

Your embodied presence matters more than your techniques when guiding trauma healing.

Listen to Episode 61 with Licia Sky →

Disclaimer

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The information shared reflects my clinical expertise and research, but every person's biology and healing journey is unique. Always consult with qualified healthcare providers before making changes to your treatment plan or starting new interventions. If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact emergency services or a crisis helpline immediately.

Join the Conversation

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode. What resonated with you? What questions came up?

Please keep comments respectful and supportive. This is a community of people committed to healing. We welcome diverse perspectives and honest questions, but we don't tolerate personal attacks, spam, or content that could harm others on their healing journey.