TRAUMA INFORMED WEIGHT LIFTING WAS FOUNDED TO HELP PEOPLE WHO'VE EXPERIENCED TRAUMA HEALÂ AND BUILDÂ RESILIENCE.
Call To Action
WE ARE:
A healing co-operative focused on researching the healing potential of weight lifting for trauma-impacted adolescents and adults, and training coaches and personal trainers to take a trauma informed and healing centered approach to their work with athletes and clients.Â
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TRAUMA INFORMED WEIGHT LIFTING IS:
An embodied practice and intervention that is informed by the latest in neuroscience and trauma research. It seeks to transform weight lifting in an effort to both promote and facilitate healing for trauma-impacted individuals and groups.Â
Weight lifting, when approached in a trauma-informed manner, aims to foster resilience, increase a felt sense of agency and empowerment, cultivate healthy nervous system functioning, and facilitate positive relational connections to self and others. TIWL posits that using external forms of resistance can facilitate healing and recovery through engagement of the proprioceptive and vestibular systems, while supporting individuals in developing greater interoceptive awareness, vagal tone and parasympathetic nervous system recruitment.Â
Additionally, it is believed that the physical strength developed in weight lifting is a manifestation of self-trust as one learns to bring a sense of curiosity to the process of attempting both new and familiar movements under increased resistance. TIWL is a solitary activity conducted in a relational environment with a coach or trainer and in some cases, with other weightlifters - it aims to directly combat the isolating and dividing nature of trauma.
THIS WE BELIEVE
In recognizing that marginalized individuals and communities are disproportionately impacted by trauma, TIWL explicitly draws upon healing justice principles and integrates anti-racism and anti-oppressive practices in order to cultivate conditions of safety that are inclusive and responsive to all bodies, all lived experiences, and all identities and expressions. In the spirit of inclusivity, collaborators have been identified to inform the development of TIWL by involving representative voices from a variety of populations and communities. The TIWL protocol is being developed in a variety of formats that can be adapted to serve the needs of any individual or group in a variety of settings.
Inclusivity
Responsiveness
Collaboration
Healing Justice
Self-Awareness
Accessibility
Integrity
Accountability
Our Team
Candace Liger, NASM-SPS, CE | Program Director | she/they
Originally from Greenville, Mississippi, Candace is a NASM - certified fitness coach, consent & harm reduction educator, and founder of the Center for Body Autonomy. Blending her background in social justice and wellness, her work specializes in creating safe, healthy, and inclusive spaces for all bodies to thrive. Her signature programs, JahRation Nation Dance Fitness and Fortify & Flex help teach individuals how to tap into the knowledge within their bodies by engaging in proactive self-care, joyful movement, and strength-based training.
They were the co-host of the Decolonizing Fitness podcast, a social justice-conscious platform redefining fitness by unpacking mainstream toxic fitness culture.
Candace is also a TedX speaker & award-winning activist and performance artist. She is a graduate of the National Organization of Victim Advocates’ Academy and has organized national campaigns to examine the impact of racial and gender-based oppression, sexual violence, and mass incarceration. Her latest campaign, #ConsentConscious, advocates for more comprehensive, trauma-informed consent education to support our overall wellness and pleasure. Throughout the entirety of their work, Candace has used movement-based healing practices to support individuals and organizations with a particular focus on Black communities, Queer & Trans individuals, and people with disabilities. They are a self-proclaimed "Body-Enthusiast" and deeply committed to imagining what liberation can feel like in our bodies.
Mariah Rooney, MSW, LICSW | Co-Founder / Consultant| she/they
Mariah Rooney is weight lifter and a licensed clinical social worker who specializes in treating the complex challenges that arise as a result of traumatic stress, attachment trauma, intergenerational trauma, and dissociation in children and adults. She is also an adjunct professor in the graduate School of Social Work at Winona State University, and a trauma-informed care consultant who supports systems change and capacity building efforts in systems of all sizes and types. As a previous Fellow at the Trauma Center at JRI she received extensive training in trauma and supported various project and research efforts.
Additionally, Mariah is a movement practitioner and coach with extensive training in trauma-sensitive and culturally-informed yoga and meditation practices through Warriors at Ease, Prison Yoga Project, Insight Prison Project, Mind Body Solutions, and Trauma Sensitive Yoga. Her writing and research has explored posttraumatic outcomes among combat veterans with histories of interpersonal violence, trauma sensitive education, as well as outcomes among traumatized youth in an outpatient setting using a sensory-based intervention. You can see her writing in Becoming a Student of Your Students: Trauma-Informed, Culturally Relevant Practices for Physical Education Teachers; Bulletproofing the Psyche and in American Military Life in the 21st Century: Social, Cultural, Economic Issues and Trends.
Elizabeth Lee, MA, TIWL (she/her)
Elizabeth is a PhD student in the Clinical Psychology program at the University of Nevada Reno and a Graduate Research Assistant in the Center for Fear Less Research Lab. She is also a Graduate Research Affiliate for the Mind-Body Trauma Care Lab at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Elizabeth is trained in Trauma Informed Weight Lifting and her Master’s equivalent thesis “Trauma-Informed Weight Lifting as an Adjunctive Intervention for Post-traumatic Stress Among Youth in Residential Treatment” was the seminal study exploring the effects of TIWL. Elizabeth has research interests in embodiment-based trauma interventions, mindfulness-based interventions, trauma treatment, and trauma-informed care. She hopes to continue to contribute to the literature on TIWL and open a center that incorporates empirical psychotherapy and embodiment-based trauma treatments for those who have experienced trauma.
Our Partners
Trauma Informed Weight Lifting is a program of the Center for Trauma and Embodiment at JRI.
The Center for Trauma and Embodiment at JRI is dedicated to researching, developing and training providers in effective, trauma-informed practices that help survivors safely re-connect to their body so that they may engage more fully with their life.
For More Information
For more information about our programming or mission, check out our FAQ page. If you don’t find what you’re looking for there, please get in touch and our team will be happy to answer your questions.
