TIWL WAS FOUNDED TO HELP PEOPLE
WHO'VE EXPERIENCED TRAUMA
HEAL AND BUILD RESILIENCE.

We’re an industry-leading, nonprofit program actively fostering trauma-informed fitness spaces and professionals who are inclusive and responsive to all bodies, experiences, and identities.

We drive change through our programs, research partnerships, and weight lifting communities, which are developed to support healing and build resilience, and have been featured in the New York Times, SHAPE magazine, and on CBS.

Choose Your Learning Track

Introduction to Trauma Informed Weight Lifting - Self-Paced Course

You're a beginner, new to the subject material
You want to learn who we are, what we do, why it's important, and the research that supports it
2 hours total training: SELF-PACED
Investment: $49

You're a novice, generally aware of the subject material and want a deeper dive into practical guidance and trauma theory
Must pass the final quiz with > 80%
15 Hours total training: SELF-PACED
Investment: $249

You want to become fully certified and lead trainings on your own
Be included in our Online Practitioner Directory
Enjoy peer groups during training and consult with TIWL Leadership
Final Project Required
60+ Hours total training: LIVE
Investment: $999-2000
*Scholarships available

What is Trauma-Informed Weight Lifting?

TIWL is an embodied practice and intervention, informed by the latest in exercise science, neuroscience and trauma research. The goal of TIWL is to promote and facilitate healing for trauma-impacted individuals and groups through the act of weight lifting. 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
➤Facilitate positive relational connections to self and others

We start with a foundation of anti-oppression and anti-racist framework and values:

➤Knowledge of trauma
➤Inclusivity
➤Practitioner self-awareness

We build a trauma-informed protocol of action and learning/un-learning:

➤Responsivity in Relationship
➤Stance in curiosity
➤Interoceptive awareness
➤Agency, autonomy, and choice
➤Healing relationships & community

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.

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 can be a solitary or community based 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.

TIWL as Adjunctive Intervention for PTSD Among Adolescents in Residential Treatment

University of Minnesota, Duluth
May 2024

View Full Study

A Grounded Theory of Weight Lifting as a Healing Strategy for Trauma

Science Direct
October 2023

View Full Study

TIWL: Considerations for Coaches, Trainers and Gym Environments

Frontiers In Psychology
July 2023

View Full Study

OUR VALUES

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 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.