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#63 : Anna Drews: The Polyvagal Theory and Martial Arts

Season #1

Dr Annette Drews is a Professor for Social Medicine who currently does research on the contribution of Martial Arts in trauma therapy.

Due to an accident at 2 years of age, she continued to be accident prone throughout her life. She overcame the physical and psychological consequences of her traumas through awareness based movement practices such as yoga, aikido and Feldenkrais. 

 

Georgia and Anna discuss:

  • What mindfulness is and the role it plays in trauma healing
  • Why entering into awareness based movement practices through mindfulness might not work for people with trauma history
  • The difference between shock trauma, developmental trauma and abandonment trauma
  • The difference between prey and predator identification
  • Why being knowledgeable about these concepts can be helpful in the practice of Martial Arts
  • Why being knowledgeable about these concepts can be helpful for integrating the experience of trauma into resourceful living.
  • How Martial Arts brought Anna out of "Freeze" and taught her how to transform survival driven energies into creativity, power, joy and love.

 

Please contact Annette via her email: annette.drews@yahoo.

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Thank you so much to Nari for the beautiful song "Shape Me" heard at the beginning and end of this episode. Nari wrote this song about Shape Your Life, a boxing program for self-identified female survivors of violence in Canada. She wrote this song using the words and experiences shared by participants with Cathy Van Ingen. You can find out more about Shape Your Life in my interview with Cathy in Episode 8. You can hear more of Nari's work by going to her Instagram: @narithesaga