Beyond Safety: Trauma Awareness & Decolonisation Training
This past weekend (8 & 9th November 2025), we completed our Beyond Safety Training - a 20-hour Trauma-Awareness & Decolonisation Intensive with Centred Space. It was a deeply moving and transformative container led by Dewi Chen & Jen Tan, reminding us that the work we do in the wellness and movement spaces is never just about guiding bodies.
Why Trauma-Awareness Matters
Trauma-informed principles were first introduced in healthcare settings, specifically in the areas of informed consent and body respect. It is only in recent years that this paradigm has begun to trickle down to the world of wellness, fitness, and movement professionals. This is to be celebrated. As a society, we cannot ignore the impact of trauma on individuals and groups; for all wellness and fitness professionals, it is even more critical for us to be up-to-date with the latest trauma research and how it reframes our teaching approaches.
Beyond Clinical Settings
A trauma-sensitive and/or trauma-informed approach is often found in more clinical settings, where the probability of increasingly complex forms of trauma may be higher than in other spaces. This is not the case for many of our general fitness and movement classes. In this training, we learned a trauma-awareness approach that considers the context in which most movement and fitness professionals typically find themselves: non-clinical, wellness/fitness-focused spaces, with medium to large group and/or individual settings.
Decolonisation Framework
Additionally, the training focused on contextualising trauma-awareness within the wider discourse of decolonisation. Decolonisation serves as a framework for us to critically examine the colonialist nature of numerous trauma theories today, and invites us to consider a country's culture as an important lens from which to view and practise our teaching skills. The majority of research supporting trauma-sensitive modalities centres the Western experience (e.g. veterans returning from the Vietnam War), and much of the scholarship continues to be found in the USA, Europe and Australia.
Given the limited coverage. of Asian and Eastern cultures, we have found ourselves having to reconsider some things to make them more nuanced and accessible. In doing so, we can better foreground trauma-awareness in fitness and movement spaces, in ways that also honour local and cultural needs.
Reflective Practice: Holding Complexity
One of the most important aspects of the training was the individual and group reflective practice. Together, we were encouraged to challenge our own assumptions, biases, and approaches to facilitation. Rather than seeking one “right” or “perfect” answer, we learned to sit with nuance, hold complexity, and ultimately cultivate empathy and curiosity. In doing so, reflective practice becomes more than just a professional skill; it becomes a lived embodiment of empathy and awareness. Asking us to create more opportunities to honour the humanity of both the facilitator/therapist and the clients we work with.
This was a training that felt less like a course and more like a journey of unlearning, but also remembering. Unlearning the need to have all the answers, and remembering how to meet ourselves and others with radical compassion and empathy.
Trauma-awareness and decolonisation training should be essential for anyone working in wellness. It’s a deeper commitment to practising with integrity and sensitivity. Understanding trauma, intersectionality, and the cultural contexts in which we work ultimately deepens our own alignment but also encourages us to create braver and more inclusive spaces.
Keep an eye out for their next Beyond Safety: Trauma-Awareness & Decolonisation Intensive - it’s a space that will shift how you see, teach, and hold space for others.
