Millions of people with trauma histories struggle with intuitive eating and believe that this approach to eating is inaccessible to them. Experiencing trauma can make individuals have a more difficult time noticing their body’s internal cues which is a critical component of intuitive eating. With trauma-informed tools like learning to see and tolerate the body’s sensations, addressing your body with compassion, four-square breathing, building community, and mindfulness, intuitive eating can become an attainable and supportive approach to eating and body image for many trauma survivors.
What is Intuitive Eating?
Intuitive eating is a non-dieting, evidenced-based, mind-body health approach, comprising 10 principles where eating is based on one’s internal needs. The principles of intuitive eating work by cultivating or removing obstacles to body awareness, a process known as interoceptive awareness. Essentially, intuitive eating is a personal process of honoring health by listening and responding to the direct messages of the body to meet your physical and psychological needs.
What is Trauma?
Trauma is the emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, crime, natural disaster, physical or emotional abuse, neglect, racial/gender discrimination, experiencing or witnessing violence, poverty, the death of a loved one, war, and more. Individuals who have experienced trauma frequently have longer-term reactions to the incident such as unpredictable emotions/sensations, dissociation, flashbacks, strained relationships, and physical symptoms like headaches, nausea, or bodily numbness. Oftentimes individuals have difficulty moving on with their lives after a traumatic event and are frequently in need of additional support from a mental health provider to support them in finding constructive ways of managing their emotions.
How Does Trauma History Affect Intuitive Eating?
A primary component of intuitive eating is learning to notice when your body is hungry and when it feels full. The ability to see the body’s internal signals, sensations, and cues is called interoceptive awareness. Attaining the interoceptive awareness needed to practice intuitive eating is often more challenging for trauma survivors. Because of the physiological effects of trauma such as unsettling anxiety, overwhelming sensations, and bodily memories that stay stuck in the body, many people have a harder time noticing their body’s hunger and fullness cues. For example, many people struggle with telling the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger. When the body is flooded with intense anxiety due to trauma it is harder to parse out if this bodily cue is a hunger signal or an emotional cue from the body about a deeper void or pain inside that needs tending to.
5 Intuitive Eating Tools for Trauma Survivors
Here are five practical tools to support trauma survivors in developing a more connected relationship with their bodies and becoming intuitive eaters.
Learn to Notice and Tolerate the Bodies Cues and Sensations
A foundational principle of intuitive eating is the ability to notice and respond to the body’s internal cues. As a trauma survivor, you might find it difficult to tolerate the different cues and signals that your body sends. Learning to tolerate the body’s cues and sensations is an important step for trauma survivors on an intuitive eating journey. Throughout the day, doing a body scan where you take note of any cues or sensations without judgment can help trauma survivors begin to strengthen interoceptive awareness on the intuitive eating journey
Addressing the Body with Compassion
Many individuals with trauma histories have a disconnected or negative relationship with their body which often results in speaking to the body in harmful or harsh ways. Harsh language leads to poor body image which can result in increased food restriction behaviors and a decreased interoceptive awareness. Learning to address the body with as much compassion as you would to a best friend or a small child can improve body image. Improved body image furthers the body trust needed for individuals as they continue with the intuitive eating journey.
Building Community
Many individuals experience trauma in their bodies because of their identities. For example, for many people who exist in a body that is queer, BIPOC, or fat, it can be particularly difficult to access the compassion, kindness, and body trust needed for the intuitive eating journey in a world that treats these bodies as less than. Finding community with those who share a similar identity can ease the stress.
Four-square breathing to Settle the Body
Because of the physiological effects of trauma that stay stuck in the body, many people have a harder time noticing their body’s hunger or fullness cues. Many trauma survivors struggle with telling the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger. When the body is flooded with intense anxiety due to trauma it is harder to parse out if this bodily cue is a hunger signal or an emotional cue. Developing a daily practice of Four Square breathing can support trauma survivors in calming the physical sensations that arise in the body. These sorts of calming techniques can support trauma survivors in relaxing physical sensations that lead to emotional eating. In the calm space that arises, individuals can ask, “Instead of food, what do I need right now?”
Cultivating Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a practice in which you focus on being intensely aware of what you’re sensing and feeling in the moment, without interpretation or judgment. Trauma survivors can practice building the skill of mindfulness through nature walks, yoga, or meditation. In these practices, trauma survivors can get acquainted with their bodies and develop interoceptive awareness. To cultivate mindfulness trauma survivors can simply notice what’s happening in their bodies. For example, notice the temperature of your skin. Is it warm or cool? Notice your heart rate. Does it feel fast or peaceful and calm? Cultivating this skill allows trauma survivors to become aware of the sensations that are coming up in the body.
Intuitive eating can be a challenging journey for all individuals, especially those with trauma histories. Many trauma survivors have felt that intuitive eating was inaccessible. However, with the tools above, intuitive eating can be a restorative and healing approach to eating for all individuals.
Are you interested in exploring intuitive eating in therapy? Reach out to myTherapyNYC to find out which of our therapists would be a good fit for you!
What tool would you like to implement in your intuitive eating journey? Join the conversation in the comments below!
- 5 Tips for Trauma-Informed Intuitive Eating - December 5, 2024
- BIPOC Strategies to Heal From Intergenerational Trauma - February 15, 2024
- What Is the Relationship Between Trauma and Anxiety? - July 20, 2023
1 comment
Thank you for this post, Danielle; I really appreciate your compassionate and insightful approach to the intersection of trauma and intuitive eating. I enjoyed your clear explanation of the concept of interoceptive awareness and how trauma can influence it, along with the helpful advice and tools you offered (I find four-square breathing can be helpful in so many situations). Thank you!