About Trauma Informed
Weight Lifting
TIWL WAS FOUNDED TO HELP PEOPLE WHO'VE EXPERIENCED TRAUMAÂ HEALÂ AND BUILDÂ 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.
What is Trauma-Informed Weight Lifting?
TIWL is an embodied practice and intervention, informed by the latest in 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.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
- 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 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.
How Does it Work?
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
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.
Our Team
Candace Liger, NASM-SPS, CEÂ (she/they)
Program Director
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.Â
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.
Mariah Rooney, MSW, LICSWÂ (she/they)
Co-Founder / Consultant
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.
Elizabeth Lee, MA, TIWL (she/her)
Research Associate
Elizabeth is a PhD student in the Clinical Psychology program at the U. Nevada Reno and a Graduate Research Assistant in the Center for Fear Less Research Lab, and a Graduate Research Affiliate for the Mind-Body Trauma Care Lab at U. 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.Â
Read More About Elizabeth
Guest Faculty
Marcia Dernie
Louise Green
Justice Roe Williams
Hannah Wydeven
Ilya Parker
TIWL 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.
Learn MoreFor 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.
