Inspired Evolution with Amrit Sandhu 🙏🏻

In this week’s episode, Amrit interviews Linda Thai, a somatic and trauma therapist. She is a free-lance educator, public speaker and story-teller, group facilitator, collaborator, infiltrator, cross-pollinator and community-builder.

Experiencing trauma can cause us to respond by entering into a state of survival. Even after the traumatic event or events have ended, we may find that the actions of truncated survival become integrated into the nervous system and can lead to long-term side effects on the body. 

Amrit and Linda have a deep conversation about how you can heal the trauma stored in your body and how the truncated survival strategies that kept us alive can keep us from living a life to the fullest.

They talk about somatic therapy, our bodies holding the story of our life, how we become shaped in response to our environment and the strategies that kept us alive that keep us now from living.

They converse about the the whole journey and reason for Linda’s passion, where to begin exploring and unpacking your inner landscape and the workshops she is giving on how to move excess energy out of your body to facilitate embodied presence and focus, and strategies for managing the nervous system that can help you deal with anxiety, overthinking, emotional flooding, and being overwhelmed.

If you would like to attend Linda’s 10 week program “Polyvagal-Inspired Meditation” to move your body in order to move excess energy out of it and facilitate embodied presence and focus, please register here: https://www.linda-thai.com/programs/polyvagal-inspired-meditation

If you would like to attend Linda’s 10 week program “Certificate in somatic embodiment & regulation strategies” to learn strategies for managing the nervous system that can help you deal with anxiety, overthinking, emotional flooding, and being overwhelmed, please register here: https://www.linda-thai.com/programs/somatic-class-series

Furthermore they cave into a dialogue around victimhood, the drama triangle, how our nervous system is impacted by other nervous systems, the importance of presence and connecting, and all about chakras and how the nervous system responds to them.

In this chapter of Inspired Evolution you will discover the benefits from paying attention to your own body and the importance of the role the nervous system has in human beings functioning and society.

You will learn how to heal the trauma trapped in your body, how to regulate the nervous system through various strategies, cultivate self-awareness around past behaviors, thoughts, and emotions, and connect back to yourself and others. 

Finally you will master mind-body exercises to release pent-up trauma from the mind and the body and learn how to cultivate a relationship with your body.

And for those who are feeling completely flat or overcharged, you will come across easy, fun and straightforward exercises to help you balance your energy

“I don't see the world as a world is, I see the world as I am”

About Linda Thai:

After surviving post-war Vietnam’s refugee exodus, Linda and her family received asylum in Australia.

Her career began in export logistics and operations, direct-marketing, and product marketing before venturing into a decade-long foray into the entertainment industry as a stage and event manager. As corporate burnout sunk in, Linda took proper (and longer) breaks between gigs, and discovered life (and love) in Alaska. Fairbanks has been her home since 2008. 

In the process of healing, she discovered meditation and yoga. Her own explorations into “the meaning of life” led her to the practice of Vipassana meditation in 2008 and to communal ashram life in 2009. Linda was quickly invited to share the gifts of meditation, mindfulness, and yoga into the community of Fairbanks, particularly to those recovering from addiction, trauma and mental illness.This led to advanced clinical psychotherapy trainings in trauma and completion of a Master of Social Work (Simmons University, Boston, MA), with an emphasis on the neurobiology of attachment and trauma in May 2018. 

Linda has also studied Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Brainspotting, Havening, Internal Family Systems, and structural dissociation of the personality and has served the addiction and trauma recovery community of Fairbanks in various roles since 2012 working in both residential and outpatient recovery programs. 

She has worked with the Women and Children’s Home for Inner Healing, Ralph Perdue Center, Turning Point Counseling Services, Fairbanks Native Association Community Services and Youth and Young Adult Services, the UAF Social Work Department, Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District's Education Support Staff Association, Anderson Fire Department, and has led many community-based offerings.

In 2013, she co-founded Alaska’s first Yoga and 12 Step Recovery Meeting, and has volunteered as a Big Sister through Big Brothers Big Sisters since 2016. 

She is currently adjunct faculty in the Social Work Department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a freelance educator, specializing in trauma-informed care and compassion fatigue resiliency skills to nurture longevity in the caring professions.

She is also a mental health clinician at ND Systems, specializing in somatic therapies and trauma therapy. She assists internationally renowned psychiatrist and trauma expert, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, with his private small group psychotherapy workshops aimed at healing attachment trauma, and keeps abreast of the latest research and interventions in trauma recovery.

Linda prefers to share the blessings of her journey in a strongly practical and yet light-hearted manner. Her workshops are enlightening, and whole-heartedly punctuated with empathy, personal stories, humor, research, practical tools, applied knowledge, and experiential wisdom.

Tune In: 

Welcome Linda Thai to the Inspired Evolution!: (00:00:00)

About somatic therapy: (00:00:34)

A therapy focussed on physical and mental connection. It can help you find your story that you have been unconscious and unaware of for such a long time.

“Tap into your body and reach deep information about yourself”

About the body holding the story of its life: (00:01:17)

We become shaped in response to our environment, and so much of that happens way back in the early age of our lives and persists throughout our lives. Dive in and discover with a clear example how your body holds echoes of the past.

“We are unaware how our past continues into the present and into the future”

Adaptive survival strategy: (00:05:43) 

Survival strategies become a habitual response whenever you experience a moment of unsafety and danger in your environment, and that no longer serves you. 

“The strategies that kept us alive keep us from living”

The reason for Linda’s passion: (00:09:04) 

She was fine from the outside, but inside she was a mess. With the help of the book “The Body Keeps the Score” by Bessel van der Kolk, she became aware that she was a trauma survivor and was completely unaware of it. From there on, it was all about unpacking her story. Cave in and discover all what she revealed. 

“I was the source and the cause of all of my troubles”

Where to begin exploring and unpacking the inner landscape: (00:16:12) 

Begin by acknowledging the relationship with your body. Then practice taking a deep breath and dropping in, and noticing and naming what you see. And then? So much more and all detailed in this episode!

“Be free by finding the wisdom in your body”

Linda’s workshops and classes: (00:25:44)

Linda gives different excellent workshops to heal drama stored in your body so you can live your life to the fullest. So much is going on in these workshops and so much to learn. If you would know a bit more about them and/or participate, please register in the links in the mentioned resources.

“Shift your nervous system so you can reshape slowly over time how you move through the world” 

Exercise for people feeling “flat” : (00:33:05)

About the vagus nerve: (00:42:12)

Have a clear image of a nervous system, how it works and evolves with Linda. Having done this, you will get the most out of this episode.

The dialogue around “victimhood”: (00:47:50)

Tap in and find out which are the three layers to this.

“Recognize that victimhood as a deep soul cry”

Nervous systems impacted by other nervous systems : (00:50:58)

All about the drama triangle. Why is it generational? Why does it become institutionalized? Discover the answers with a school example. 

“Systems can actually treat each other as if they were in the drama triangle”

The importance of presence and connection: (00:56:49)

“Reset the nervous system based on the body and the brain can help you expand that bandwidth to the ventral vagus”

Exercise for those having an excess of energy: (00:58:55)

“If I have one of those days and make a cabbage patch kid face, then everything is alright after that”

About chakras and how the nervous system responds to them: (01:04:58)

Discover how chakras and the nervous system relate, and how we take the most primitive part of ourselves and connect it to the most evolved part of ourselves during breathing exercises  

Mentioned resources:

• “The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma” by Bessel van der Kolk: https://amz.run/4G0r 
• 10 week program with Linda Thai - Polyvagal-Inspired Meditation: https://www.linda-thai.com/programs/polyvagal-inspired-meditation 
• 10 week program with Linda Thai - Certificate in somatic embodiment & regulation strategies:

https://www.linda-thai.com/programs/somatic-class-series 

Connect with Linda Thai:

• Website: https://www.linda-thai.com/ 
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LindaThaiCoachingConsulting/ 
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-thai-77bb47165/ 

Join the Inspired Evolution Community:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InspiredEvolution/    
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/InspiredEvo/ 
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/InspiredEvolution/  
• Website: https://inspiredevolution.com/