Why Trauma Can Shape the Way We Move Through Life, with Linda Thai

(bright music) Headspace Studio. Hi everyone. Welcome to "Radio Headspace," it's Dora. As we come to the end of Mental Health Awareness Month, we're sharing one more special episode as part of our new in-app collection, navigating trauma. Today I'm joined by somatic therapist and trauma expert Linda Thai, for a thoughtful conversation about what trauma really is and how healing can begin. Trauma is often associated with something extreme or clearly defined. But as Linda shares, it can also come from experiences like chronic stress, neglect, displacement, or the ways we've had to adapt just to survive. In many ways, trauma is not only what happened to us, but also what didn't happen. In this episode, we explore how trauma shapes the mind, the body, and the nervous system, how it can show up in our everyday lives, and how mindfulness, compassion, and small moments of awareness can gently support the healing process. And just a note before we begin, this episode does touch on sensitive topics that might be difficult or activating for some listeners. So please listen with care and do what feels most supportive for you. (calm music) I am so delighted to have you here today, Linda, and thank you for joining us. It's an absolute pleasure, Dora. Yes. So I know you, but for the "Radio Headspace" listeners, we may not know who you are, so I don't wanna say like in a few sentences, 'cause we'll dive into it I'm sure in the episode but share who you are. (chuckles) I like to think of myself as someone who is a trauma therapist, as a byproduct of my own healing journey. So I started out in life, born in Vietnam, two years after the fall of Saigon. So two years into the rule of authoritarianism, specifically communism. And two years after that, my family fled Vietnam. So I'm a former child refugee. We lived in a refugee camp for six months, then raised in rural Australia, and then the big city of Melbourne. And yet, that was 1979. I fumbled and stumbled my way through a world that I didn't understand, and my parents couldn't help me make sense of the world because they were also displaced as well. And then as an adult, I had struggles with addictions, with relationships, with finding my place in the world. I ended up moving to Alaska. So I'm an immigrant into the United States as an adult. And that was huge for me because I finally got to say, "Hey, despite everything that I can't even name, I'm going to try my best to make the best of my life, even though I have no idea what I'm doing." How did you end up on this path then, as a somatic therapist? Well, it started out with Vipassana meditation. So I did eight 10-day silent seated meditation retreats in the tradition of Goenka G. Within a period of three years. And so that created enough...