The Ultimate Toolkit for Trauma-Informed Self-Care
When you’re healing from trauma, even basic self-care can feel overwhelming. The advice out there—“take a bubble bath,” “go for a walk,” “just breathe”—often misses the mark.
What you actually need is self-care that understands how trauma lives in the body. You need tools that don’t just make you “feel better,” but help you feel safer, more resourced, and more like yourself again.
That’s what trauma-informed self-care is all about.
And this post is your invitation to explore a toolkit that goes deeper than surface-level fixes—one that honors your body, your story, and your nervous system.
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✨ What Is Trauma-Informed Self-Care?
Trauma-informed self-care means choosing practices that:
•Respect your body’s boundaries
•Don’t force regulation or positivity
•Center safety, choice, and consent
•Adapt to your needs in the moment
It’s not about checking off a to-do list of self-care rituals. It’s about creating tiny, repeatable experiences of safety and connection—in your body, in your space, and in your inner world.
You get to decide what self-care looks like for you.
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💡 Why Typical Self-Care Doesn’t Always Work for Trauma Survivors
If you’ve ever been told to “just relax” and felt your body tense up instead, that’s a nervous system response. Trauma reshapes the way we relate to our bodies and to the world. It changes how we perceive safety and rest.
So no, you’re not being dramatic. You’re not doing it wrong.
You’re healing—and that requires a more attuned, gentle kind of support.
“Self-care isn’t selfish. It’s how we re-learn to feel safe inside our lives.”
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🧰 Your Trauma-Informed Self-Care Toolkit
This toolkit is broken into four parts, each focused on a different level of healing: body, breath, mind, and connection. Try one or two, or save this post to come back later. Healing isn’t linear—and you get to go at your own pace.
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1. Body-Based Practices (Somatic Support)
Trauma lives in the body. These tools help gently reconnect you to your physical self without forcing stillness or deep introspection.
•Weighted items: A heavy blanket, warm rice bag, or stone in your hand can cue a sense of containment.
•Sensation scan: Without judgment, notice: “What does my skin feel? Where is there pressure? What’s tight or relaxed?”
•Mindful movement: Try swaying, stretching, rocking, or walking slowly. Movement helps shift stuck energy.
•Touch-based grounding: Hold a textured object, brush your arms gently, or place one hand on your heart and one on your belly.
🌱 Ask: “Where do I feel most supported right now?”
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2. Breath + Nervous System Regulation
The breath is powerful—but for some people, deep breathing can feel unsafe. Try these softer, choice-centered practices.
•Extend the exhale: Inhale naturally, then slowly exhale longer than the inhale. This taps the vagus nerve to signal safety.
•Sigh with sound: Let out a low “hmm” or “ahh.” Vibrational sound calms the system and loosens tension.
•Breath + movement: Match your breath to a gentle rhythm—rocking side to side, or walking in time with your inhale/exhale.
•Box breathing (optional): Inhale for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4, hold for 4—but only if this feels calming, not constrictive.
💨 Your breath belongs to you. Let it be spacious, not structured.
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3. Mind + Emotion Support
Trauma-informed care doesn’t bypass your emotions—it makes space for them without letting them run the show.
•Name the emotion: “I feel anxious / heavy / numb.” Naming softens reactivity.
•Validate your inner voice: “It makes sense I feel this way. I’ve been through a lot.”
•Use anchor phrases: “This is hard, and I’m doing the best I can.”
•Create an ‘emotional first aid’ list: What helps when you’re sad, angry, triggered, or dissociating?
🧠 Be with your experience—not against it.
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4. Relational + Environmental Support
Healing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Trauma-informed self-care also means cultivating connection and designing an environment that supports your healing.
•Text a safe person: “Just wanted to say hi. No pressure to reply.”
•Create a ‘soft corner’ in your space: A chair, blanket, plant, light—something that cues calm.
•Use grounding scents: Lavender, cedarwood, or your favorite lotion can cue safety and return you to the present.
•Practice boundaries as self-care: Saying “no,” “not right now,” or “I’ll get back to you” counts.
🤝 Regulation can come through relationships. You don’t have to do this alone.
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📥 Download the Free PDF: The Ultimate Toolkit for Trauma-Informed Self-Care
I created a free, printable PDF guide to go with this post—it’s your personal, gentle self-care companion. Inside you’ll find:
✅ 20+ trauma-sensitive practices
✅ Printable checklist for each category
✅ Prompts for honoring your body’s needs
✅ A simple daily self-care rhythm you can actually keep up with
Whether you print it out, pin it to your fridge, or tuck it into a journal, let it be a quiet reminder: You are worth caring for.
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🧡 Final Words
Trauma-informed self-care isn’t fancy. It’s not performative. It’s not rigid.
It’s about deep listening, slow presence, and loving interruption of the patterns that disconnect us from ourselves.
Some days, your toolkit might be a soft sweatshirt and turning your phone off early. Other days, it might be a grounding breath or a moment of noticing beauty.
And that counts.
You don’t have to feel good to be worthy of care.
You just have to be willing to keep returning to yourself, one small practice at a time.
You’re doing beautifully.
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Amie Longmire, LCPC
Trauma-Informed Therapist & Reiki Practitioner
