Inside The Body-First Healing Program

In this blog post, Somatic Practitioner and Founder of the Healing Hub, Britt Piper, shares her personal journey to creating a somatic-based, trauma-informed healing curriculum that has helped hundreds of trauma survivors move through pain and gain the tools to heal.

What you'll learn in this blog post:

• How Britt's own journey informed the program's curriculum
• What's missing in the current modalities used to heal trauma
• Why Britt chose the modalities used in this program
• A look inside the Body-First Healing Program: objectives, who it's for, what you'll learn, and how to sign up
• Real impact story from a previous client in the program!

Paving a path to healing

In the past five years, our signature Healing Hub program has served and transformed hundreds of lives across the globe. We’ve seen individuals process and recover from the oftentimes debilitating symptoms that trauma leaves in its wake–anxiety, depression, addiction, chronic pain and more. We’ve welcomed daughters, then their mothers, then their sisters, and even their fathers through our doors, forever altering trauma’s ripple effects of chaos and pain and hurt–to healing, connection and joy. Entire family systems and generations made whole.

This program and curriculum has not just become my life’s work, but it’s also the culmination of the modalities and practices that have personally saved me from the aftermath of my own traumas.

How one survivor's journey informs and guides the healing of many

After over a decade of sitting across from close-lipped therapists, adamant on re-exposing me to the darkest moments of my past, only to exasperate my symptoms–I knew something had to change. 

That’s when the deep and profound work of somatic healing began–getting out of my head and into my body. These bottom-up modalities helped me to regulate my nervous system, process the intense emotions I had been running from, and cultivate lifelong tools to heal and manage everyday stress and discomfort.

Unfortunately for others, these were methods in recovery that were not yet given attention in the mainstream medical community. What I learned about trauma and the body, and the monumental impact somatic work had on my life–I couldn’t keep to myself. So I set out on a quest to soak up all that I could, and educate and qualify myself to bring this important method to other survivors. 

After countless years of investing in my education and working hands-on in the trauma space (both home and abroad)--my curriculum was born. Since 2018, this program has been offered in many shapes and formats, most notably through: 1-1 Private Coaching and Immersive Group Coaching. These two offerings have carried different names, yet covered the exact same curriculum. So, we’ve decided that to provide better clarity, we’re going to unite the programs under the umbrella of one name, offered in the two formats: 1-1 support, or group support.

A look inside the Body-First Healing Program

Now, introducing what we will lovingly call: the Body-First Healing Program, a trauma recovery roadmap to somatically heal your nervous system, get unstuck and build resilience, without rehashing the past or settling for surface level fixes.

Here are some of the basics:

What are the objectives of the Body-First Healing Program?

Trauma can be described as any experience that’s too overwhelming to the nervous system, causing it to get stuck in chronic states of fight, flight, shutdown/freeze. Since the nervous system is the command center that informs most of our subconscious and conscious patterning: thoughts, emotions, behaviors, hormones, immune system, and more–we could easily say that a nervous system that’s stuck in states of survival can wreak havoc on our lives.

Because the language of your nervous system is emotion, sensation and feeling, healing must first begin through the body, not the mind. Updated science provides that traditional talk therapy is a dated practice that can actually be counterintuitive to recovery. Merely talking about the past exasperates symptoms of PTSD and “stuckness,” ignores the body and nervous system’s role in healing the imprints of trauma, and doesn’t give tools and practices to apply in everyday life. It takes an average of 20 years for scientific medical research to be put into practice. The proven research in the past 10-15 years shows that trauma is experienced through the body and nervous system, and should therefore FIRST be healed here, not in the brain. 

This program is for the person who’s:

1. Tired of the never ending hamster wheel of talk therapy, medications, and merely managing your symptoms with little to no emotional and physical relief.
2. Stuck in survival mode, left to deal with the challenging symptoms of: anxiety, depression, burn out, anger, numbing, chronic pain, insomnia, gut issues, and more.
3. Struggling to find stability in their: relationships, finances,  job, health & wellness. 
4. Ready to feel at peace in their body, mind and nervous system.
5. Ready to thrive in the present moment, and get unstuck from surviving the past.
6. Ready to have better tools to process the painful emotions, behaviors and thoughts that have consumed them.

What you’ll learn:

The Body-First Healing Program will provide our signature 3-part framework to gently heal your nervous system and release stuck trauma, without rehashing the past or settling for surface level fixes. The program roadmap includes: the basics of trauma, somatic healing techniques, and how to integrate the work for sustainable recovery. We’ll dive deep into such topics as: nervous system & Polyvagal theory, somatic healing, attachments & relationships, inner child & parts work, and more. You can read through the weekly program curriculum in detail here.

This program will give you: 

1. Lifelong tools that help you regulate your emotions and reactions to face every challenges
2. The 5-step process of identifying and healing the root cause of your symptoms
3. Resources to feel safe in your: body, relationships and environment
4. Daily somatic practices to live a more present life, centered around thriving and not just surviving
5. An intimate understanding of your unique nervous system: what actives/triggers it, what supports it, and how to regulate it
6. The ability to fluently speak the language of your nervous system and body (sensation and emotion)

Don't take our word for it, hear from a client on the impact of this program!

"I spent my childhood and early twenties being diagnosed with a variety of mental illnesses and chronic diseases all while being in weekly talk therapy that was getting me nowhere. I had become a mom in my early twenties and my physical and mental health was only getting worse. I was trying new medications monthly without any success and, sadly, just living a very painful life both mentally and physically. I was stuck. Fortunately, a friend suggested that I work on my nervous system to help me heal. I had never thought about my nervous system or knew anything about it. I began researching online for information about the nervous system and its ties to chronic disease and overall health. Brittany’s name came up right away. And as soon as I started watching her videos, I just knew – I had a gut feeling in my body that this was what would finally help me in both my mental and emotional struggles but also in my chronic illnesses. I’d spent most of my life in talk therapy but was at the point where I was talking in circles; never feeling like things were changing or shifting for me, and when I would leave my sessions, I would feel worse.

I began the course, Body First Healing Program, and am grateful to have been a one-on-one client of Brittany’s ever since. I benefited more from the BFHP in a few short months than I had my entire life in talk therapy. I had been diagnosed with multiple mental illnesses, but what I actually had was a dysregulated nervous system and a lot of complex developmental trauma I needed to unravel. I finally felt like the power was in my hands to take ownership of what was going on in my body, and it wasn’t just some mental illness I had no control of. Immediately after learning the science behind the nervous system, I was able to shift my entire thinking about my mental and physical ailments.

Somatically, over the last two years, Brittany has guided me and my nervous system on the path to healing. With her help, I’ve been able to work through a lot of things in my life and childhood that I didn’t even realize were affecting me and creating physical ailments, too-- chronic pain, headaches, and stomach issues. Bringing clarity to my emotions, and learning how my body has held onto everything I’ve ever experienced but never allowed my body to feel, has been life-changing. I am on a journey to bring more and more awareness to my body and to understand specifically where in my body I feel my emotions and experiences. I have begun to break free of this physical and mental pain while bringing my mind and body to a place of ease and regulation. I am building my capacity to walk through life with a strong and well-versed nervous system.

I feel so grateful to have stumbled across Brittany’s information online when I did as I know her knowledge, teachings, and passion for the nervous system will be incredibly monumental in so many lives just as it was mine. I’m so thankful to have escaped the system that never helped me. Instead, I was able to look within my own body to find healing. This work is so important and I will be passing it on to my children in every way I can so they don’t have to grow up experiencing life the way I did for so many years." ~ Hannah

How to sign-up:

We are now offering the Body-First Healing Program in a 6-month self paced course! You can apply here. 

Thank you for taking this first brave step

We know that by opening this blog post and reading more about our program and curriculum, you’re taking brave steps to understand and process trauma, and move through your pain. It is one of the most challenging, yet most rewarding gifts we can ever offer ourselves in this lifetime. And we’re honored that you trust us to possibly walk beside you in that journey.

We hope this provides some clarity about our program and how it can benefit you. Our intention is to be a safe space for survivors to heal with others who understand what you’re going through, and that will never change. Whether it’s in the Body First Healing program, membership or Instagram, we hope to see you soon inside the Healing Hub.