Lynn Fraser, a senior teacher in the Himalayan Yoga Meditation tradition and founder of the Stillpoint Method of Healing Trauma, brings decades of experience to her work. Through free online sessions, live group courses, and the Radical Recovery Summit, Lynn offers accessible resources for trauma healing and resilience, embodying compassion and authenticity in every aspect of her practice. Learn more in her exclusive MysticMag interview below.
Can you please share a few details about yourself and your professional background?
Hi, I’m Lynn Fraser. My pronouns are she/they. I am a lesbian, gender non-conforming, large-bodied, white, middle-class, mother of one and grandmother of three, elder (71 years old).
I am a senior teacher in the Himalayan Yoga Meditation tradition and founder of the Stillpoint Method of Healing Trauma. I started Stillpoint because I realized through decades of teaching meditation and facilitating private somatic inquiry that many people are looking for a gentle process in a safe environment that allows for open, clear seeing and releasing patterns of suffering.
My healing journey is an integration of my experience and practice as a social justice activist, meditator of 30 years, meditation and yoga teacher, and a PTSD and CPTSD trauma survivor. I know it is possible to heal from our experiences of feeling disconnected and unworthy. I have. I am passionate in helping others to heal trauma and feel love and compassion for themselves.
What classes do you teach and what can people hope to learn through them?
Every day I guide a free online relaxation, meditation, and building nervous system resilience practice at 8 AM Eastern. Each Sunday is our free community class, in which we explore topics relevant to daily life through a trauma informed nervous system lens. Recent topics: Being on our own side; Walking softly on the earth; Somatic mindfulness in relationships; Open heart witness consciousness, and Our tender hearts in a harsh world.
I teach classes through YogaFarm.us, like Strong Mind Resilient Nervous System, and Teaching Trauma Informed Yoga. You can also find me on Insight Timer where I teach live 4 times a week and have many recorded guided practices and self-paced audio courses.
How much are group live courses different from self-paced ones and how can they help a person when it comes to Somatic Mindfulness?
We heal through the direct experience of safety in our nervous system, within ourselves, and with each other so both are helpful in their own way. Both feature a basic understanding of trauma and the nervous system.
Healing our own nervous system is the foundation. Somatic mindfulness helps us to be aware when we are going into a survival response of fight/ flight/ freeze/ fawn. We work to develop more accurate neuroception, our assessment of safety or threat. Our brain has a negativity bias and uses evidence from that past that is no longer as dangerous now we are adults. We practice tools to come back into self-regulation – like visual cues, sensation in our body, and breath. Through this, we build a stronger, more resilient nervous system to bring into relationship with others.
In the live online group courses we begin with an educational component and a guided somatic inquiry then people break into smaller groups to reflect and share. Our focus is somatic awareness as we listen to each other. For many people, this is the only place they feel safe enough to share without someone commenting or giving them advice. Much of our trauma is through relationships and we need to heal through relationships and the live groups give us that opportunity.
You also organize different events, such as the Radical Recovery Summit. What can you tell me about that part of your work?
I launched the Radical Recovery Summit in 2017 with an emphasis on addiction. This morphed quickly into focusing on trauma, a major underlying reason why people turn to addictive substances and behaviors. I love talking with people like trauma expert Gabor Maté MD, neuropsychologist Dr Rick Hanson, polyvagal system experts Deb Dana and Dr Stephen Porges, Pete Walker Complex PTSD therapist, Dr Fyre Jean Graveline Indigenous healing, and Prentis Hemphill, an innovator in the area of social justice and somatic healing. All of the interviews are available free through my website. I always learn so much from talking with these leaders in the field of healing trauma through a social justice lens and I come away inspired each time.
What motivates you to continue doing the work that you do?
People often ask me why I give away so much free – guided practices and courses, live daily practice and live weekly classes, a weekly blog, the Radical Recovery Summit, and resources on healing trauma. I was a traumatized teen and a young single mom in my twenties. I got into a series of harmful relationships because I was so disconnected from myself and no one had my back. I was vulnerable and wasn’t able to make good decisions. I couldn’t afford therapy and at that time (in the 70’s) there wasn’t much for self-help like there is now.
We can all understand trauma and our nervous system. It’s not that complicated. Trauma often causes hypervigilance and a dysregulated nervous system. We tighten up in our body bracing for hurt, and we hold our breath. Our mind goes into catastrophic thinking about what might happen in the future or we ruminate and stew over what happened in our past. Experiences of feeling unloved, hurt and not protected lead to core deficiency beliefs that we are unlovable and broken.
As we develop a more resilient nervous system we start to realize we are safe enough and this opens up the possibility to cultivate compassion and connection for and with ourselves and our younger self who is still scared. We interrupt anxiety and panic through powerful practices like cyclic sighing, holding our own hand, and breaking the trance of compulsive thinking. It takes a bit of time and it is entirely possible.
Is there anything else about your work that you’d like to share that we haven’t covered?
We don’t have to suffer through life with a dysregulated nervous system, feeling hypervigilant, stressed, and anxious. It is entirely possible to learn enough about trauma and our nervous system to do practices that begin to signal safety. As we come into emotional self-regulation, this changes everything about our life from how well we sleep at night, to our relationships, to our emotional and physical health. It is worth it!
To learn more about Lynn and her work, you can visit LynnFraserStillpoint.com
