Click the titles below to learn more and for full access to Alaine Duncan’s webinars and interviews.
Watch or listen at Relational Implicit here.
Combining Eastern and Western trauma physiology, Alaine Duncan and Kathy Kain introduce a new map for body-oriented clinicians to help restore balance in their clients. Using concepts from Acupuncture and Asian Medicine (AAM) alongside descriptions of the threat response from Western bio-behavioral science, they describe common physical symptoms, emotional presentations, and paths for healing for five survivor “types”. This approach is further developed in their new book, The Tao of Trauma – A Practitioner’s Guide for Integrating Five Element Theory and Trauma Healing.
This interview, The Tao of Trauma, on the “Spirit in Action” program on Northern Spirit Radio (12/11/18) is a sweet telling of my journey to writing and teaching The Tao of Trauma.
Qiological Founder Michael Max and LhasaOMS teamed up to produce this panel discussion, Social Connection and Knowing Our Essence. I joined Daniel Shulman and Amy Mager in a rich conversation about the role acupuncture can play in the important healing that comes from social connection and being in and coming from our essential integrity. Of course, the conversation drifted to universal principles of healing, and the nature of CoVid 19 as an experience of traumatic stress that has both the risks and the healing opportunities inherent in our experiences getting coupled with previous experiences of life-threatening “inescapable attack.”
My colleague and friend Andrea Smith-Gage followed her good impulse to gather some Somatic Experiencing Practitioners for this chat about working with clients who have been on ventilators. I joined psychotherapist and former intensive care unit nurse Barbara Collier, and Alexander Technique Teacher Michaela Hauser-Wagner in a rich conversation about ventilators, breathing, grief, and healing.
The Mary Hoch Center for Reconciliation promotes and expands reconciliation studies within the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University and is the home of the Think Peace Podcast.
I am honored to have been a guest on this episode hosted by peacebuilder, author, trauma resolution practitioner, and former federal prosecutor and public defender, Colette Rausch. The podcast episode explores insights into the link between neuroscience and peacebuilding, as well as approaches to transform societal divisions and cycles of violence.
Preview of my talks at Pacific Symposium 2021.
Episode link here.
I was invited by the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to present at their monthly integrative medicine webinar series. I spoke on Trauma as Vibrational Illness and Acupuncture as Vibrational Medicine.
Here’s a link to a recording of my presentation.
The Veterans Administration and the Department of Defense can be ponderous institutions – like big steam ships that require many many many turns of the wheel and still only change direction very slowly – but when they do, they create big changes.
Military medical research has given modern medicine profound information for the care of people with head injuries, the use of prosthetics, and the traumatic stress response. Their research has impacted the lives of people in both military and civilian settings. I was glad to be “in the mix” of deliberations on integrative medicine with these fine clinicians.
The American Education Research Association’s Peace Education Special Interest Group invited me to present their Fall Webinar: Inflammation in Our Bodies; Inflammation in Our World: The Tao of Trauma.
I have been fascinated by the interface of trauma physiology and chronic inflammatory illness. Looking at Covid 19 as an expression of inflammation in our bodies in a global context lends a less polarizing view of the pandemic than our current social discourse might indicate.
Rupa Marya and Raj Patel’s book, Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice, is a fascinating exploration of the hologram of inflammation expressed in global warming, social unrest, political demagogues, and inflammatory illness.
Here’s a link to the recording of my take on the integration of the impact of traumatic stress on personal and global inflammation.
https://open.spotify.com/
In this Soulthentic Podcast episode, I’m joined by Alaine Duncan, acupuncturist and author of The Tao of Trauma, and Tracey Post, LCSW and CEO of the Princeton Center for Mindbody Healing. Together, they are co-facilitating the next 2025-2026 Tao of Trauma training—an approach that integrates the neurobiology of traumatic stress with Chinese medicine.
In this episode, we explore how this East-meets-West framework offers a unique path for trauma healing—one that honors both the nervous system and the body’s deep intelligence. Alaine and Tracey share how trauma is not just a memory stored in the mind but a physiological and energetic imprint held in the body and how practitioners across fields can learn to safely and skillfully support its resolution.
Whether you’re an acupuncturist, massage therapist, mental health practitioner, or medical provider, this episode will inspire you to look at trauma through a multidimensional lens.
What does your diaphragm have to do with trauma healing? In this episode of the Soulthentic Podcast, I sit down with Alaine Duncan, licensed acupuncturist, SEP and author of The Tao of Trauma, along with Deb DeAngeles, Advanced Rolfer, Qigong Instructor, and SEP. Together, we explore the critical role of the diaphragm system in holding and transforming traumatic stress through the lens of both Chinese Five Element Theory and modern neurobiology. This conversation is a deep dive into the Coherence in the Diaphragm System, which is a hands-on workshop they’re co-teaching in Kansas in 2025, designed for bodyworkers, acupuncturists, therapists, and all healing professionals ready to bring more presence, skill, and embodied wisdom into their trauma-informed care.
In This Episode, we discuss:- What the Tao of Trauma framework is and why it matters- How diaphragms (yes, more than one!) store and regulate trauma- The 5 Elements of touch: Respect, Protect, Encourage, Love & Support- Signs the body is holding unprocessed trauma- Somatic tools for consent, pacing & titration in healing- Insights from Alaine & Deb’s personal and professional journeys- What to expect in their hands-on diaphragm workshop in Kansas
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