Welcome. You Belong Here.
Here’s your free guide!
Plus two free guided mindfulness meditations!
Neuroscience and clinical research support the benefits of mental fitness training for improving nervous system health, attentional control, managing emotions, and overall wellbeing. The following practices allowed me to strengthen my capacity to stabilize my attention, step out of automatic thought patterns, and come home to myself during some of the most challenging times of my life. I share them with you here because they were available and practical for me in a real-world context, even in the midst of upheaval, overwhelm, and the most frenzied circumstances.
The more you practice taking an intentional breath, or noticing what you are experiencing through the senses during times when you are not activated, the more you build neural pathways and train your mind to have access to this skill in the midst of difficulty. With consistency and regular practice, you might even find that mindfulness helps you welcome yourself home, and offers you new opportunities to belong in your body, and to love yourself, just as you are.
Inside the free guide, you’ll find:
My go-to strategy for stopping intrusive thoughts
Printable posters to help remind you to pause in moments of reactivity
Tools for reclaiming your attention and reducing anxiety
An overview of the autonomic nervous system and the neurobiology of threat
Eight in-the-moment practices for reducing stress in daily life
Sensory awareness and orienting practices for crisis response
All your Humanness is Welcome Here
You are in the right place. Healing begins when you slow down and welcome yourself as you already are, without judgment, right here in the present moment. At the core of relational trauma is a deeply fractured relationship with ourselves. It is in doing the work of repairing this relationship that we can begin to heal this core wound - that of belonging in our own bodies.
Life can be complicated and overwhelming, especially if you’ve experienced, or are still enmeshed in relational trauma. If there is ongoing threat and reactivity in your life, you may feel like you have reached your breaking point. At times, it simply becomes too much for the heart to bear. Your body may feel broken, your spirit, frazzled, and your soul, tired. Your nervous system may be completely overwhelmed and you might even be creating storms with your hyper-vigilance, constantly anticipating triggers and threats before they even happen, feeling like you are always tiptoeing around eggshells and broken glass.
The good news is that simple mindfulness practices that are available anytime, and anywhere can help. The tools offered in your free guide can be incredibly effective for regulating and repairing your nervous system, which is the first step to transforming your relationship to yourself.
Use this 12-minute guided mindfulness meditation to support you in slowing down, arriving in the body, and caring for yourself. You can do this practice using a meditation cushion, seated in a chair, or lying down. Let this be a time when you don’t have to do anything else, or be anything for anyone. You are worthy of care and attention.
About Me
Cynthia Garner is a certified mindfulness instructor, somatic psychotherapist, public speaker, single mother, former classroom teacher, and author.
Her passion is helping trauma survivors find refuge in the present moment, reclaim their power, and come home to their authentic selves. As a coach, she works with educational leadership and survivors of domestic violence, offering practical coping skills, secular mindfulness, and in-the-moment interventions for managing reactivity and breaking the patterns of generational, systemic, and relational trauma.
Cynthia studied counseling at Regis University, earned a doctorate in Body-Mind Health from the Parkmore Institute, and is trained in group psycho-education through the UCSD Medical School, the Centre for Mindfulness Studies, Inward Bound, Mindful Schools, and the Hakomi Institute.
Work with me: Start your Healing Journey
My mindfulness practice and somatic therapy training brought me home to myself, after years of alienation, betrayal, and emotional violence. Understanding how trauma is stored in the body and learning tools to regulate my nervous system offered me the opportunity to reclaim my mental real estate, stabilize my attention with anchors in the present moment, and tend to my wounded heart.
Gradually, one baby step at a time, I began to widen my window of tolerance, develop the capacity to ride the waves of emotion, and to learn how to disengage from the conflict in a non-violent way.
I am so grateful for the lessons that my experience taught me, and that now I have the opportunity to raise my daughter in a regulated and compassionate environment, and that I get to share these practices and teachings with other survivors of relational trauma who don’t know where to start.
There are a few different ways you can work with me to learn mindfulness, heal your relational wounds, and come home to yourself:
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These intimate groups are open for enrollment 3 times per year in February, May, and September. Groups meet online for 12 weeks on Saturday mornings and include trauma-treatment, grief work, mindfulness-based interventions, somatic practices, and reflective writing prompts. Join the Waitlist.
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Sometimes we need individual therapeutic support to identify our core beliefs and discover the deeply engrained patterns that keep us from moving forward. When we work together one-on-one, you’ll be guided in gentle somatic awareness practices and mindfulness meditations to help you make space for feeling what you feel, and retraining your nervous system to rest in the present moment. Schedule an introductory session.
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In this 12-week, live online workshop, you’ll be guided in somatic mindfulness practices, reflection, and writing prompts to support you in welcoming yourself, reconnecting with your inner child, and soothing your wounded parts. Our focus will be on identifying our core experiences, how they shaped our sense of belonging in the world, and through writing we will offer ourselves the care we did not get to have when we were young. The program will include live practice sessions twice per month, with writing prompts and workbook material released to you on the alternating weeks. This series will be facilitated by Dr. Cynthia Garner, a certified mindfulness instructor, somatic psychotherapist, and author.
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This group for leaders of trauma-impacted school systems will focus on prioritizing wellbeing, managing reactivity, and nonviolent communication. We will meet via Zoom every other week on Friday mornings, 10-11:30 am MST, for the duration of the spring semester. Participation will include access to the self-paced Mindfulness for School Leadership Course. Our practices will include trauma-informed interventions, attentional training, somatic awareness practices, and reflective inquiry. Spaces are limited. Enrollment period closes January 23, 2024.