Our origin
We left something behind to build something better.
24 years in the making
The conviction that trauma care should practice what it preaches.
For years, the people who founded CFTE worked inside larger institutions — building one of the first yoga-based interventions for complex trauma, publishing original research, training practitioners bringing this work to communities around the world.
And then, like many people in this field, we came face to face with a hard truth: institutions can say one thing and do another. They can speak the language of healing while replicating, internally, the very dynamics of harm they claim to address.
We left. We built something new. Something that walks the walk.
CFTE was formally established in 2018 and became an independent 501(c)(3) in 2025.
TCTSY
Trauma-Sensitive Yoga
The world's first yoga-based intervention for complex trauma found to be as effective as talk therapy. With certified facilitators in more than 50 countries, TCTSY is the most established and widely researched program in the CFTE ecosystem.
For yoga teachers, mental health professionals, healthcare providers, and community workers.
TIWL
Trauma-Informed Weight Lifting
Weight lifting, when approached through a trauma-informed lens, becomes a powerful tool for building agency, resilience, and nervous system regulation. TIWL is establishing the evidence base for movement as medicine.
For personal trainers, fitness coaches, physical therapists, and movement practitioners.
TIME
Trauma-Informed Mindful Eating
TIME explores the intersection of trauma, nourishment, and the body — moving away from control and correction, and toward curiosity, compassion, and a more empowered relationship with food.
For dietitians, therapists, coaches, wellness providers, and individuals.
TIIP
Trauma-Informed Improv & Play
Improvisational theatre is a body-first practice. TIIP draws on the principles of improv to create experiences of choice, presence, and embodied healing — for individuals and groups living with complex trauma.
For therapists, social workers, educators, and community program leaders.
Embodied Workplace
The Embodied Workplace
A trauma-informed framework supporting culturally responsive leadership and organizational change. Integrating social justice principles through an embodied approach — focusing on leadership, power dynamics, oppression, culture change, relationships, and movement.
For organizational leaders, HR professionals, and teams seeking to bring trauma-informed principles into workplace culture.
the evidence
The research is real. The reach is global.
CFTE's work is grounded in over two decades of original clinical research — some of the most rigorous ever conducted in the field of body-based trauma care. Our body-based interventions have been found to be as effective as — and in some cases more effective than — traditional talk therapy across more than a dozen peer-reviewed studies.
Landmark study · 2023
JAMA Network Open: TCTSY outperforms gold-standard PTSD treatment in landmark RCT
A randomized clinical trial found TCTSY produced faster symptom improvement and higher retention rates than Cognitive Processing Therapy — one of the most widely used evidence-based treatments for PTSD in the world.
40+
Publications
Peer-reviewed studies, journals & dissertations since 2009
20+
Years of research
Originial clinical research since the early 2000s
40K+
PEOPLE RESEARCHED
Engaged with CFTE care models worldwide annually
50+
COUNTRIES
Territories and First Nations in our global community
"Our body-based trauma interventions have been found to be as effective as — and in some cases more effective than — traditional talk therapy across more than a dozen peer-reviewed studies published in major scientific journals."
who we serve
Trauma doesn't discriminate. Neither does our research.
CFTE's programs have been validated across populations and settings that the mainstream clinical world rarely reaches — which is exactly why this work matters.
Veterans & Military
Treatment-resistant PTSD, military sexual trauma, active duty and post-service
Youth & Adolescents
Youth in residential programs, schools, and community settings
Incarcerated Individuals
People inside correctional facilities and reentry programs
Indigenous Communities
Culturally sensitive adaptation across traditions and languages
Refugees & Displaced People
Cross-cultural implementation in 50+ countries and territories
Survivors of Sexual Trauma
Including military sexual trauma and interpersonal violence
Gender Non-Conforming Youth
Affirming, embodied approaches to trauma care
Community & Clinical Settings
Hospitals, outpatient clinics, gyms, studios, and community centers
built differently
We know what it looks like when organizations don't practice what they teach.
Some of us lived it. It's part of why we built something new. CFTE was founded with a commitment to shared power, transparency, and an ongoing process of honest self-examination — the same principles we ask every practitioner in our programs to bring to their work. We're not perfect. But we're paying attention.
our commitment
Healing should practice what it preaches.
Shared power. Human dignity. Honest accountability. The same principles we ask every practitioner in our programs to bring to their work — we try to bring to ours. This isn't a marketing statement. It's the reason CFTE exists.
conversations worth having
On Trauma & Power
Hosted by Jenn Turner, LMHC, On Trauma & Power goes beyond the clinical to explore how trauma and power intersect in the places where people actually live — with survivors, researchers, clinicians, and community leaders who have spent their lives in proximity to this work.
Listen Now| S2 E3 |
Kory Andreas, LCSW-C Neurodivergent-affirming care, meaning, and what the body holds |
Coming soon |
| S2 E2 |
Dr. Karestan Koenen, Harvard Trauma, biology & healing — the science of how trauma embeds in the body |
→ |
| S2 E1 |
Freddie Moross, Myndstream |
→ |
Stay in the work with us.
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