Trans Ecologies & TCTSY

ecology (noun): the study or description of relationships of organisms to one another and to their surroundings.

I tend to think of bodies in ecological terms. Like ecosystems, bodies express the complexity of interdependent processes and parts: a fractal from the smallest cellular unit to organ systems, movement patterns, relationships, communities of humans and land, and global systems of connection. As one aspect of this vast web, my body is also its own land–filled with complex bacterial communities, laughter, chronic pain, a lot of tea, and a cheeky refusal to be categorized into any binary box. As with so many lands, the ecology of my body is also inextricably shaped by trauma. 

Some of this trauma is unique to my own history, of course. So much trauma in our communities is interpersonal, unfolding within the context of individual or family relationships, caused directly by other people. Yet, much of trauma is also not interpersonal: the trauma created through systems of violence and disconnection, othering, and power-over that manifest through such social oppression structures as racism, transmisia, ableism, cisheteronormativity, patriarchy, binarism, and so many more.

What it means to live in a body has always been shaped by the ecological conditions of individual and family relationships, community values, and intersecting social forces of power and oppression. As I write this blog post in 2024 in the so-called US, I am rooted in a landscape of both trans & nonbinary joy, resilience, and resistance and virulent efforts to legislate trans bodies out of existence by criminalizing essential medical care, denying legal recognition, prohibiting access to public and educational spaces, and more. Systems and patterns which represent attempts to control our relationships to both our bodies and surroundings.

The widespread impact of trauma on trans and nonbinary communities reflects deep patterns of societal and systemic marginalization, stigma, and neglect – patterns rooted both in history and in the present. In such a landscape, the staggering and disproportionate experience of individual and collective trauma among trans and nonbinary communities–particularly those marginalized in intersecting ways–is devastatingly unsurprising. According to research such as the 2022 US Trans Survey (the largest-ever survey of trans and nonbinary people, by trans and nonbinary people, conducted in 2015 and 2022), trans and nonbinary people are more likely than cisgender people to experience rejection and violence by family members and intimate partners, as well as discrimination and criminalization by institutions and governments. Because of compounding social-ecological conditions, youth, trans women, Indigenous people, Black people, and other people of color are most impacted by physical violence, discrimination, and unjust policies. Our bodies are too often pathologized and othered. 

As I survey the ecosystem in which complex trauma is so widespread, I tend to think about white supremacy culture, settler colonialism, and capitalism. These intertwined systems are inherent to both the ecological conditions of trauma for trans and nonbinary communities and the contemporary, mainstream medical and mental health models that locate “health” in an individual body divorced from its meaningful context. Even in settings and with practitioners who genuinely value liberation and healing, this breakdown in ecological awareness is often replicated through treatment modalities that disregard, distrust, or demonize the body–like talk therapy, for which I am a trained and licensed practitioner. 

The broad societal and intimate interpersonal nature of trauma is relational, and it lives in the body. The work of transforming trauma thus requires addressing both of these features–the internal, relational, and broader landscapes of trauma and healing. So, as both a survivor and practitioner, I needed new tools. Tools to work with the body rather than replicate the disregard, distrust, and dominance that characterized the trauma itself all along. 

Seeking ways to bring the body back into healing and healing back into the body, I became curious about TCTSY Trauma Sensitive Yoga. When I was first introduced to TCTSY during a 20-hour introductory training offered by Jenn Turner, the co-director of the Center for Trauma and Embodiment, I was openly skeptical about how a yoga-based care model, developed by white folks in an American, clinical-academic context, could meaningfully address the effects of structural, historical, and interpersonal trauma–trauma so rarely recognized in existing trauma care models for anyone, let alone trans and non-binary youth. 

To my surprise, TCTSY turned out to be significantly aligned with the recommendations I’d already been making in my advocacy efforts and clinical training work focused on supporting trans, non-binary, and intersex folks in mental health settings. The core tenets of the intervention make sense for any trauma survivor: non-coercion, choice, invitation, shared authentic experience, and participant-led attunement to the body. Listen to trans and non-binary people, I had been saying… as TCTSY emphasized, “listen to survivors.” Trust our innate wisdom as humans and support and protect our exploration and self-determination, I shouted… while TCTSY affirmed, “Yes, let’s do that.” 

Heartened, I dove into the full certification program, participating in a pilot cohort dedicated specifically to community-based mental health and other practitioners who work with trans young people. When I was asked for feedback about the model throughout the program, my sense of alignment persisted. I still feel that way as a certified facilitator: TCTSY makes sense for my non-binary/trans body and in my work with others. 

From my perspective, TCTSY helps create ecological conditions in which it might be safe enough to experiment with being a body. From within these safe-enough conditions, survivors have access to more choice about how to be in relationship with/to/from their bodies. As facilitators, the work is to help create the conditions of safe-enough-ness for embodiment to be available as a viable option. Doing so requires that we relinquish any ideas of “right” ways to heal (or not), to be a body (or not), or to have a gender (or not).

Trans and non-binary people are brilliant in our embodiment and disembodiment, as both are creative responses to the ecological realities of being alive. Disembodiment and numbness are often crucial tools in navigating a dissonant embodied experience that is embedded within concentric layers of interactions and systems that label us immoral, dangerous, or sick–simply because we exist as ourselves. Simultaneously, the ways that we come to know our own bodies and express ourselves–or not–in service of survival, connection, and thriving are indicative of a deep interoceptive wisdom. The work of individual and trauma healing is the work of ecosystem restoration. As a survivor and practitioner, I am joyfully planting seeds for a radiant, nonbinary future. 

LB Moore (they/ze) is a land-based ritualist and trauma steward who uses TCTSY, therapeutic horticulture, and other bodyful modalities to support transforming relationships within and between bodies and land. You can learn more about some of their offerings at ampersandhealing.org.