How To Process Trauma

How To Process Trauma

How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation from Addict II Athlete takes you right into that question by looking at trauma, memory, and healing in a very down‑to‑earth way. Coach Blu Robinson, a mental health therapist and addiction counsellor, teams up with Athletic Director Marissa to talk about how past experiences can be tightly stitched into addiction.

They stress that trauma isn’t a competition; whether it’s abuse, an accident, or witnessing violence, “it’s still trauma” if it felt frightening and overwhelming. A big focus is EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) and how it helps move traumatic memories from a constant fight‑or‑flight state into the brain’s long‑term storage. Blu shares a surprisingly personal example: a lifelong terror of clowns that, through EMDR, turned out to be less about clowns and more about feeling unprotected as a child.

Once that core memory was processed, the fear lost its grip, giving him a sense of lightness and possibility. The chat stays practical and accessible. They link EMDR’s left‑right stimulation to simple movement like walking or running, pointing out that many people naturally start exercising more after crises because the body is trying to process emotional overload.

That’s where the “addict to athlete” idea really shows: using running, walking, and even virtual 5Ks and proxy runs as moving spaces to re‑work painful memories into something more hopeful. Symbolism also plays a role, such as coloured wristbands to honour those lost, those still struggling, and those living in long‑term recovery. Throughout, the tone is warm, slightly cheeky, and very human, making complex brain science feel relatable.

If trauma and addiction feel tangled together for you or someone you care about, this conversation might give you a new way to think about both—and a nudge to ask, what memories are still sitting in the front of your mind that could be shifted into the past?