Transforming Trauma: The Mind-Body Medicine Approach of Dr. James Gordon and CMBM

Summary

Dr. James S. Gordon, a Harvard-educated psychiatrist and founder of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM), has pioneered an evidence-based approach to healing trauma that has helped hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. His methods, developed over 50 years of clinical experience, combine ancient wisdom with modern neuroscience to address the biological and psychological damage caused by trauma.

This article explores three core CMBM techniques: Soft Belly Breathing, which activates the parasympathetic nervous system to counter the fight-or-flight response; Shaking and Dancing, an expressive meditation rooted in indigenous practices that releases trauma held in the body; and the Three Drawings Exercise, which taps into intuition and creativity to reveal solutions to seemingly impossible problems.

Backed by randomized controlled trials published in peer-reviewed journals including The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry and Traumatology, CMBM's model has demonstrated greater than 80% reductions in PTSD symptoms across diverse populations, from war-traumatized children in Kosovo and Gaza to U.S. military veterans. The approach has become a pillar of Kosovo's nationwide mental health system and continues to expand globally through training programs that have certified over 7,000 healthcare professionals, educators, and community leaders.

When we think about healing from trauma, we often envision years of talk therapy or pharmaceutical interventions. But what if there were simple, evidence-based techniques rooted in the body itself that could help us heal? Dr. James S. Gordon, a Harvard-educated psychiatrist and founder of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM), has spent over 50 years developing and refining exactly such approaches. His work has brought hope and healing to hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, from war refugees in Kosovo and Gaza to school shooting survivors in Parkland, Florida, to veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Who is James Gordon, MD?

Dr. Gordon is a Clinical Professor at Georgetown Medical School and served as Chairman of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush. He founded CMBM in 1991 with a mission to make self-awareness, self-care, and group support central to all healthcare. Today, CMBM has trained over 7,000 clinicians, educators, and community leaders through an international faculty of 145 professionals.

What sets Dr. Gordon apart is his understanding that trauma is a universal human experience rather than a pathological anomaly. In his groundbreaking book Transforming Trauma: The Path to Hope and Healing, he writes that while trauma comes to all of us and its consequences can be terrible, there is good news: all of us can use tools of self-awareness and self-care to heal our trauma and become healthier and more whole than we have ever been.

A Global Track Record of Healing

For more than 30 years, Dr. Gordon has led CMBM teams in relieving population-wide psychological trauma across the globe. His work spans ongoing conflict zones in Ukraine, wars in the Balkans, the Middle East, and South Sudan, climate-related disasters in Louisiana, Texas, California, Puerto Rico, and Haiti, schools affected by mass shootings in Uvalde and Broward County, and communities impacted by systemic racism on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and in Baton Rouge.

In Kosovo, CMBM's model became one of the pillars of the post-war nationwide community mental health system, now available to the entire population of two million people. Dr. Gordon is also the lead author of the first-ever randomized controlled trial of any intervention with war-traumatized children, published in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, which showed a greater than 85 percent decrease in symptoms of PTSD in high school students who participated in the program for just 11 weeks.

Core Techniques: Simple Tools with Profound Effects

What makes CMBM's approach so powerful is its accessibility. The techniques are simple enough for anyone to learn yet grounded in scientific evidence. Dr. Gordon recommends combining one quiet meditation with one active, expressive meditation for maximum benefit. Here are three foundational practices:

Soft Belly Breathing: The Antidote to Fight-or-Flight

CMBM's signature technique is called "Soft Belly" breathing. This concentrative meditation involves sitting quietly, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth, while keeping the belly soft and relaxed. Dr. Gordon suggests thinking "soft" as you breathe in and "belly" as you breathe out, reminding yourself to relax your belly so you can take in full, healing breaths rather than shallow, tense ones.

The science behind this is compelling. When we experience trauma or stress, our sympathetic nervous system activates the fight-or-flight response: heart rate increases, muscles tense, digestion slows, and pupils dilate. Soft belly breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system through the vagus nerve, creating a feeling of relaxation in both mind and body. Dr. Gordon reports that 80 to 90 percent of people can feel a change with this technique, whether sitting in his office or in the middle of a war zone with bombs falling nearby.

This technique enhances activity in the hippocampus and frontal cortex, the brain areas responsible for thoughtful decision-making, self-awareness, and compassion, while reducing activity in the amygdala, the fear and anger center of the brain. Using this simple practice for just a few minutes several times a day can help recalibrate your mind and body to cope with stress.

Shaking and Dancing: Releasing Trauma from the Body

While soft belly breathing is a quiet, concentrative practice, Shaking and Dancing is what Dr. Gordon calls an "expressive meditation." This technique uses intense, disruptive effort and free movement to help us shed stress and tension and bring up and release buried emotions.

The practice is rooted in ancient wisdom. Dr. Gordon points to the Kalahari Bushmen, who regularly incorporate shaking into their daily lives, understanding that even in relatively simple societies, tensions accumulate and need release. Indigenous people worldwide have used active, expressive meditation, including drumming, dancing, jumping, shouting, and whirling, especially after traumatic events.

Dr. Gordon also notes how animals naturally shake off trauma. When a dog gets into a confrontation with another dog, once the threat passes, the dog shakes itself off, releasing the tension held in its body. Humans can benefit from the same instinctive release.

The typical practice involves about five minutes of shaking your body to fast, rhythmic music, followed by a couple of minutes of standing quietly and being aware of your breath, then letting your body move freely to music. Dr. Gordon often writes this on a prescription pad: "Every morning, get up and shake and dance." The beauty of this technique is that it is not about rhythm or looking good. It is about giving your body permission to move however it wants, with eyes closed if preferred, breaking up fixed patterns of thoughts and emotions.

One medical student who used CMBM techniques shared that she used Shaking and Dancing before every test, including the MCAT, and was the only calm person in her cohort of test-takers. The practice helps to melt trauma-frozen bodies, surface buried emotions that need tending, and create a sense of physical and emotional freedom.

The Three Drawings Exercise: Accessing Inner Wisdom

Drawing is another powerful tool in the CMBM toolkit. The exercise is simple: using crayons, markers, or colored pencils on regular paper, participants create three drawings. The first picture is of "yourself," the second is "you and your greatest problem," and the third is "the solution to that problem."

This technique taps into the right brain, the realm of intuition and creativity, bypassing our logical, analytical left brain. Drawings allow people to access their intuition and imagination without effort. Participants often find themselves creating images they never imagined and sketching solutions to problems that seemed insoluble.

Dr. Gordon has used this exercise with children and adults in war and post-disaster situations in Kosovo, Gaza, Israel, New Orleans, and Haiti, as well as with US military personnel. For a while, everyone, bent over paper with crayons in hand, becomes young, earnest, playful, and surprised. The exercise works because it allows us to externalize our internal struggles, creating distance that enables us to see our challenges from a fresh perspective.

Afterwards, participants share their drawings in small groups, telling what they see in what they have created and how it makes them feel. The results are often touching and almost always surprising. One client, for example, drew herself lying down with no energy in the first picture, surrounded by heavy dark rocks representing fears and worries in the second, and then in the third discovered herself blowing the bubble of worries to the corner of the page with the help of the wind, a transformative insight she had not consciously planned.

An Invitation to Heal

What makes CMBM's approach fundamentally different from traditional therapeutic models is its philosophy. As one psychologist trained by CMBM explained, when she does other therapies or groups, she is essentially saying, "There is something wrong with you and we have a treatment for you." When she leads CMBM mind-body skills groups, what she says instead is, "These techniques, this kind of group, changed my life. I use these techniques every day. I use them with my family. Would you like to learn them?" It changes from an order to an invitation.

Dr. Gordon emphasizes that it is possible to move through and beyond trauma, to be transformed, and to experience what psychologists now call post-traumatic growth. In his book, he shares stories of people who had horrendous childhoods with all kinds of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse yet became amazing human beings. If we accept the pain that trauma inflicts, it can open our minds and bodies to healing change. If we relax with the chaos it brings, a new, more flexible, and more stable order can emerge. Our broken hearts can open with tender consideration and new love for others as well as ourselves.

Getting Started

If you are interested in exploring these techniques, CMBM offers a wealth of free resources on their website at cmbm.org, including video instruction in individual mind-body practices, self-care webinars, and invitations to join Mind-Body Skills Groups. Dr. Gordon's book, Transforming Trauma: The Path to Hope and Healing, provides a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to using these and many other techniques.

For healthcare professionals, educators, and community leaders interested in bringing these tools to their communities, CMBM offers certification programs and training opportunities. Since 2021, they have awarded 846 scholarships to train professionals in trauma-informed care, extending their reach to populations in need of relief from chronic stress and trauma.

As Dr. Gordon says, "My invitation is to try it. There is little to lose and potentially a great deal to gain." In a world where trauma is increasingly recognized as a universal human experience, these simple, accessible, evidence-based tools offer a path toward healing, wholeness, and transformation.

Resources

The Center for Mind-Body Medicine: https://cmbm.org

Dr. James Gordon's Website: https://jamesgordonmd.com

Free Soft Belly Breathing Audio: https://cmbm.org/soft-belly-breathing/

References

Books by Dr. James S. Gordon

Gordon, J. S. (2021). Transforming Trauma: The Path to Hope and Healing. HarperOne.

Gordon, J. S. (2008). Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven-Stage Journey Out of Depression. Penguin Press.

Gordon, J. S., & Curtin, S. (2000). Comprehensive Cancer Care: Integrating Alternative, Complementary, and Conventional Therapies. Perseus Books.

Gordon, J. S. (1996). Manifesto for a New Medicine: Your Guide to Healing Partnerships and the Wise Use of Alternative Therapies. Perseus Books.

Gordon, J. S., Jaffe, D. T., & Bresler, D. E. (Eds.). (1984). Health for the Whole Person: The Complete Guide to Holistic Medicine. Westview Press. [Award-winning]

Peer-Reviewed Research Publications

Gordon, J. S., Staples, J. K., Blyta, A., Bytyqi, M., & Wilson, A. T. (2008). Treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in postwar Kosovar adolescents using mind-body skills groups: A randomized controlled trial. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 69(9), 1469-1476. https://doi.org/10.4088/JCP.v69n0915

Gordon, J. S., Staples, J. K., He, D. Y., & Abdel Atti, J. A. (2016). Mind-body skills groups for posttraumatic stress disorder in Palestinian adults in Gaza. Traumatology, 22(3), 155-164. https://doi.org/10.1037/trm0000081

Staples, J. K., Abdel Atti, J. A., & Gordon, J. S. (2011). Mind-body skills groups for posttraumatic stress disorder and depression symptoms in Palestinian children and adolescents in Gaza. International Journal of Stress Management, 18(3), 246-262.

Staples, J. K., Gordon, J. S., Hamilton, M., & Uddo, M. (2020). Mind-body skills groups for treatment of war-traumatized veterans: A randomized controlled study. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. Advance online publication.

Gordon, J. S., Staples, J. K., Blyta, A., & Bytyqi, M. (2004). Treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in postwar Kosovo high school students using mind-body skills groups: A pilot study. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 17(2), 143-147.

Staples, J. K., & Gordon, J. S. (2005). Effectiveness of a mind-body skills training program for healthcare professionals. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 11(4), 36-41.

Gordon, J. S., & Znayenko-Miller, T. (2021). Transforming trauma with lifestyle medicine. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 15(5), 525-530. https://doi.org/10.1177/15598276211008123

Staples, J. K., Wilson, A. T., Pierce, B., & Gordon, J. S. (2007). Mind-body skills groups for persons with cancer: A pilot study. Integrative Cancer Therapies, 6(1), 14-24.

Greeson, J. M., Toohey, M. J., & Pearce, M. J. (2015). An adapted, four-week mind-body skills group for medical students: Reducing stress, increasing mindfulness, and enhancing self-care. Explore, 11(3), 186-192.

Saunders, P. A., Tractenberg, R. E., Chaterji, R., Amri, H., Harazduk, N., Gordon, J. S., Lumpkin, M., & Haramati, A. (2007). Promoting self-awareness and reflection through an experiential mind-body skills course for first year medical students. Medical Teacher, 29(8), 778-784.

Additional Publications and Articles

Gordon, J. S. (2014). Mind-body skills groups for medical students: Reducing stress, enhancing commitment, and promoting patient-centered care. BMC Medical Education, 14, 198.

Gordon, J. S. (2016). James Gordon, MD: The potential of mind-body self care to free the world from the effects of trauma [Interview]. Integrative Medicine: A Clinician's Journal, 15(2), 14-17.

Note: Dr. Gordon has authored more than 140 articles in professional journals and the popular press, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Guardian, American Journal of Psychiatry, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, and The American Family Physician.

Media Coverage and Recognition

Dr. Gordon's work has been featured on CBS 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, The Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning, CNN, FOX News, and National Public Radio (Fresh Air, Talk of the Nation, Science Friday, All Things Considered). His programs have been covered in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Newsweek, People, and Forbes Magazine.

In 2008, CMBM received a research award from the U.S. Department of Defense to study the mind-body approach with veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and their families.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu said of Dr. Gordon: "You are really amazing and we give great thanks to God for the remarkable work you are doing in so many places where God's children are hurting."