Bodyful Episode #23: Cleveland Hughes on Trauma-Informed Boxing to Heal and Find Your Power

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By Valerie Martin

As a person who’s never been into sports, the thought of walking into a boxing ring is more than a little intimidating— but that’s exactly what I did yesterday with the support of trauma-informed boxing coach Cleveland Hughes.

Not 10 minutes prior, I called it a “boxing rink” 🤡 😂 — so suffice to say, I don’t know much about boxing. But even with just a few minutes of instruction, it was so clear to me how useful these skills could be, not only to develop physical strength, but also sharp mental awareness, bodyfulness, and perseverance.

In this conversation, Cleveland and I talk about his journey to boxing, and his decision to gain further education to become one of the world’s first trauma-informed boxing instructors through his signature program, Healing Mitts. We also commiserated about some of the ways the fitness industry can be inherently harmful, especially for trauma survivors, when leaders do NOT have a fundamental awareness of trauma.

🎧 To listen to the episode, stream from the podcast player below, or visit this link to find the episode in your favorite podcast player. There will not be additional new episodes of Bodyful, but the existing episodes will live on in Valerie’s main podcast feed (which is now Bad B*tch Therapist podcast).=

About Cleveland Hughes (he/his)

Cleveland Hughes is a boxing coach and the developer of the Healing Mitts Intentional Boxing Training System. In 2009, a therapist suggested to Cleveland that he try boxing to help him cope with my anxiety and depression. He noticed the life lessons he was learning in therapy also applied to boxing. Through deep inner work, he gained the skills necessary to fight back against his mental health issues and trauma. He knew that he wanted to help people heal through the sport of boxing.

With 15 years of experience coaching boxing, and additional education on trauma-informed best practices, Cleveland developed Healing Mitts to help empower people struggling with mental health issues. He is proud to be a trauma-informed boxing coach and a mental health advocate.He currently offers group and private coaching in-person in Miami and Nashville (soon fully relocating to Nashville), as well as coaching online.

You can learn more about Healing Mitts at healingmittsboxing.com (a work in progress, more coming there soon!) and book a virtual or in-person session with Cleveland at the website or through DM on Instagram @clevelandh.boxing, where he shares tips and resources on boxing and mental health.

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