WHAT IS TRAUMA INFORMED YOGA?
When taught from a trauma-informed perspective, any movement therapy can be a vitally helpful resource. Trauma-informed yoga (sometimes known as trauma-sensitive yoga) and EMDR or Brainspotting are widely considered to be the most effective body-based therapies available. It is important to realize that yoga is most effective in healing trauma when it is integrated into a larger set of therapeutic supports that have been specifically tailored for the client.
Bessel van der Kolk explains, “Trauma is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it is also the imprint left by that experience on mind, brain and body.”
Yoga can have both stimulating and soothing effects. This is true on both the physical and psycho-emotional levels. This type of informed movement can encourage a balance in the nervous system through sessions that incorporate both stimulating and sitting postures, breath work, mindfulness and meditations. Therapists encourage clients to notice when they feel safe, soothed and secure, helping them learn present-state awareness and offer opportunities for clients to choose what brings them balance. Over time, clients build coping skills and make choices that move them toward a more integrated mind and body.
One-on-One sessions allow for the client to have a more individualized approach and meet specific goals. Small Group classes are also offered as a “Series Class” throughout the year as a great benefit of experiencing a practice with peers and still receiving individualized attention.
Great care is taken to provide a calm, safe and empowering environment for clients. We avoid too much stimulation and use language that invites exploring of ones own body awareness and emotions. “Hands-on assists” are avoided unless permission is given.
TRAUMA AND THE BODY
Trauma can create both an emotional and physical imprint on the body. The moment that a person experiences trauma, the body automatically makes a decision to protect itself. This decision takes shape in a fight, flight, or freeze response and is played out in our nervous system.
This can manifest in the body as symptoms such as:
- clenched shoulders/neck/jaw
- chronic pain
- Core functions of sleep
- chemical imbalances
Traumatized individuals may also feel shame or become self-consciousness as they react to physical or emotional cues from the world around them. Individuals may also use dissociating as an unconscious coping mechanism to disconnect from a traumatic experience and/or feelings.
Many suffer with long lasting effects from events like:
- Sexual abuse & assaults
- Childhood traumas
- Car accidents
- Eating disorders
RECONNECT TO SELF
While the experience of trauma and its aftermath can feel isolating, movement therapies provide an opportunity to be physically in sync with yourself and others. Moving in unison with fellow classmates or with an instructor can help re-establish interpersonal (and intrapersonal) rhythms.
A trauma-informed movement practice can increase connection with the breath, enabling the brain to become less aroused, and relaxation to begin. Movement and Mindfulness can rebuild connections with and strengthen the mind-body connection; allowing the client to identify and experience emotions they may not have allowed themselves to explore before. The practice can help a client regain their sense of control and ownership over their own body and their own experience. Control is something that many clients, especially trauma survivors, have lost. Regaining this control is a very important and rewarding part of the healing process.
BENEFITS OF MOVEMENT AND MINDFULNESS THERAPY
The benefits of this work are unique from other types of trauma treatment. In addition to benefits such as self-care and reduction of anxiety, some have reported benefits such as: improved sleep without aid of medication, to have intimate relationships again, self-worth increases, to seek other methods of healing self discovery, reduction in chronic pain and the list goes on.
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