Trauma Sensitive Yoga

TRAUMA SENSITIVE YOGA

According to neuroscience and yoga our sense of ourselves is anchored in our connection with our bodies. We don't truly know ourselves unless we can feel and interpret our physical sensations in order to act and navigate safely through life. If we are not aware or misinterpret what our body needs we can't take care of it. This is why cultivating sensory awareness is a critical aspect of trauma recovery.

In yoga we focus our attention on the breath and our sensations moment to moment. We begin to notice the connection between our emotions and our body. Perhaps how anxiety about doing a posture can throw us off balance. We can begin to experiment with the way we feel. Will taking a deep breath relieve tension in our shoulder or a movement bring balance, or a deeper out breath calmness. Noticing what we feel fosters emotional regulation. Once we start approaching our body with curiosity rather than fear everything shifts.

Body awareness also changes our sense of time. Trauma keeps us stuck in a helpless state of horror. In yoga we learn that sensations rise to a peak and fall, postures have a beginning, a middle and an end. Postures can help us to observe and tolerate physical sensations and to use this tolerance to disconnect current physical feelings from the emotional reactions to past events.
from “The Body Keeps the Score” by Bessel van der Kolk

Hence the goals of Trauma Sensitive Yoga are to:

• Have and notice the body

• Befriend the body

• Be able to self regulate through the body vs despite the body

A Trauma Sensitive Yoga class begins with a safe environment using invitational language and a focus on the body. There are no physical adjustments and the teacher is committed to fostering personal exploration and experience within each practice. Students have choice as to what and how they practice unless safety is compromised.

Six key themes in a trauma sensitive yoga class that support trauma recovery are:

• A present moment experience

• Practicing making choices

• Taking effective action

• Spatial orientation

• Sensing dynamics - muscles engaging and releasing

• Creating rhythms – moving together

 "The traumatized person is often relieved simply to learn the true name of her condition. By ascertaining her diagnosis, she begins the process of mastery. No longer imprisoned in the wordlessness of the trauma, she discovers that there is a language for her experience. She discovers that she is not alone; others have suffered in similar ways. She discovers further that she is not crazy; the traumatic syndromes are normal human responses to extreme circumstances. And she discovers, finally, that she is not doomed to suffer this condition indefinitely; she can expect to recover, as others have recovered..."

― JUDITH LEWIS HERMAN