What Is Trauma Sensitive Yoga?

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What is Trauma Sensitive Yoga? It's something that has always been of interest to me, something I have always wanted to explore, and learn more about, and eventually even teach.
I am incredibly excited to find an online course for RYT's that provides 25 continuing education credits recognised by the Yoga Alliance, and comes with a certificate of completion - on the Core Training of Trauma sensitive Yoga. Offered through a fellow Canadian organisation called Yoga Outreach. Yoga Outreach has been giving back to the Vancouver, B.C. community for 20 years.

So - back to the initial inquisition; What is trauma sensitive Yoga?

A “trauma sensitive” yoga class is taught differently from the yoga class we are familiar with. A typical yoga class may not be comfortable or relaxing to a trauma survivor and in fact may feel dangerous and scary. A trauma survivor can be an adult survivor of childhood abuse, a domestic violence survivor, a survivor of sexual assault, someone who was in a horrible accident, or a returning soldier with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD.) Dr. Bessel van der Kolk is the recognized authority on PTSD and heads The Trauma Center in Brookline, Massachusetts. He has said that, “the goal of treatment of PTSD is to help people live in the present without feeling or behaving according to demands belonging to the past.” You can read Dr. van der Kolk’s interview How Yoga helps Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder . The Trauma Center has begun to establish empirically that yoga is helpful for people with PTSD (van der Kolk, 2006). Along with feedback such as, “I feel like I can use my body again,” the groundbreaking study that the Trauma Center conducted in 2004 showed that yoga changes core brain physiology related to PTSD and trauma. Their research shows that yoga is an adjunct to talk therapy, noting that talk therapy can only go so far because it is “head centered” rather than “body centered”. A trauma survivor or someone with PTSD sometimes feels “disconnected” from their body and yoga is a means that brings body and mind together. Medical researchers and neuroscientists are catching up to what the ancient yogis knew — that yoga heals and yoga is a path to personal transformation. The Trauma Center’s research has shown that a 10 week session of trauma sensitive yoga produces measurable results. Their research has shown for the first time that yoga effects core physiology, namely Heart Rate Variability (HRV), which is associated with PTSD. Excerpt taken from: http://www.metta-yoga.com/trauma-sensitive-yoga/ I am enrolling in an online Canadian course through: http://www.yogaoutreach.com/ Which begins in September - and I absolutely cannot wait. I cannot wait for the knowledge, tools, guidance and opportunity to heal, and help others along their journey to healing as well. Stay tuned as I will follow up as the course begins!

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