Yoga for Trauma
As we spoke about trauma and recovery during the semester, I couldn’t help but become curious about the link between healing trauma and yoga. I told myself the best way to understand would be to attend a class. In Ottawa, the Anxiety and Trauma Clinic offers what they call: “Empowering Yoga for Trauma Survivors”. Walking into the class I did not know what to expect, but I was greeted with respect and kindness. I never could have guessed what happened next. I left feeling 10 pounds lighter, like a new person even though I didn’t consider myself in a situation of trauma. The extent to which yoga allows your mind to clear and focus on the bigger picture could do tremendous healing for individuals who need it.
According to their website, the Ottawa Anxiety and Trauma Clinic (N.A) believes the following to be the benefits of empowering yoga:
- Develop proactive stress management skills so symptoms don’t progress to PTSD.
- Become more present by drawing attention to the breath and body sensations, thus shifting attention from past trauma.
- Build a sense of self-empowerment and self-control.
- Develop a flexible mindset that can rise to meet daily challenges & return to a calm, relaxed state.
- Decrease hyper-vigilance & hypersensitivity to noise, crowds, movement, and visually stimulating environments by increasing present moment body & breath awareness.
- Improve quality of sleep & energy level to support meeting your daily needs and goals.
When taught by professionally trained instructors, yoga can be an extremely empowering tool that can help with many people who go through traumatic events. It can also help criminal justice professionals to deal with the harder aspects of their jobs. What is interesting is it doesn’t limit itself to helping individuals who live with trauma, but also helps individuals manage traumatic events before they occur. In my opinion, being able to respond properly to traumatic events will allow an individual to better serve the community and better serve himself/herself.
It is also important to understand that not all yoga classes can have the same benefits. I believe therefore I was skeptical in the beginning. After all, how could yoga enable individuals to better deal with traumatic events. It is not the yoga itself that empowers, but the method it is taught. I believe the most important thing to get people interested in empowering yoga for trauma is by making them understand that it is not simply a yoga class, it is much more than that. I like to look at it as therapy in disguise which removes the stigma associated with being in therapy. For example, while therapy is essential for law enforcement to deal with hard situations very little people turn to it because it is often considered to be for the weak. It is much harder for individuals that are asked to be tough every day to then ask for help when something bugs them inside. For law enforcement, co-workers may stigmatize the individual who goes to a therapist every week. These types of yoga classes allow individuals to alleviate the stigma associated with therapy and allow the individual to get the help he needs.
In my opinion, these types of therapy should be used more often when treating trauma related problems as well as a preventative method for individuals who are more likely to experience trauma.
References:
The Ottawa Anxiety and Trauma Clinic (N.A.) Empowering Yoga for Trauma Survivors. Retrieved from : http://www.traumaclinic.ca/empowering-yoga-for-trauma-survivors/.