How can trauma sensitive yoga help to process trauma?

“As I often tell my students, the two most important phrases in therapy, as in yoga, are “Notice that” and “What happens next?” Once you start approaching your body with curiosity rather than with fear, everything shifts.”
― Bessel A. van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Leaders in trauma recovery are increasingly demonstrating that the body needs to be included, even central, in trauma treatment. There is a growing body of evidence that body orientated therapies such as Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TSY) have significant reductions in PTSD symptoms.

Yoga based approaches use movement, postures, breathing as a way to build a sense of connection with the self and with others. Together we cultivate a sense of being present, develop skills to tolerate discomfort through noticing how the body responds in different movements and this supports cultivating a new relationship with the body, which has a ripple effect on relationships, on identity, on the experience of being in the world. 

What is Trauma Sensitive Yoga

TSY  is based on central components of the hatha style of yoga, where participants engage in a series of physical forms and movements. Elements of yoga and chi gong are incorporated into the class in a way that supports experiences of choice, agency, safety and this cultivates a more positive relationship to one's body and a sense of being present.

Unlike many public yoga classes, TSY does not use physical hands-on adjustments to influence a participant's physical form. Rather, TSY presents opportunities for participants develop a felt sense of their own body. 

Although TSY has similarities with general yoga, the emphasis is not on the external expression or appearance (i.e. doing it"right"). Rather, the focus is on the internal experience of the participant, choosing options that suit the participant are encouraged, there is no expectation to follow along with the facilitator.

This shift in orientation, from the external to the internal, is a key attribute of TSY as a treatment for complex trauma and PTSD. With this approach, the power resides within the person not the facilitator or anyone else. Further, by focusing on the felt sense of the body to inform choice-making, TSY allows participants to restore their connection of mind and body and cultivate a sense of agency that is often compromised as a result of trauma.