How Yoga Helps Survivors of Trauma

Can embodying a warrior pose help you deal with the trauma of domestic assault? Can the deep breathing and meditation techniques that are central to yoga help you process deeply disturbing experiences, such as sexual exploitation, a horrific wartime injury or a devastating medical diagnosis?

Trauma-informed yoga isn’t a cure, but it can provide healing to people dealing with trauma, as well as tools to cope with their emotional scars while boosting their physical well-being, experts say. This type of yoga, also known as trauma-sensitive yoga, isn’t a particular style of the centuries-old practice, like Ashtanga or Bikram yoga, says Dr. Stacey Pierce-Talsma, an associate professor of osteopathic manipulative medicine at Touro University and a yoga teacher in Vallejo, California.

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Trauma-sensitive yoga is different from other types of yoga in that the emphasis is on making students feel safe and giving them choices about how to execute their poses and even whether to attempt certain poses, says Jenn Turner, assistant director of the yoga program at the Trauma Center in Brookline, Massachusetts, a program of the Justice Resource Institute that provides services to traumatized children and adults. The center trains yoga instructors in its model of trauma-informed yoga. An instructor teaching a trauma-sensitive class based on this model, for example, would make suggestions rather than issue commands about poses, wouldn't walk around the class or behind participants, would make sure students could see any exits, would cover windows so students wouldn't feel like someone was watching them and invading their privacy, and wouldn't touch a student to adjust a pose, she says. "We [instructors] do the poses with them, so we're joining them for a shared, authentic experience," Turner says. "We're not watching them or criticizing them. We don't tell them to do certain poses; we invite them to. I tell students, 'This is your practice, and you can shape it however you like.'"

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Yoga instructors experienced in teaching trauma-informed yoga know that certain yoga practices, like meditating with your eyes shut or holding a pose that makes you feel physically vulnerable, could trigger an emotional or physiological response in trauma survivors, Pierce-Talsma says. Such actions could prompt fear and anxiety or physiological responses such as an increased heart rate; this type of yoga is designed to help students feel more comfortable in their bodies and less anxious. It can be either gentle or vigorous, so long as the emphasis is on making the student feel safe.

The meditative aspect of trauma-informed yoga “changes the way you react to triggers and gives you skills to manage physical or emotional symptoms that occur due to long-lasting trauma,” Pierce-Talsma says. “Yoga may help with emotional stability and assist in changing your physiology so that physical symptoms are lessened. It gets you out of your amygdala, the part of the brain where a lot of your fear response is located. Instead, you’re focusing on the here and now and using your pre-fontal cortex, so it’s like you’re moving away from the fear while being mindful.” That doesn't mean students in a trauma-sensitive class spend more time, or even as much time, as students in other yoga classes quietly meditating, Turner says. Some trauma survivors may have a difficult time quietly meditating, but they needn't be silent and still to meditate. "Yoga is meditation in motion," she says.

Fear and other effects of trauma can remain with people for years after an event, says Sheree Surdam, wellness program manager at Mountainside Treatment Center in Canaan, Connecticut. She provided this example: A gazelle can outrun a pursuing lion, hide in the brush, terrified and trembling, then get up and gallop away with no long-lasting effects. “The gazelle literally ‘shakes it off’ by way of trembling and dispelling the traumatic energy from its body. Humans don’t do that,” Surdam says. “We’re going to think and process and get caught up in the story of our trauma, not just mentally, but physically. That trauma gets caught in our bodies.”

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Trauma Is Widespread

Trauma is common; about 60 percent of men and 50 percent of women experience at least one trauma, according to the National Center for PTSD.

Jason Arsenault, 41, of New York City, was diagnosed with HIV in 2000 – a traumatic experience that prompted him to self-medicate by drinking heavily and using cocaine and crystal meth. “It felt like a death sentence,” he says. “I felt a lot of anger, resentment and fear. I felt unworthy of being accepted in society.” In July 2014, Arsenault spent a month at Mountainside Treatment Center, where he practiced trauma-sensitive yoga twice a week. Yoga, particularly the meditative aspect, provided him a way to be “mindful and in the moment” and prevent his mind from racing into dark corners, he says. Today, Arsenault is sober and continues practicing yoga.

Arsenault would attest to what research has shown: Yoga can help manage stress and symptoms of anxiety, according to the Mayo Clinic. A small study published in 2014 in the journal Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice suggested that trauma-sensitive yoga is a promising approach for survivors of domestic violence, and urged further study.

Find an instructor experienced in teaching trauma-informed yoga. A yoga teacher who’s taught trauma-sensitive yoga will know that certain postures – such as downward-facing dog – could make survivors of sexual abuse and other forms of trauma feel vulnerable, while triggering anxiety, says Christina Lagdameo, co-owner with her husband of True Self Yoga in Olympia, Washington. Trauma-informed yoga was one of the ways the organization helped restore a sense of safety and calm to victims of sex trafficking it worked with.

To find yoga instructors experienced in teaching trauma-informed yoga, call local yoga studios and community health and recreation centers that offer yoga. The Trauma Center's website includes a list of 32 yoga teachers nationwide certified by the center. Taking a class with an instructor with experience in trauma-informed yoga shouldn’t damage your wallet, either. Depending on what part of the country you’re in, a package of 10 classes typically costs between $105 and $150. Prices are higher for one-on-one instruction.

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Use trauma-informed yoga techniques away from your yoga practice. If something has triggered your anxiety, take deep breaths, which can sooth your nervous system, says Jess Frink, program director for Yoga Behind Bars, a Seattle-based nonprofit that brings trauma-informed yoga to incarcerated people in Washington state.

If your anxiety is such that you can’t take deep breaths, “take even, smooth breaths,” she says. “This restores a sense of balance and regulation to the nervous system and focuses the mind on the present moment. You can do it for two minutes inside your car, before you go to bed, at your office – anywhere.” Rocking on your feet, heel to toe and back, is another effective technique. “That’s a silver bullet I use a lot in my classes,” Frink says. “It’s so simple, but I’ve never seen it not work.”

Don’t keep your trauma a secret. “Living with trauma that you’ve never expressed verbally to anyone in a safe space just eats away at your soul,” Surdam says. Trauma survivors can talk with a therapist, counselor or spiritual leader. They can also open up with their yoga instructor, if they develop a close relationship or if the teacher is part of a therapeutic program. For example, at Mountainside, counselors, psychiatrists and yoga instructors can work together on a patient’s care.

Trust your instincts. “Make sure you’re comfortable with the person who’s teaching. You want to be in a class where there’s lots of choice about how to do a pose. In trauma, a lot of times people were in situations where they didn’t have a choice,” says Karen Soltes, a licensed clinical social worker and certified yoga therapist based in Durango, Colorado.

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