Will Yoga Heal My Trauma?

Often people wonder about the different ways that trauma can be healed. Trauma is a complex issue and something that you should seek support for from a trained professional. As a psychotherapist the main way that I work with people to heal trauma is to address the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that are often left behind due to the trauma. In addition to talk therapy, there are also many other ways in which someone can have support as they heal, such as yoga.

Meditation and somatic type therapies have been proven to help people heal from mental health issues including trauma, as trauma can be held in the body. Yoga has many therapeutic benefits, mainly because of the integration of mind and body. The field of mental health has come a long way since the Freudian days where everything was thought to be related to sexual desires and suppressed conciseness. By the end of this post, I hope you will see the benefit from incorporating multiple pieces into your trauma healing, and possibly yoga, a favorite of mine to recommend. 

Key things about yoga and trauma:

• Trauma is held in the body

• Yoga can be unsafe for those who have had trauma

• There are ways to safely incorporate yoga into your trauma healing

Who can benefit from Trauma Informed Yoga (TIY)

• Sexual assault survivors. 

  • Those who have been sexually assaulted can benefit from trauma informed yoga, as this practice can help reconnect with the boundary of our bodies. In sexual assault, peoples physical safety is harmed often leading to people feeling like they have little control and safety.  

• Childhood abuse survivors

  • Being abuse as a child has been shown to cause complex issues for several years even after the abuse has stopped. As children our brains are developing and it shown that our brain is not done developing often until we are 25. Abuse in childhood, whether it is verbal, sexual, physical, or psychological can impact the nervous system. It has been shown that practices that can help support the reintegrate of the nervous system therefore support the mental health of the individual. 

• Military Veterans

  • Chronic stress affects those who are in the military to those who are no veterans. From the very first day of being yelled at at bootcamp, a person’s body is taught to be hyper vigilant and taught that rest can cost you your life. That is a lot of stress to endure. The body is not meet to be on survival mode for very long. Our bodies need to to rest and recover. Trauma Informed Yoga can help support calming a persons hyper vigilance. 

• Those who have been incarcerated

  • Incarceration is often overlooked when it comes to being a trauma survivor. What many people don’t realize is that incarceration can severely rewire the brain and once a person is done serving time, they are often far from the person who went into prison. This is because the prison routine keeps people from listening to their own bodies. Freedom we take for granted, such as the time of day we prefer to shower or work out, is taken away. Trauma Informed Yoga can help support regaining a sense of control over one's life, as they choose how they would like to flow from one position to the next.

• Intergenerational trauma 

  • Those who have intergenerational trauma can also benefit from trauma sensitive yoga. People can carry trauma that has been inherited by their parents or grandparents. It can often be shown as aggressions and having caregivers who don’t cope with their own feelings related to a trauma, impacting the culture of the family a person comes from. Shame, low self esteem, and disconnection are just a few of the negative effects from intergenerational trauma. Trauma Informed Yoga can help increase self confidence and self esteem, while surrounding yourself with a safe community.

• Marginalized groups

  • People of color, lower socio economic, and those who came from countries at war are often carrying not only their own burdens, but the hurt and pain of those from generations before. Systemic issues have fueled anger and have hurt generations of humans. Trauma Informed Yoga can help support a release of some of this pain and promote connection to a community where hatred is not tolerated. 

I hope you have a deeper understanding about how yoga can help support you in your healing journey. I encourage you to consider speak with a professional about adding yoga, dance, art, theater, or some other form of expression into your healing journey as often talk therapy is not enough on its own.