Overcoming Trauma through Yoga: Reclaiming Your Body Paperback – Illustrated, April 19, 2011

Teaching mindfulness through stretches and simple movements in order for one who has been traumatized, either complex trauma, brain, traumatic injury or concussions~ this book brings you home to yourself and recognizing your body again. This book puts you back into recognizing where one holds trauma/pain in their body. One will start feeling again the parts which have been shut down or ignored for too long from the inside out.

Overcoming Trauma through Yoga: Reclaiming Your Body by David Emerson and Elizabeth Hopper, PhDReviewed by Dawn Hamilton, LFYP - 2This concise book is a helpful and uplifting reference work for clinicians, yoga teachers as well as survivors of trauma. As a LifeForce Yoga Practitioner, I can say that the book is completely aligned with the compassionate guidance I received at LFYP training. Using recent discoveries in neuroscience as well as their own clinical experience at The Trauma Center, the authors clearly demonstrate that yoga, when adapted to the unique sensitivities of trauma survivors, can help them manage the debilitating onset of triggers in their daily lives, assisting them forward on their healing journey.Emerson and Hopper provide a good framework for understanding the deep impact of trauma on the entire human being, with profound and compassionate descriptions of PTSD and trauma. The book includes an informative history of the treatment of people affected by various forms of trauma, whether it be war, abuse, violence or accident, and the evolution of that treatment. They reveal new scientific research which shows our sense of selves is deeply anchored in a vital connection with our bodies. This tells us the wounds of trauma are held deep within the human body, and therefore to fully heal, treatment must include somatic elements. The intrinsic mind/body connection of yoga provides the practitioner with the vital link between wounds stuck inside the body and the deep healing needed.The authors do an excellent job distinguishing specific needs of trauma-sensitive yoga practitioners from other yogis by sharing case studies of trauma survivors bravely attending classes. They discuss the need to pace a trauma-sensitive yoga class slowly, the importance of creating a safe space to practice, careful attention to the words uttered by the yoga teacher, and whether or not to offer physical assists. They offer practical yoga exercises adapted to trauma survivors, including language for instructors emphasizing choice and empowering their students as collaborators.Overall, the book is a powerful addition to existing research which is now starting to concur that yoga can truly heal. For yoga teachers, it is invaluable for showing that all students are not the same, and that adapting your class just takes compassion, special care and knowledge, which this book provides. Clinicians will benefit by learning that yoga unlocks traumatized bodies, and because the practices are simple - and can easily be done in an office setting. . Although trauma survivors may have moments of discomfort and from time to time, strong emotions may surface as they read, Overcoming Trauma through Yoga offers something critical to their healing: hope.

This is an excellent book for anyone working with trauma survivors of any type, or for trauma survivors themselves. I am a meditation instructor who works with sexual abuse and trauma survivors, and found it tremendously helpful. The author is a leader in working with trauma survivors from all different backgrounds, and has pioneered the use of yoga in trauma recovery programs. The book outlines the yoga program taught through the Justice Resource Institute, the leading organization doing such work, which also offers a trauma-sensitive training program for yoga instructors.The first part of the book provides an accessible but thorough overview of trauma research, and the current understanding of how trauma is held in the body. It includes the current major modes of thinking about trauma, including within the mental health community, and draws largely on the work of Bessel Van Der Kolk, Judith Herman, and Peter Levine, all of whom have pioneered somatic work with trauma survivors. This part of the book is relevant to anyone working with trauma survivors in any context.The second part of the book provides an equally excellent overview of yoga, including its history and research on its benefits. It clarifies the type of yoga the book is seeking to present, separate from any religious context. The rest of the book outlines an actual yoga practice, and then provides insight for how to practice and/or teach trauma-sensitive yoga. It highlights each exercise, and the exact trauma triggers it aids in addressing (disassociation, affect regulation, etc.) It provides very specific language and guidelines for incorporating this into a yoga class. Anecdotes and quotes from actual participants in prior programs are included to highlight exactly how yoga aided in their recovery.Although I am not a yoga instructor, so many of the suggestions resonated exactly with my experience teaching trauma-sensitive meditation, and other suggstions provided valuable new ideas for how to approach working with this population in a gentle, supportive way. This book is written in a clinical tone and format, but although I am not a therapist I did not find it intimidating or hard to follow, so I think anyone that works with trauma survivors should consider reading it. Excellent, and so needed!