Yoga For PTSD
Therapeutic Movement in the Healing of Trauma
Yoga, and other forms of movement, are vital pieces of the therapy puzzle for PTSD and Trauma.
Here we go!
Yoga for PTSD
A few things happen internally when a person experiences trauma. Our central nervous systems push us to act (fight, flight, freeze). There is no time to think about our reaction to the trauma in the moment. Our systems (mind and body) respond automatically. This creates a new neural pathway. One that helps to keep us safe in the moment of danger. And, one that may not be as useful in future stressful situations.
Therapy for PTSD is aimed at these patterns of thinking and doing. With the main goal of helping people to feel more alive in the present moment. To “get their lives back”. Talk therapies, like Prolonged Exposure, are excellent healing tools. But, talk therapies have limitations. Most notably, talking doesn’t really do much in retraining the body after trauma. This is where yoga comes in! Yoga and movement is a way to heal the Limbic System.
Yoga has been studied, and found effective, as an adjunctive treatment for PTSD. Yoga, and movement practices like it, help alter the central nervous system responses post-traumatic experience. Yoga assists clients in training new neural pathways and allows clients to have safe, encouraging encounters with their own body. Eventually, affording clients the ability to feel comfortable with their own internal body experiences.
PTSD is not just a memory disorder. PTSD affects the entire system. Mind and body.
Here is a playlist of some of my favorite YouTube yoga for PTSD videos.
References:
Gallegos, A. M., Crean, H. F., Pigeon, W. R., & Heffner, K. L. (2017). Meditation and yoga for posttraumatic stress disorder: A meta-analytic review of randomized controlled trials. Clinical psychology review, 58, 115–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2017.10.004
