How to integrate trauma informed practices into your Yoga East Studio class

Yoga   i s  not  about   se l f -­‐

improvement ,   i t ’ s  about   se l f -­‐

acceptance  

.  ~Gurmukh  Kaur  Khalsa      

5 Principles to Consider When Integrating Trauma Informed

Practices into Your Class * Adapted from the book Overcoming Trauma through Yoga and

observations in Yoga East classes. Language Survivors of trauma have often had the experience of their control, voice, and choice being taken away from them. Yoga can be a great place to gain back pieces of that choice and control, especially within the body. Teachers have a role in facilitating that choice by inviting students into poses and different modifications. Trauma informed classes utilize clear and inviting language that promotes choice and control. Some inviting language you could try, include:

• “If this feels right for you” • “I invite you to” • “Choose what variation feels best for you” • “When you feel ready” • “As you are ready” • “Someway, somehow”

Instructions should be gentle, but clear and have a focus on promoting what is happening in the students’ body. In Overcoming Trauma through Yoga David Emerson states, “It’s better to give one instruction three times than three instructions once.” (p.121) Some words or phases that can be triggering for trauma survivors and should be avoided if possible, include: push, grab, corpse pose, spread your legs, surrender and any sayings involving gun or violent metaphors *All people have different associations and responses to various words, but the above are common triggering words and/or statements.

Yoga East (YE) provides a wide range of classes for many types of students. Teachers can make sure their classes are inviting for students who have experienced trauma by integrating practices and techniques that are trauma informed. This resources sheet is not a guide on how to teach a trauma informed yoga class, but rather suggestions for you, to take or leave, on how to make your YE class more accessible to survivors of trauma.      

Assists Not all students are comfortable with any kind of physical assist, especially those who have past experience with physical trauma. In many YE classes teachers begin with a moment of inward inspection and ask students to close their eyes, this could be a great time to ask students if they would not like any kind of physical assist. At this moment in your class you can ask your students to momentarily rest their hand on their chest to identify their choice of not wanting any physical assists. It is still important to give students opportunity to say at any point in the class if they are uncomfortable with an assist. Other techniques include approaching students from the front, so that you do not startle them and when modeling the pose, to model towards the lower intensity modification, this allows the student to make the choice from lower intensity to higher intensity.

Teacher Qualities As with any yoga class it is important for teachers to realize what they are bringing into the room and the expectations or desires for what kind of practice their students “should have”. As David Emerson notes, yoga teachers “have had the experience of calling someone’s posture “great” when their personal experience was that they were not comfortable in the form” (p. 128). Integrating trauma informed techniques means teachers should constantly be encouraging students to find what feels good and right in their body instead of what the teacher believes the students wants or needs. Trauma informed practice includes setting expectations that the students have control over their practice and body and that they always can do what they need to do to take care of themselves, even if that means leaving in the middle of the practice.  

Environment At YE classes, teachers regularly turn down the lights at the end of the practice or right before svasana. Often, dimming the lights in svasana can be very triggering to trauma

survivors, but since this is a normal practice at YE, letting students know the lights are about to be turned down can help them prepare for their relaxing space. The Holiday Manor and Highlands studios can have loud disturbances whether that is trash being taken to the dumpster, loud cars or ambulances and all of these unexpected noises can trigger your students. Calling out these disturbances is helpful to acknowledge the noise and let it

go, all while letting your students know that they are in a safe space.

Exercises Since yoga invites all of us to feel differently into our bodies it is important to be aware that individuals might have different kind of emotional responses to different poses. For example hip openers such as Happy Baby can be very triggering, so if you know you have a student who is uncomfortable with the pose you could introduce Janu Sirsasana for a safe hip opener. The most important thing is to provide a constant reminder for students to find their breath, recognize how they feel in the pose and to empower your students to move away from any position that is causing pain and into a pose where they find stability.

 

 

Students disclosing to you after or before class Yoga is such a remarkable practice that affects everyone in different ways and you may have a student disclose experience with trauma to you before or after a class. Always make sure to validate your student’s feelings, but recognize that you can always direct students to many great resources. Below is a list of some of those resources you can offer to your students. Being a teacher can take a lot of emotion, especially if your students are experiencing and sharing hard times, remember that you too can utilize the resources below to process or become more informed about a specific situation arising in your class. Want to learn more? Check out some of these great Resources BOOKS

• Overcoming Trauma through Yoga: Reclaiming Your Body Written by: David Emerson, Elizabeth Hopper, PhD

• Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love & Wisdom Written by: Rick Hanson, Richard Mendius

• Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring Written by: Laura Van Dernoot Lipsky

 ONLINE RESOURCES & CRISIS LINE NUMBERS The Breathe Network Thebreathenetwork.org Connecting survivors of sexual violence to healing arts practitioners who offer trauma-informed, mind-body-spirit oriented techniques in order to support integrated and sustainable healing. Trauma Center www.traumacenter.org Educational Resource YogaHope www.yogahope.org/timbo-program Trauma Informed Mind Body program Local Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence service agency The Center for Women and Families www.thecenteronline.org 502-581-7222 – 24-hour crisis line

 

Metro United Way local services and Information Number 2-1-1 Rape Abuse and Incest National Network www.rainn.org 1.800.656.HOPE(4673) 24-hour crisis line Veterans Crisis Line www.veteranscrisisline.net 1-800-273-8255 24-hour crisis line National Prevention Suicide Line www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org 1-800-273-8255 24-hour crisis line