One of the new edges in the treatment of psychological trauma is Yoga. A gentle and subjective approach that guides the practitioner into becoming more sensitive to their felt experience. One that is less focused on the cultivation of the perfect ‘outer body’, and more interested in connecting with the ‘inner body’. It’s an approach to Yoga that I’ve been teaching intuitively to recovering addicts with a history of psychological trauma. I’ve been delighted to see this approach validated in the research literature, particularly through the work of Dr. Bessel van der Kolk.
This approach has been well received by clients. The classes create the space for participants to be in control of their own experience. Something that may have been lost in the course of the traumatic event(s). It invites them to trust the wisdom of their own bodies and to yield to it as a way of building trust in themselves once again. Something else that may have been lost in the course of a traumatic event(s). And of equal importance is the knowledge that Yoga connects them to their felt experience in their body in a way that begins to end the dissociative relationship to the body that addiction engenders. With or without talk therapy as a support, it’s wonderful work. I’d love to hear from you if you are working in this way, or resonate to this ancient practice as a treatment for psychological trauma.
—–
