by Noreen Belarmino-Nikolic
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is a condition that can occur in people who have been exposed to threatened death, serious injury, accidents, violence or abusive experiences. This disturbance causes significant distress or impairment in important areas of functioning, and can manifest through flashbacks, nightmares, negative mood, difficulty concentrating, aggression, dissociation, and self-destructive behaviour, among other symptoms.
Trauma can happen to anyone, at any age, of any sex, gender, ethnicity, nationality or culture. In the United States alone, a staggering 70 percent of adults have experienced a traumatic event at least once in their lives and up to 20 percent of this population have developed PTSD (Sidran Institute Traumatic Stress Education and Advocacy). Studies also indicate that women have a two to three times higher risk of developing PTSD compared to men (Olff, 2017).
Increasingly, mind and body practices such as yoga and meditation are being used as a complementary approach in the treatment of PTSD. Since there is no need for highly specialized equipment, yoga’s accessibility encourages its participants to incorporate elements of the practice in all aspects of their lives, making it a powerful resource that supports someone who is coping with PTSD.
Here in the Philippines, we started offering Trauma-Informed Yoga (TIY) classes with survivors of sex trafficking, prostitution and other forms of violence against women. While there is no claim that this will replace any therapy, this passion project came into existence to support their trauma healing, given that formal psychological treatment is difficult to access. Here are three ways yoga helped us establish a stronger foundation of health and well-being, both individually and collectively.
Befriending the Body
“Our yoga session is like visiting my body, which I haven’t done for a long time,” shares one survivor after a TIY class. Avoiding areas of the body that relate to the traumatic experience is one of the symptoms of PTSD. TIY classes provide opportunities to explore and experience the body in a mindful and compassionate way, and to resource with feelings of safety. Establishing the feeling of safety opens tremendous opportunities of re-discovery and re-connection. Another participant shared, ““I feel like I am allowing myself time to relax whenever we do yoga. I always feel better and less stressed after the practice, not just in my body, but in my mind, too. I laugh when I hear popping sounds during some movements, it is not painful, and it actually feels so good. I became more aware of my body. What my body can do and cannot.” When we feel safe, we allow ourselves to re-establish a healthy relationship with our bodies. Pain has been found to be among the most reported physical symptoms in individuals with PTSD. A survivor who feels persistent pain in her body said, “Yoga is very helpful in my daily life. I can breathe better now, also, I can identify what part of my body actually hurts, and that’s why I try to do it every night, so I can sleep better.”
Cultivating Agency
“TIY helped me a lot. The constant reminder in every class that I always have a choice, it did sink in, and finally, I started choosing what is best for me this time, without feeling guilty” shared one of the students after leaving an abusive relationship. Trauma disempowers. It leaves a strong unpleasant feeling of shame, guilt and difficulty feeling positive. The invitational language and providing options approach that is practiced in the Trauma-Informed Yoga classes encourages the practitioner to actively choose, decide and take action to what is relevant in their moment to moment situation. This process cultivates a sense of agency, a feel of personal power that is essential to perceive control over their own lives, to believe in their own capacity to handle a wide range of situations, assumes responsibility over their decisions and behaviours and be resilient in the face of conflict or change.
Interconnectedness
The survivor’s term for our weekly yoga session is their “bonding” time with their friends. Overwhelming sense of isolation is another manifestation of PTSD. For this group of women who went through countless traumatic events in their lives, yoga provides a safe space to open up to a shared experience. A lot of laughter with much playfulness, self-discovery and ardent focus that is how to describe each class. The energy is light, childlike and happy, as if they are re-discovering joy with and in their bodies. As most of them would say after every class, “I feel so happy and relaxed”.
If You’re Looking to Study Trauma-Informed Yoga
My journey with Trauma-Informed Yoga has been shaped by my studies at the Center for Yoga and Trauma Recovery (CYTR). I’m proud to say that I’m now a Certified Provider through the CYTR. I have completed the 8-week Y4T Online Training Program and the 9-month Advanced Training and Mentorship Program, and now have the tools and knowledge I need to help my clients heal through yoga. To learn more about yoga and trauma recovery, check out the 8-week Yoga for Trauma Online Training Program here.
Noreen “Yen” Belarmino is the Director of AV108 Yoga School, yoga educator (E-RYT 500) and practitioner. Yen completed her in-depth yoga trainings and mentorship in India, while her meditation practice is founded in the Vipassana and Zen traditions. She trained with Trauma-Informed Yoga under the Center for Trauma Recovery in the US, but her long involvement as a women’s rights advocate and feminist lay counsellor for the survivors of Prostitution and Trafficking truly influenced her deeper and grounded approach to yoga. She believes that yoga is a spiritual path with potentials to bring forth healing, empowerment and happiness to everyone. Yen is currently playing the harp, hoping to eventually incorporate it in her TIY sessions as a sound healing component, exploring “art meditation” through watercolor and is an advocate of ahimsa (non-violence) through veganism.
References
Sidran Institute Traumatic Stress Education and Advocacy. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sidran.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder-Fact-Sheet-.pdf
Olff, Miranda. (July 2017) Sex and gender differences in post-traumatic stress disorder: an update. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2017.1351204
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