I’m fresh out of a 50 hour “trauma informed” yoga teacher training and have been wanting to gather my thoughts to share some insights about the experience. However, it took a couple of days to be able to sit down and write, and I guess that’s the whole point about this work, the processing time is paramount. It’s impossible to skip ahead, and if we do, we might miss out on important details of our healing journey.
In the world we live in, sitting in this transition space and being patient whilst things settle is not exactly encouraged, but I’m learning to be kind with myself when they take a little longer than expected. And funnily enough, this slowing down and taking time is all part of the trauma informed approach.
Before we go further, perhaps the best place to start is rather - what is trauma. Because this word can have multiple meanings. According to Gabor Maté (renowned addiction and trauma expert, speaker and author) “Trauma Is Not What Happens to You, It Is What Happens Inside You.”
Link to Dr Maté talking about trauma.
Trauma is our psychological and emotional response to a traumatic event, and such events can vary. Whilst there might be a spectrum of how intense or traumatic an event is, there is also a spectrum for how different people respond to such events - trauma includes how we are actually affected by them, even long after the event has passed. Birth trauma, childhood trauma, accidents, abuse, natural disasters - these are all terrible events that affect people in different ways. The imprint that trauma leaves on individuals depends upon; age, brain development, support system, genetics and previous unprocessed trauma. Therefore we are dealing with many variations, situations and experiences - plus this field of study is also relatively new (since the 1970s) so there is still a lot we do not know.
“Trauma results in a fundamental reorganization of the way mind and brain manage perceptions. It changes not only how we think and what we think about, but also our very capacity to think.”
Van der Kohl in The Body Keeps the Score.
Learn more about trauma from Mind UK.
One thing for sure is that trauma leads to great suffering, it impacts people’s lives in a myriad of ways and can be passed down through families from one generation to the next (generational trauma).
With suffering is a key theme in yoga, and specifically the yoga texts that underpin all modern yoga practices (the Sutras), we understand that trauma is indeed part of life:
Parinama tapa samskara duhkhaih guna vrtti virodhaccha duhkham evam sarvam vivekinah
Change, longing, habits, and the activity of the gunas can all cause us suffering.
In fact, even the wise suffer, for suffering is everywhere.
—Yoga Sutra II.15
However, trauma doesn’t have to equal suffering. There are ways we can navigate and process trauma, and perhaps even heal from it. Thankfully, the ways in which we can do this are now more available, and it starts with the body.
“Trauma lives in the body. Unprocessed trauma can be thought of as trapped energy. Through embodiment practices, we can begin to discharge this energy.”
School Yoga Institute trauma informed YTT manual
So yoga - which works on a somatic level; with the body and the nervous system - can be a tool to work with our trauma, and rebuild our internal world to be a much more safe and comfortable space.
Trauma informed yoga works from this ethos, that if we’ve all (or at least many of us) experienced some sort of trauma, then its up to facilitators to deliver yoga in a way that acknowledges that, whilst honouring everyone’s differences. A good trauma informed class will enable and empower students to make choices that are suitable for them, whilst creating a safe environment that considers and minimises potential triggers. This is just the beginning though, there’s so much more to trauma informed yoga, and I’ll be sharing more about the principles and practices in my next article.
“In order to change, people need to become aware of their sensations and the way that their bodies interact with the world around them. Physical self-awareness is the first step in releasing the tyranny of the past.”
Van Der Kohl in the Body Keeps the Score.
This article was written entirely by me. Whilst I support the use of AI for certain work, when we’re talking about healing trauma, I prefer to stay away from artificial intelligence and instead tap into and utilise my humanness, which is anything but artificial yet hopefully still intelligent.