Overcoming Trauma & PTSD

Ah, trauma healing—a labyrinthine journey through the human psyche, where we sometimes find ourselves lost despite the supposedly tried-and-true roadmaps. Cognitive behavioral therapy, pharmaceuticals, they sound promising, don’t they? Yet here we are, with many seeking the holy grail of healing that these methods often promise but seldom deliver—without a little help from their friends, of course.

Enter Bessel van der Kolk, MD, with his cerebral tome, The Body Keeps the Score, reminding us that there’s a world of difference between mental “illness” and mental “wounds.” Labels like “crazy” or “sick”? Oh, they’re just delightful stumbling blocks in the path of recovery. Instead, if we wrap ourselves in an ambiance of safety, perhaps we can detach from the misfit nomenclature long enough to heal.

And here’s where yoga pirouettes onto the stage of trauma recovery. Let us not forget, trauma is a somatic saga—it etches itself into the very fibers of our being. Dr. Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing and practices that involve directly confronting the body’s sensations work wonders by giving individuals back the deed to the bodies they felt evicted from. Yoga, it seems, is quite the maestro in orchestrating this repossession.

No need to just take my word for it—diligent researchers were all too eager to prove yoga’s merits in trauma healing. A landmark study from The Trauma Center had women with treatment-resistant PTSD twist and stretch their way to betterment, showing yoga classes dramatically whisked away PTSD symptoms in 52% of participants. Compare that to a meager 21% in the control group. And another study kindly published in The Journal of Traumatic Stress echoed these uplifting findings.

Let us not forget the resounding endorsements from those who’ve waltzed down this path. Veterans have sung praises about finally reaching the realm of respite from insomnia thanks to yoga. Experts like Susan Pease Banitt extol yoga as a tool to metamorphose the scars of trauma into stepping stones towards resilience and healing. The goal? To shepherd individuals from the shadowy realm of victimization to the sunlit pastures of empowerment and growth, as touted by the likes of Shawn Ginwright.

For those poised to dive deeper into the luminous confluence of yoga and trauma, a repository of frankly fascinating materials awaits at this very link. Happy explorations, my fellow Ashtangis—we just might stretch our way to a bit of equanimity after all.