Yoga practice isn’t only about the physical yoga shapes. The word yoga comes from “yuj” in Sanskrit meaning to unite – but to unite what exactly? We know that experiencing trauma can lead to a sense of alienation and disconnection from oneself, but “ Yoga is a journey of the self, through the self to the self” as it says in the Bhagavad Gita. Unfortunately not everything that we experience in a modern yoga class aids in this higher goal of our practice, and sometimes the good intentions of yoga instructors can cause more harm than good.

Anywhere that yoga is practiced, someone will likely be struggling with trauma. Teaching yoga in a trauma-informed way requires us to make some changes, gain new skills, find compassion and patience. However, starting to view the world from a trauma sensitive lens can be one of the greatest gifts we can give not only to our students but to everyone around us. Why? Because trauma informs everything and most likely everyone who shows up to the mat has experienced some level of traumatisation.

Why is it important?

In the past couple of years trauma and trauma-informed care has become a new buzzword, but why and what does it all even mean? Maybe the pandemic had something to do with it, because clinical research in this area has been around since the the end of the 19th century (see more about the sexist history of “hysteria” here) but trauma informed care and wisdom are nothing new. It didn’t all start with some old white dudes in akademia, there is ancient indigenous knowledge of how to heal, become embodied and how to process trauma. Simply by becoming aware of how their bodies FELT, ancient humans created tools that made their bodies feel better (spiritual & religious tool like song, dance, prayer, yoga, meditation etc). Bessel Van der Kolk, one of the worlds leading experts in trauma, recognises this fact.

Bessel’s book The Body Keeps the Score which was published in 2014 became ranked second in the science category of The New York Times Best Seller in 2019, and as of July 2021, the book had spent more than 141 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. This should tell you just  how widespread this topic has become and if we practice Ahmisa and teach yoga to help in healing, rather than harming, then learning about how prevalent trauma is and it’s impact is a good place to start. We don’t have to question anyone,  rather we should just assume that this is a fact and act accordingly.

How prevalent is trauma?

Often we may think of traumatic events as these “huge” life-threatening stressors like accidents, violence or natural disasters, and yes but not only, trauma is much more common than this and learning some of the statistics can be sobering. A survey done  in 24 countries by WHO found that 70.4% people will have experienced lifetime traumas. The CDC statistics from the US report that one in four children experience some type of maltreatment (physical, emotional, sexual or neglect) during their life and  one in four women have experienced domestic violence. 

A study called ACE’s (adverse childhood experiences) found that about 61% of adults surveyed reported they had experienced at least one type of ACE’s (adverse childhood experience) before age 18, and nearly 1 in 6 reported they had experienced four or more childhood traumatic experiences. Adverse childhood experiences can be experiencing things like abuse, violence or neglect and are linked to chronic health problems, mental illness, and destructive behaviours like substance use problems in adolescence and adulthood. Often these experiences (or lack of ones we should’ve received like stability, safety, love and acceptance) are pushed-away, bottled up or “forgotten” by the mind, but the body keeps the score like Van der Kolk said.

How does trauma make us show up in life and can yoga help? 

Even if we don’t think about it or consciously remember the traumatic event, our body in order to protect us remembers all the sounds, smells, tone of voice and other sensory details associated with what happened and as a result different life circumstances can trigger big emotions to surface. These triggers and how we react to them are highly personal to each person but one was to describe it as being “hijacked” by ones body. THis can feel as if we are being “flooded” with intense emotions, thoughts and physical sensations or by “shutting down” or numbing (disassociating) to escape from feeling. It’s important to remember that neither of these “reactions” are a pathology, rather its our body’s way of adapting and coping, it’s protecting us and helping us to “survive”. 

When our body perceives threat our sympathetic nervous system gets us ready to fight or flee. But our body doesn’t discriminate, and throughout the day even when we’re hungry it thinks “OMG im going to die” but once you eat or whatever other perceived danger passes we come back into homeostasis, the parasympathetic NS of rest & digest. THis is a normal and necessary process and daily we rise to meet challenges and then calm down. A problem can start if we get “stuck on”  or “stuck off” in one of these states and our NS still perceives danger, which literally rewires the brain. 

The good news is that our brains are plastic and can change during our whole lives so nothing is set in stone. Once we become aware that it’s not the external world but that something is happening inside of us then we can start to take care of ourselves, and one way to do that is through yoga. By yoga I don’t mean only asanas (physical yoga shapes) but also all of yoga philosophy and psychology. In the Yoga Sutras Patanjali wrote “Yoga chitta vritti nirodha”, which means “yoga is the stilling of fluctuations of the mind”- in this our mind, intellect and ego. This tells us what the true essence of Yoga practice really is, the ultimate aim is self-realizaton. Our thoughts can work for us or against us, and yoga practice can help create a pathway to a better understanding of ourselves, to finding well-being, and equanimity.

Unfortunately not all yoga is created equal and more often then not many “western” styles of yoga revolve around aesthetics and making yoga postures look “perfect”, which won’t necessarily evoke a feeling of calmness and composure in everyone. Yoga that’s trauma-informed centres around the practitioner being the best judge of their own experience and their freedom to choose what feels right in their body. It’s about what the pose FEELS like and not what it looks like. When we practice yoga with this mindful awareness we start to recognise and respond to what’s happening in the present moment and realize that even though we may be uncomfortable in a posture, we are still aware, and when we are aware we’re not reacting impulsively in “survival mode”. This can teach us how to just notice and stay present with whatever we’re feeling, allowing it to just be as it is. This is called widening the window of tolerance,  term coined by neuroscientist Dan Seigel, and the wider the window the less reactive to triggers and more resilient we can become.

Thinking of trauma this way, instead of it only being about thoughts and feelings that we have no control over, but as a biological and physiological response that we can learn to “regulate” can help us reframe what trauma is – and this is EMPOWERING which is the opposite of trauma. THis can help us to understand our own complex human experience and the experience of our students as well as everyone around us better, and in affect we may become more compassionate and empathetic. So you can say that being trauma-informed is being people-informed.

What can we do?

There are special evidence-based methods of teaching yoga specifically to trauma survivors, like in TCTSY (an evidence-based adjunctive treatment for complex, developmental trauma or chronic, treatment-resistant PTSD), where I’m currently getting my 300RYT certification. But we don’t all have to finish these long trainings, become a trauma “expert” or even teach special classes for trauma survivors in order to start becoming a yoga teacher who is more informed, aware and sensitive to trauma and how it effects people.

All thats necessary is that we are aware of the widespread impact of trauma on a worldwide level and have a sense of how it effects us on a psychological, physiological, neurological and systemic level. Viewing the world through this trauma-informed lens means understanding humanity as a whole, seeing the suffering and having empathy for it.

Then if we are called to do so, we can start to get educated and sensitive to how we can introduce some conscious changes in the way we interact, teach and approach people in safe ways without bringing any more harm to them than they have already experienced. If we start accepting people and meeting them where they are instead of trying to fix them or judge them, we can co-create safe yoga spaces that help in healing rather than cause harm. Ahimsa is more than non harming it’s an attitude, a quality of mind that invites us to completely accept our students exactly as they are, where they are, without judgement.  

1. Offer a trauma-informed yoga workshop for instructors & students 

By becoming trauma-informed we are able to become better instructors for our students. It may be challenging to embody Ahmisa (non-harming) if we are not educated about how trauma works and how we can cause harm to our students. I know that for me personally this knowledge has not only empowered me and given me tools to heal in my own life, but it has also shifted my perspective and the way in which I teach and hold space.

Unfortunately most 200hr yoga TT’s are not required to teach about trauma, and with the number of trainings on the rise there are many freshly baked yoga instructors without basic knowledge just how much their teaching can impact others. Like it or not, a teacher is an authority figure and if we aren’t sensitive or aware to how trauma works we can cause more harm than good, even with the best intentions.

2. Creating a “safe space”

Trauma often has to do with disempowerment, a feeling of being “trapped”, helplessness and an overall sensation of not being safe inside your own body, but our yoga class doesn’t have to add to these strong emotions. Dr. Stephen Porges coined the term “neuroception” which describes how our body is constantly scanning and looking for cues of safety or danger. THe nervous system looks for these cues within our body, in the external environment, or in facial expressions, body language, tone of voice of other people. This all happens outside of our conscious awareness but we may experience our body, for example we may feel different muscles tensing up or maybe noticing a change in the speed of the heart beating.

When we are aware of this and how our way of being can affect the way someone else feels, we can choose to be more conscious about the way we show up before, after and during our classes. Noticing how we greet our students, how we speak and give cues and maybe trying to foster a sense of connection, friendliness and safety. 

During practice we can continually remind our students that they can drink water, modify, rest or leave the room at any point if they feel the need to – we want to create the opposite feeling of “being trapped”. It’s also important to recognise that not everyone finds laying in darkness with closed eyes in a room full of strangers to be relaxing – it can be triggering. One way to avoid this is by giving power back to our students and avoiding surprises, so being transparent and letting them know that the lights and then reminding them that they can make some CHOICES: to leave the room if they want to, to keep their eyes open/closed, to move around or stay still, or to finish laying down or in any other shape that feels safe enough for their body.

3. Silence, Stillness and darkness

We are all unique and so is the way that trauma is expressed. Not everyone feels calm and relaxed when they are in stillness, silence or when they close their eyes. For populations who have experienced trauma it can be uncomfortable and triggering – bringing up traumatic memories, emotions or bodily sensations. So please consider informing how long the stillness will last and giving the choice to be able to move instead, as well as an option to keep the eyes open instead of closed. And the next time you see “that one student who just won’t shut their eyes”, try to refrain from judgement because they may be experiencing discomfort.

4. Breath is not neutral

Yoga and science both tell us that slow, deep, and mindful breathing practices can bring us a feeling of relaxation as they activate the parasympathetic part of the nervous system which is responsible for rest and digestion. Unfortunately breath is not neutral or experienced the same by everybody and even though it might make sense to tell people to take a deep breath, lots of people with chronic stress or trauma survivors will either find this either impossible or triggering. It’s normal that when a person is anxious and under stress- like when running to work late -they can take small, shallow breaths that are located more in the chest rather than using the diaphragm. But if this happens chronically, the diaphragm muscles start to get stiff and weak, and you can imagine how telling a person who is constricted like this to take deep breaths can make them feel once they realize just how tight everything is inside – it can feel claustrophobic, suffocating and terrifying!

It’s good to keep in mind that this “anxious breath” is not a “bad breath” and we should be careful of the language we use so that we do not shame people for it, because its actually a survival mechanism which creates adrenaline and other chemicals needed to “escape from danger” and keep ourselves protected.

Allowing freedom and giving choice to students in how they want to breath in our class can be liberating rather than imposing, and one way to do this is by using invitational language like: “I am going to guide you through the 3 part breath. You can join me if you like, but if you feel discomfort or find it doesn’t work for you you can drop it, of course”, or “feel free to explore a longer exhale  or stay with your natural rhythm of breath if you prefer”. Sometimes just feeling and following the breath without adding further stress or manipulation to it can be enough. Please keep in mind that for some people, following or changing the breath is a goal, not something they may have access to in that moment.

5. Shared Authentic experience and the impact of authority and imbalance of power

Wether we like it or not, as yoga teachers we become an “authority figure” and its important to remember that this can have a big impact on  people. In her book Trauma and Recovery Judith Herman, psychiatrist, scientist and author, writes about the way trauma leaves us with a feeling of powerlessness, helplessness, ashamed and “trapped”. Someone or something had all the power & control, and we had no way to escape from this life threatening situation.

Often in some yoga circles there is a belief that an “experienced yoga teacher” doesn’t show yoga shapes or practice with their students, instead they stand on the side watching or walk around shouting cues. Unfortunately this can sometimes reinforce this inherent uneven power dynamic between teacher/student. Practicing along with the students however, can encourage a sense of community and camaraderie, “we’re all just balancing on one leg together, feeling the wobbles, and if we loose balance it’s ok. We can just come back into the pose and try again, it’s not that serious!”. Not being in the role of a “yoga expert” and having this sort of shared authentic experience during yoga practice can shift the power dynamic giving power back to our students. 

6. Empowerment, Choice & Using Invitational language

There’s no ideals in yoga, we’re all different that’s why the same yoga shape will look and feel completely different for every person. For this reason, as yoga teachers we can remind our students that what we “instruct” is just an offering, we have no clue how it feels to be in their bodies, they are the best judges of of their own experience. Students should ALWAYS have choice and as a trauma sensitive yoga teacher  we are more of  a guide and not an all knowing “”yoga expert” who knows better what they should do with their body, this  is the opposite of empowerment and it can be damaging.

One way to empower our students is by using invitational language instead of commanding people to “do this” or “do that”. Invitation allows them to choose what works for them, to discover their inner worlds, their likes & dislikes, individuality, intuition and to their inner workings – this is the opposite of the contracted, helplessness and trapped feeling of trauma.

When we aren’t rigidly concentrating on making all of our students to do the shape “perfectly” but instead  giving them freedom to choose from different variations of shapes, we make space for exploration and curiosity. This  is not only empowering, but it may also help to regain a sense of agency – having a feeling of  control in life and the capacity to influence how we feel and our own thoughts and behaviour  – and for people with trauma this can be a very important piece of the puzzle. 

Examples of how we can give choice and use invitational language: “One option to this this pose is this way, another equally valid way is to do it this way”, “Now I invite you to try this”, “If it works for you, you can close your eyes, or keep them open”, “you can stay with your own natural rhythm of breath”, “one possibility is to bend the knees, another possibility is to have them straight, your choice”. 

7. Consent  Culture & practicing Non- coercion

Often in yoga classes we are met with physical adjustments, and that’s awesome because as we all know touch can be extremely healing! However, sometimes this can be triggering to trauma survivors. Knowing prevalent trauma is and how high the chances that someone with a history of trauma will be present in our classes, invites us to minimize the risk of harming by making it a point to ALWAYS ask for consent before doing any adjusting or touching.

The uneven power dynamics between teacher/student and the impact of childhood complex trauma can often interfere with someone’s ability to “say NO”, psychotherapist and complex trauma expert Peter Walker coined this the “fawn response”- a means of escape by pleasing the person threatening you, by ignoring your own needs. SO a student may feel that they have to do physical adjustments because the teacher is an “authority” figure”. This is why I decided to completely stopped giving adjustments, to create an environment of non-coercion, meaning one that supports re-discovery and the empowerment of those who are practicing rather than imposing or forcing my beliefs and experiences.

AS a trauma survivor I had these issues when I first started my yoga practice. When the teacher would give me adjustments I would just freeze and become stiff, my body was telling me it didn’t want it but I didnt understand myself yet or know how to SAY NO. I wanted to fulfil the teachers expectations of me and to fit in, only why did everyone around me seem to enjoy getting adjusted? This only affirmed and strengthened my feelings of alienation and worthlessness. It took me a couple of years, many injuries and a lot of newfound knowledge about trauma before I gained the necessary strength to leave.

If you are stil actively doing adjustments one way you can approach this in a trauma sensitive way  by adding a protocol that makes it easy for you to know who wants adjustments and who doesn’t. Some schools have started introducing coins, where one side means no and the other side means yes, or maybe create your own method.  But please try to remember that not all people are able to say NO, so listen to body language because it doesn’t lie. Can you recognise when a person becomes stiff and freezes?

8. Inclusivity and neutral language

In order to create a more inclusive environment we could start by not using hierarchical language. Our experience of something being “easy or hard”, of going “deeper”, being “comfortable” or even being painful or pleasant is very subjective and it won’t be the same for everybody. It also qualifies things as right and wrong, this takes power away from participants and doesn’t allow them to have their own experience – this is potentially re-traumatizaing. And who are we to say what is advanced or not anyway? A headstand may seem advanced to some people, but to some trauma survivors advanced may mean taking a deep breath. Using adjectives like this may also evoke feelings of being less than in someone who may not be as able bodied as you – this is not the goal of yoga. And besides most of us as yoga teachers  are NOT trained or qualified to assess our yoga students abilities or to diagnose their ailments or injuries. 

We could also try to avoid singling people out and rather addressing our cues to everyone, making them more general. Complementing only one student on how well they’re doing may stir up feelings of inadequacy in others. The same can be true if we call out someones name or even come up to them to “fix” their alignment, instead maybe we can say “now lets all bring awareness to our hips..” When giving different variations of poses, maybe instead of saying “full expression” we can remind students that each option holds equal value, that yoga isn’t about doing the best version of the pose but picking the variation that is the best for our body in this moment. ALl of this may encourage an attitude of non attachment – Aparigraha-  and non-competitiveness – which is important because often how we treat ourselves on the mat is also how we treat ourselves in life.

9. Interoception and Mindfulness

Trauma can often leave survivors feeling unsafe or numb in their own bodies, because of this Interoception – the awareness of physical sensations inside the body- is one of the most important benefits of yoga according to Bessel van der Kolk. This is how our body talks to our mind and it’s important in our wellbeing. So as trauma aware yoga instructors, maybe instead of saying how poses “should” feel we can start to include Interoception. By inviting our participants to experience their bodies for themselves, they could “explore”, “notice”, “sense” or “feel” what’s happening inside their bodies. This creates space to get to know ourselves better and to have a more embodied experience.  

Mindfulness on the other hand, is defined by John Kabat Zin as paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in present moment and non-judgementally, with emphasis on the non judgementally!. So it’s important to note that if we start introducing interception and mindfulness cues in our teaching it’s crucial to emphasise non-judgement and the compassion that may arise from it. Mindfulness without kindness is not mindfulness, and learning how to feel and accept these deep inner sensations and emotions is how we can start to process these “issues in our tissues”.

Adding mindfulness and explorative cues can help participants not only to increase interoceptive abilities such as emotional and body awareness, but also the ability to RECOGNIZE and ACCEPT internal sensations and reactions. As a result with time and practice this can improve the ability to self- regulate and  to learn how to respond to life rather than reacting impulsively and emotionally, or as neuroscientist Dr.Dan Siegel likes to call it instead of “flip our lids”. This is when the limbic part of our  brain takes over and our “wise mind” (neocortex) goes offline and we get hijacked by emotion.  

It’s important to remember however that more is not always better and that interoception can sometimes be too much too soon for trauma survivors who do not yet feel safe in their body and who as an adaptation to NOT feel these big emotions in order to survive learned to numb themselves. One way to reduce the risk of triggering someone is by cuing both internal anchors -bring awareness to your shoulders, do they feel tense?- and external anchors – Notice the sounds around you or where is your gaze/drishti?) of awareness. 

Flowing between these two is like a dance, coming and going from experiencing to being, from inner to outer, from closing to opening. With practice this may teach us that eventually everything changes, and that when things get too intense if we recognise it and stay present with it, avoid the habituated reaction  and then bring our awareness to something else thats more neutral or positive. This can begin to wire us to have greater flexibility in our response by using the power of neurolplastcity to create new neural pathways that can change the mind, brain and nervous system. In other words  with time these uncomfortable emotions may become a little less “scary” and “intense” and transform into the source of our strength and freedom from them. Avoiding things isn’t the answer and sometimes going through discomfort with awareness can be a valuable experience. 

10. Tools for Grounding

Grounding is often taught in yoga classes as it is helpful during meditation as well as with decreasing stress and anxiety by bringing our awareness back into into the present moment, but it can also be helpful to trauma survivors who in order to survive adapted by either being hyper-vigilant and sensitive, or by spacing out and dissociating. Grounding techniques aren’t meant to distract us from what we’re feeling but to orient to non-triggering parts of the present, it helps to differentiate thoughts from emotions, the past from the present, noticing what’s happening and responding to it in a way that doesn’t send us off down a negative spiral. It’s only when we recognise what’s here can we take care of what’s here, reminding our nervous system that in this moment we’re safe, that this is a different situation than the one in the past and that now we have ways and options of how to deal with it. 

One of the more widely used ways for grounding in yoga is bringing awareness to different points of contact, either parts of the body touching the earth or of the sensation of touching your own body, like for example the sensation of your hand on your shoulder or two palms meeting. In mindfulness grounding is more about being aware of what our mind is doing in the present moment. If we notice that our mind is drifting or spacing out instead of judging ourselves for it, we can maybe notice it and then gently bring our awareness back to something in the here and now; like feeling a sensation in the body, hearing a sound,   the temperature, the breath, seeing an external object or the feeling of touching something.

Some examples of incorporating grounding: Bring your awareness to the parts of your body that are touching the ground, what sensation is present there? Give yourself a big hug, can you feel the sensation of your hand touching your shoulder? If you like, place one hand on your belly, can you feel it raising and falling when you breathe? Can you feel the temperature of the air on your skin? 

Some final things to consider 

It’s important to remember that our role as a yoga instructor is not that of a therapist or a doctor, and since trauma and humans are both complex, chances are that yoga probably won’t single handily heal everything. Yoga is just one tool in the tool box among many that may be used for healing, and as yoga instructors  and facilitators we should learn to recognise when we need to back off, how to practice self-care and learn to set boundaries – which may sometimes mean suggesting other resources, like seeking the guidance of a licensed health care provider or something else that may be helpful to them.

With that being said, I believe that every yoga studio and class may have the potential to be a safe space for everyone, in which healing and transformation can happen, but if the experience of others isn’t our priority, we risk doing more harm then good. It is problematic and insensitive to ignore the reality in which we live, this is sometimes called spiritual bypassing. 

So once we are aware of the prevalence and impact of trauma, the humane thing to do is to make changes in ways in which we instruct and to take time to educate ourselves. THis can make the space in which we offer yoga more safe, inclusive, accessible and focused on healing where ahimsa can truly be embodied.