Debra Alvis – Bringing Trauma-Informed Yoga into Mental Health Clinical Practice

Outline

The Yoga Tradition and Neuropsychology

• Yoga, Patanjali and MIR’s
• The importance of heart rate variability (HRV)

Embodied Psychotherapy

• The Triune Brain: left out of traditional psychotherapy?
• Regulating the brain’s trauma center
• Tracking body sensation and breathing deeply
• A frame of reference from Somatic Psychotherapy
• Neuroplasticity and interpersonal neurobiology

Apply Trauma-Informed Yoga Postures in the Psychotherapy Session for PTSD, Anxiety and Depression

• The evidence in evidence-based yoga practice
• Yoga and polarities
• Guided script for chair yoga:
  • 5 trauma-informed chair yoga postures
  • Guiding and integrating the poses into your existing treatment modality (EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, etc.)
• Chair trauma-yoga:
  • Tracking body sensation
  • Gaining self-mastery
  • Increasing self-regulation
  • Expanding present-moment awareness
• Experience a chair yoga warm up and posture sequence

Yoga and the Breath

• Respiration and the autonomic nervous system (ANS)
• Breathing techniques to regulate the ANS and calm symptoms of trauma, anxiety and depression
• Experience the three-part deep breath and script

Structure of the Embodied Psychotherapy Session or Group

• Evaluating the client
• Opening the session
• Healing polarities:
  • Inner/outer
  • Sympathetic/parasympathetic activation
  • Sensing/action
  • Cognitive/somatic
• Healthy symptoms of trauma discharge
• Key points in making referrals to yoga classes

Therapeutic Value of Yoga Nidra (Yogic Sleep)

• The benefits of sleeping while awake
• Varieties of Yoga Nidra
• Guided experience of Satchidananda’s Yoga Nidra
• Discussion of Yoga Nidra script

Using Meditation

• The relaxation response
• Mindfulness meditation: open-focused meditation
• A guided experience of both styles of meditation
• The benefits of meditation in the trauma psychotherapy session

Case Study