Many of the symptoms of traumatic stress are due to an imbalance in the autonomic nervous system. By definition, trauma refers to any event that overwhelms our capacity to mentally, emotionally, and physically cope with or process the experience. Trauma survivors are often flooded by intrusive sensations or emotions and as a result can become hypervigilant to their surrounds, avoid places that remind them of their experiences, suffer from panic or want to shut down with fatigue and depression. Interventions that focus on telling the story about your experience or distressing events from the past are often insufficient to facilitate trauma recovery. Since these symptoms are as much physical as they are psychological, we need body-centered interventions to rebalance the body and mind. Without interventions that incorporate somatic awareness and movement, many therapeutic approaches are limited in their ability help clients fully release the impact of traumatic events. In other words, we cannot simply think our way out of traumatic activation.
Yoga is one such path to healing, offering tools to address these physiological imbalances through practices that allow clients to sense their body, change how they breathe, move stuck energy, and rest into stillness. Through the lens of interpersonal biology, polyvagal theory, and somatic psychology, you will explore the physiological repercussions of stressful or traumatic events.
Somatic Psychology emphasizes body awareness as an essential part of psychotherapy. When we observe the natural world, we see that animals have natural, inborn survival instincts that help them respond to threatening experiences. Within this course, we will explore how stress or trauma can get held in the body. When left unaddressed, these physical patterns can contribute to somatic symptoms and the worsening of mental and emotional health. When integrated into psychotherapy, simple yoga postures and movements can help clients access positive states of empowerment, strength, and relaxation.
At its core, therapeutic yoga bridges a path of healing between the psyche and the body. Dr. Arielle Schwartz brings over twenty years of experience as a trained somatic psychotherapist, trauma treatment expert, and yoga instructor. Through the lens of polyvagal theory, you will learn how the vagus nerve is a bi-directional information highway between mind and body—more importantly, you will learn to fine-tune mental and physical health with breath, movement, and awareness practices that can easily be integrated within psychotherapy.
Yoga offers a wide range of practices that facilitate brain and body integration through simple cross-lateral movements that can be used to assist therapy interventions by enhancing an integrated, felt-sense of self.
Yoga offers a wide range of practices that facilitate the integration of brain and body through simple crosswise movements and can be used as a support to therapeutic interventions to promote an integrated, felt sense of self.
