Trauma Informed Yoga

511 Words2 Pages

Around 9.8 million adult American women have experienced violent physical assaults, and 12.1 million women have reported being raped. More than one-third of these women develop posttraumatic stress disorder. (citation) Unfortunately, most people seeking treatment continue to show symptoms and don’t show clinically meaningful improvement. Trauma exposure is related to affect and impulse regulation and most people are unable to deal with their traumatic memories so they end up dropping out of treatment. Mindfulness meditation has been shown to help affect regulation by focusing attention on body awareness. This study tests the effectiveness of trauma-informed yoga and how it compares to receiving women’s health education. The hypothesis of this study was that women with PTSD would show a …show more content…

Women, ages 18 to 58 years old with chronic PTSD that were unresponsive to previous treatment, were recruited and trauma history was obtained by self-report. Once deemed eligible based on alignment with DSM-IV criteria and the Clinical-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) , the participants were randomly assigned to either the trauma-informed yoga class or women’s health education classes for one hour each week for ten weeks. The yoga intervention incorporated breathing, postures, and meditation created by certified yoga professionals with master and doctoral degrees in psychology. The women’s health education class focused on support, active participation, increasing knowledge about health, and increasing self-efficacy. The intervention did not discuss personal trauma but advised women about medical services, issues, and self-care activities. Assessments were made before the treatment, mid-treatment (week 5) and post-treatment (week 10) using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS). The clinicians rating the participants were blind to the treatment condition and assessments were based on in-person reviews and self-report

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