Trauma Healing in the Yoga Zone: A Guide for Mental Health Professionals, Yoga Therapists and Teachers

by Joann Lutz

Overview

Trauma Healing in the Yoga Zone describes an original model of "Nervous System Informed, Trauma-Sensitive Yoga," (NITYA), a synthesis of classical yoga, somatic psychotherapy, and neuroscience research. It is organized around the eight branches of Raja Yoga, and includes scripts for administering NITYA chair yoga postures, breathing practices, and yoga nidra (the yogic sleep). These can be used by helping professionals with all levels of familiarity with yoga.

The book is needed for several reasons: for mental health professionals, it offers a comprehensive overview of yoga philosophy and practices, as well as yoga-based options for working with the client's embodied experience, a major element in trauma healing. For yoga professionals and practitioners, it provides insight into the natural integration of yoga with polyvagal theory and other current approaches in the field of somatic psychology. Both professions are currently being enriched by data from the field of neuropsychology that describes brain function, in real time, in various mental and emotional states. This data supports yoga's effectiveness in regulating the autonomic nervous system, a key to trauma recovery.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781912085071
Publisher:	Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Publication date:	06/30/2021
Pages:	168
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.61(h) x 0.39(d)

About the Author

Joann Lutz, MSW, LICSW, E-RYT, developer of "Nervous-System Informed, Trauma-Sensitive Yoga," has been training mental health professionals internationally for six years, as well as offering a certification program in this approach. She was the initiator and co-chair of the 2016 and 2017 national conferences, "Integrating Yoga into Mental Health Care," (USA), respectively, and continues to teach trauma-sensitive yoga classes to special populations.
She was the New England Coordinator for the Spiritual Emergence Network and created and taught the first East Coast-USA continuing education course on "Spirituality and Social Work" for social workers and other mental health professionals. Her website is www.yogainpsychotherapy.com.

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Barbara J. Gosse, MSOM (Northwestern Health Sciences University)
Description: This book thoroughly describes the brain's function and sympathetic/parasympathetic responses to trauma. It is structured in a way that teaches therapists, yoga instructors, educators, and practitioners of natural medicine through a process of assessing and guiding their clients/patients into a natural process along their healing path of trauma.
Purpose: This book is a guide for practitioners working with clients/patients experiencing a history of trauma. It introduces natural tools and techniques using yoga practices to assess, teach, and guide the client/patient to identify and practice techniques that aid in their healing, growth, and development. The book is a welcome and needed set of tools that can empower the client/patient to take an active role in their health. The inclusion of brain function along with the articulate descriptions of yoga poses does a comprehensive job of meeting the objectives of providing a natural option to one's health.
Audience: The book is written for all practitioners who have an interest in building natural tools to help guide their clients/patients to health. The author gives a warm and comprehensive process guiding practitioners through assessing and teaching their clients/patients natural tools to aid in healing psychological trauma. She is both a psychotherapist and yoga instructor. These combined skills provide highly credible skill sets for training practitioners in providing natural options of care.
Features: The beginning of the book describes the biochemical effects of trauma and gracefully weaves the historical concepts of yoga poses to help intervene in the sympathetic/para-sympathetic responses to trauma. The author provides a complete guide to assessing the yoga poses along with the potential cautions of the individual poses for a particular individual's case. The book introduces gentle to complex poses and provides both clear images as well as articulate descriptions of how and when to use a particular pose or series of poses. The book is comprehensive, and the author properly cautions practitioners on its use. My only concern might be a practitioner assuming they are versed at assessing an individual's trauma experience and provide incorrect recommendations. This is not the fault of the author, but rather the over simplified assumptions of a practitioner.
Assessment: This is a great introduction to guiding clients/patients and practitioners through the science of brain function as it relates to trauma, as well as introducing applicable ancient yoga concepts and practices to modern science. The book is well thought through. It is one of very few sources that incorporates both science and historical practices to augment healing.

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