Bringing Trauma-Informed Yoga into Mental Health Clinical Practice

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Joann Lutz, MSW, LICSW, E-RYT, C-IAYT Related seminars and products

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Joann Lutz, MSW, LICSW, E-RYT, C-IAYT, is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, a Certified Yoga Therapist with the International Association of Yoga Therapists, an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance, and a Certified Ayurvedic Yoga Therapist.

She is also certified in EMDR and Psychosynthesis. She had a private practice in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she incorporated trauma-informed yoga into groups for combat veterans, clients recovering from psychiatric disorders, and others. She has practiced and taught Integral Yoga for over 35 years, and was a guest teacher at Omega Institute; Harbin Hot Springs; Rowe Conference Center and Sivananda Yoga Retreat, Bahamas, among other venues.

Joann completed 40 hours of trauma-sensitive yoga training with The Trauma Center in Boston, MA. She has been training mental health professionals to bring trauma-informed yoga into their practices nationally and internationally for the past 7 years, bringing this work to universities, conferences, hospitals, ashrams and yoga centers. Her CEU course, “Bringing Yoga into Social Work Practice,” was published by the National Association of Social Workers, Ma. Chapter, in 2014.

Her paper, "Classical Yoga Postures as a Psychotherapeutic Intervention for Autonomic Nervous System Regulation" was published in Proceedings of the Yoga and Psyche Conference (2014), by Cambridge Scholars Press. Her book, Trauma Healing in the Yoga Zone, is forthcoming from Handspring Publishers.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Joann Lutz maintains a private practice. She receives royalties as a published author. Joann Lutz receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Joann Lutz has no relevant non-financial relationships.

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Objectives

1. Evaluate ways that autonomic nervous system dysregulation contributes to PTSD symptoms.
2. Ascertain symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder which can be decreased through trauma-sensitive yoga practice.
3. Practice trauma-informed chair yoga postures for use in the individual or group psychotherapy session.
4. Determine the benefits of bringing yogic deep relaxation into the therapy session.
5. Specify yogic strategies to reduce anxiety and depression.
6. Apply applications of chair yoga and three-part deep breathing practices into your clinical work, using scripts and practice sessions.

Outline

• Yoga, Patanjali and MRI’s
• The importance of heart rate variability (HRV)
• Yoga as a complete system of energy medicine

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

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

• 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

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Psychotherapists
• Social Workers
• Case Managers
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Addiction Counselors
• Nurses
• Nurse Practitioners
• Clinical Nurse Specialists
• Other Mental Health Professional
• Occupational Therapists
• Occupational Therapy Assistants

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