Treating Complex Trauma Survivors: A Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TSY)-Informed Psychotherapeutic Approach

ABSTRACT

Trauma-sensitive yoga (TSY) is a body-oriented yoga practice, intentionally designed to help complex trauma survivors recover by developing self-awareness, self-regulation, and a benevolent relationship with their bodies. There is a growing body of evidence supporting TSY’s efficacy in reducing participants’ posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and facilitating holistic trauma recovery beyond conventional psychotherapies. Given the promise shown by TSY as an adjunct trauma intervention that is consistent with a trauma-informed approach, it is timely to discuss how counselors can integrate TSY into their psychotherapeutic interventions to optimize trauma recovery. This article begins with a review of the TSY literature, followed by recommendations for counselors to weave TSY-informed interventions into psychotherapy with complex trauma clients, further illustrated in a case vignette.

KEYWORDS:

• Trauma-sensitive yoga (TSY)
• complex trauma
• posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• trauma recovery
• trauma-informed approach
• TSY-informed interventions
• creativity in counseling

Acknowledgement

The author is very grateful to Dr. Corinne Ong for instructing the TSY classes in her original research project with much care and dedication. She is also thankful to her for generously sharing her time to review and edit this article.

Additional information

Funding

This article is part of a dissertation study that was partially funded by a grant from the Chi Sigma Iota Counseling Academic and Professional Honor Society International.