Coping with Depression, Anxiety & Stress: The Healing Effects of a Jail-Based Trauma Sensitive Yoga Program

Abstract

Stress, anxiety and depression, often linked to internalizing/externalizing behaviors, are remarkedly high in a jail-based setting when one’s future is uncertain. While research demonstrates that carceral yoga programs can provide physiological/psychological benefits, persons who are incarcerated, who have high rates of trauma-related experiences and mental illness, might benefit more from a trauma sensitive approach. Empirical studies examining the specific impact of trauma sensitive yoga (TSY) on populations who are incarcerated appear unavailable, necessitating this exploratory investigation with male residents in a TSY intervention at a New York jail. Through pre and post-test interviewing and a mixed methods data analysis, data indicated that those who participated in TSY experienced statistically significant increases in overall health, in addition to statistically significant reductions in stress, anxiety, depression and institutional misconduct. Qualitative analyses suggested that male participants experienced transcendence of the jail environment, easing the monotony of the correctional setting. TSY also provided them with new opportunities, the ability to regulate emotions/behaviors and initiate personal growth/changes within. Hence, this research implies that TSY, a benign intervention, easily implemented in a correctional setting, has the ability to beget benefits for persons who are incarcerated within a short period of time. This is vital to providing rehabilitative options within the transient nature of the jail setting.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Westchester County Department of Correction for their commitment to rehabilitative programming and their assistance in facilitating this project, particularly Commissioner Joseph Spano, First Deputy Commissioner Nory Padilla, and Program Sergeant Marie Reyes. A special thank you to The Westchester Community Foundation for supporting this educational trauma-based intervention for persons who are incarcerated.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 More detail on the specific TSY Program evaluated, Finding Peace Within, can be found at https://findingpeacewithin.info/

2 a two-sample test of proportions found the difference statistically significant; z = 3.262, p < .01.

3 Results of a paired t-test indicated that this difference is statistically significant; t(26)=-4.867, p < .001.

4 Note. None of the program completers reported earning tickets after beginning FPW

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.