Trauma-Sensitive Yoga Teaching Certificate From the Trauma Center at JRI Yoga Program
*This Workshop is Now Full, Registration is Closed
Dates: Four days: Wednesday, January 9, 2008; Thursday, January 10, 2008; Tuesday, May 20, 2008 and Wednesday, May 21, 2008 20 hours syllabus-directed at-home work
Cost: $600; includes all aspects of certificate program, including training, consultation, and materials
Presenters: David Emerson, RYT, Jodi Carey, Dana Moore, M.A.R., M.A., Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.
Location: 1019 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston MA
**Space limited to 25 people
At the Trauma Center at JRI, we have begun to establish empirically that yoga may be helpful for people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (van der Kolk, 2006). Along with feedback such as, “I feel like I can use my body again,” the groundbreaking study that the Trauma Center conducted in 2004 showed that yoga changes core physiology related to PTSD. Since that time, the Trauma Center Yoga Program team has taught hundreds of classes to thousands of students from survivors of rape and childhood incest to Iraq war veterans. We are now offering a 40-hour certificate to certified yoga teachers who would like to teach trauma-sensitive classes in their communities.
Participants in this certificate program will learn:
- How to start up a trauma-sensitive class, including guidance in identifying where such classes might be taught
- How to modify existing yoga classes in order to make them trauma sensitive
- Chair and mat postures that can be taught to individuals with a wide range of physical ability
- Cutting edge theories about trauma including neurophysiology from one of the world’s leaders in the field
The certificate program will consist of the following:
- Four days intensive training, on-site at the Trauma Center in Brookline, MA (Wednesday, January 9, 2008; Thursday, January 10, 2008; two dates in May, 2008 to be determined);
- 20 hours of work at home as directed by the syllabus;
- Availability of members of the Trauma Center Yoga Program for questions/guidance as needed.
In addition, participants may have the opportunity to apply skills by practice teaching a yoga class under the guidance of members of the TC Yoga Program. Participants in past programs who have had the opportunity to apply these skills in their own work will be invited to share with current participants their experience of the use of yoga as a part of healing the wounds of PTSD.
The Training Institute of the Trauma Center at JRI is pleased to present this new program highlighting the work of the TC-JRI Yoga Program team. Comments from participants in past programs led by this team include the following:
“I really enjoyed the combination of theoretical ideas, neurological basis, and experiential practice. The instructors were extremely well-informed, yet patient as they willingly responded to needs of the group.” - LMHC
“The way the presenters supported each other was fabulous, because there were no gaps in what was being presented.” – (degree not given)
“The integration of material and practice came together in a way that truly prepared me to use these tools immediately with a confidence in the process unfolding and evolving….thank you!” – MSW
“The presenters are knowledgeable, passionate, and responsive.” – LMFT
Speakers
David Emerson, RYT the Coordinator of Yoga Services Program at the Trauma Center JRI, is an accomplished yoga instructor and founder of the Black Lotus Yoga Project, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to the teaching of yoga to individuals with PTSD. Mr. Emerson was responsible for the implementation, supervision and oversight of the yoga intervention component of the two recent pilot studies conducted by Dr. van der Kolk to assess the utility and feasibility of yoga instruction with traumatized adults with PTSD. Mr. Emerson has extensive experience in the instruction of yoga with PTSD and mental illness populations, and has developed and conducted yoga groups for several rape crisis, domestic violence, mental health and veterans administration centers and clinics throughout Greater Boston. In addition, Mr. Emerson owns his own yoga studio in Cambridge, MA called Black Lotus Yoga.
Jodi Carey's passion for yoga stems from a deep understanding and love for movement arts, meditation, and dance. At an early age, her training in the performing arts introduced her to the mind/body connection as a craft and tool for self-discovery. She has been practicing and teaching yoga for the past 7 years in various settings that include, holistic clinics, nursing homes, urban youth high schools, yoga studios, fitness centers, and most recently the trauma center in Brookline. Jodi has had formal training in various meditation techniques, healing modalities, holistic counseling, and has certifications in yoga traditions that are recognized by the yoga alliance. For the past two and half years she has taught yoga to students who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, and throughout this time has engaged herself in the research and study of how the emotional body can be accessed through physical movement and awareness. In the field of yoga, we realize that this work is experiential and experimental in nature and her contributions come mostly from these elements. However, she is grateful that her students continue to reveal to her the profound effects that the practice of yoga has on the transformation of the human condition. And through mindfulness, movement, and compassion they can reside in the present more and more, and discover new pathways of peace, courage, and hope.
Dana Moore, M.A. is a staff member of the Trauma Center Yoga Program. Dana studied theology at Yale University Divinity School and counseling psychology at Boston College. He received his yoga teacher training at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health and completed the advanced level of training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare and Society founded by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Dana teaches classes to male trauma survivors and trains therapists how to incorporate yoga and mindfulness exercises into their therapy practices. Dana completed his counseling psychology internship at the Boston Veterans Center in Boston, MA where he used a mindfulness-based psychotherapy approach to treat combat veterans with PTSD. Dana is an oblate of the Pecos Benedictine monastery and a member of the Cambridge Zen Center.
Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., Medical Director and founder of The Trauma Center, has been active as a clinician, researcher and teacher in the area of posttraumatic stress and related phenomena since the 1970s. His work integrates developmental, biological, psychodynamic and interpersonal aspects of the impact of trauma and its treatment. His book Psychological Trauma was the first integrative text on the subject, painting the far ranging impact of trauma on the entire person and the range of therapeutic issues which need to be addressed for recovery. Dr. van der Kolk has taught at universities and hospitals across the United States and around the world, and has published extensively on the impact of trauma on development. He was co-principal investigator of the DSM-IV Field Trials for PTSD, past president of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, a founding member of the Steering Committee of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, and is currently working with colleagues to bring a Developmental Trauma Disorder diagnosis to the DSM-V.
References
van der Kolk (2006). Clinical implications of neuroscience research in PTSD. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1071, 277-293.
Khalsa, S.B.S. (2004). Yoga as a Therapeutic Intervention: A bibliometric Analysis of Published Research Studies. Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, 48, 269-285.
Ray US, Mukhopadhyaya S, Purkayastha SS, Asnani V, Tomer OS, Prashad R, Thakur L, Selvamurthy, W. (2001). Effect of yogic exercises on physical and mental health of young fellowship course trainees. Indian J Physiol Pharmacol, 45, 37-53.
