Overcoming Trauma through Yoga

Reclaiming Your Body

By: David Emerson, Elizabeth Hopper Ph.D.

Narrated by: Kate Marcin

A trauma-informed approach to healing body and mind: an evidence-based yoga program for survivors, clinicians, and yoga teachers

Research-backed and trauma-informed, this book introduces a yoga program that helps readers heal from the cognitive, emotional, and physiological symptoms of PTSD. From managing triggers to accessing safety, the approaches and exercises presented in Overcoming Trauma through Yoga are deeply practical and grounded in what survivors need to know to heal from the effects of trauma.

The book opens with an introduction written by Bessel van der Kolk, moving into a transformative approach to recovery that was developed by experts at the Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute. The program facilitates somatic healing through gentle breath, mindfulness, and movement practices, and offers insights on the specific needs of trauma survivors practicing yoga at home or in class: adjusting pace, creating safety, accessing empowered choice, and more.

The final chapters offer specific guidance and practical, trauma-informed insights for:

• Survivors to develop a trauma-sensitive practice at home and in the studio
• Clinicians to integrate yoga into clinical care, pair yoga-based interventions with therapeutic goals, and address challenges to yoga-based strategies
• Yoga teachers to build trauma-sensitive yoga classes and learn best practices for responding to triggered responses

“In this landmark book, the authors offer survivors a gentle, step-by-step, mindful yoga that is tailored for their specific needs…it is a great companion and guide to those taking the journey of recovery from trauma to wholeness” (Peter A. Levine).

Valuable for teachers!

The AI voice reading the book out loud was awful, this story needs a human with….a compassionate real voice!!

Life saving!!!

Thank you! this book will be extremely beneficial to me as an instructor working with trauma survivors!

Great resource

I teach yoga to trauma victims and this has been a very helpful book for me to better understand and change my language.

a gentle yet emphatic primer on yoga for trauma

A practical book that emphasizes heavily the importance of gentle and protective behavior towards the psychologically wounded.

I felt my own activation on several points. I trust this book will both reduce harm and increase healing for anyone who needs it.

info is good, narrator is not as good

the narrator was rushed it felt like I was listening to a robot read this this is a very sensitive topic it should be Redwood sensitivity and compassion and not in a robotic sterile voice. it almost felt like the narrator was uncomfortable with the material and was hurrying to get through it I didn't feel as though the narrator connected with the word she was speaking therefore I had a hard time connecting with the material I was hearing. I feel like with a different narrator this could be a much better audiobook