Trauma Healing in the Yoga Zone. A Guide for Mental Health Professionals, Yoga Therapists and Teachers

Preface / Forewords / Acknowledgments
Introduction
Setting the stage for the study of nervous system-informed trauma-sensitive yoga (NITYA)
Raja Yoga and yogic subtle anatomy as a foundation for NITYA therapeutic yoga
The NITYA approach to bringing chair hatha yoga postures into the session or class
Regulating the autonomic nervous system with the breath
Yoga, trauma, and neuroscience
Bringing NITYA into the therapy session
Nervous system-informed, trauma-sensitive yoga nidra
Embodied meditation for trauma survivors
Afterword: Seeing the light
Appendix 1 The NITYA healing model
Appendix 2 Assessment tool
Appendix 3 NITYA chair yoga script – chair yoga warm-up and postures
Appendix 4 NITYA three-part deep breath script
Appendix 5 Four-part NITYA yoga nidra script
List of abbreviations / Bibliography / Index

See inside Trauma Healing in the Yoga Zone…

Joann Lutz MSW LICSW E-RYT developed the model of ‘Nervous-System Informed, Trauma-Sensitive Yoga’ (NITYA), which she describes in detail in this book. Joann has been training mental health professionals internationally for 10 years, as well as offering a certification program in this approach. Now her new book brings her teaching to a wider audience. It describes and explores the model, which is a synthesis of polyvagal theory, classic yoga, somatic psychotherapy, and neuroscience research, organized around the eight stages of classic yoga practice. Three primary needs which this book seeks to meet are as follows:

• Mainstream psychotherapy has, until recently, ignored the body – a major element in the healing of trauma and other emotional and mental dysregulations
• It has also omitted the wisdom to be found in the world’s great spiritual traditions, perpetuating an artificial separation between religion/spirituality and science
• The field is also currently being enriched by empirical data from the field of neuropsychology that describes brain function. The profession is ready to transform and embrace a holistic model and yoga can play a significant role in that transformation. 

Trauma Healing in the Yoga Zone can guide the helping professions at this turning point, in appreciating the role that yoga can play in their evolution, and in incorporating its techniques. Its approach is integrative, in that yoga therapists and teachers can also benefit by gaining a deeper understanding of the nervous system states that underlie the practices.

Primarily intended for mental health professionals and yoga therapists and teachers, Trauma Healing in the Yoga Zone should also be of interest to professionals in allied professions, as well as to individuals interested in yoga and healing.

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Joann Lutz, MSW, LICSW, E-RYT, developer of “Nervous-System Informed, Trauma-Sensitive Yoga,” has been training mental health professionals internationally for six years, as well as offering a certification program in this approach. She was the initiator and co-chair of the 2016 and 2017 national conferences, “Integrating Yoga into Mental Health Care,” (USA), respectively, and continues to teach trauma-sensitive yoga classes to special populations.

She was the New England Coordinator for the Spiritual Emergence Network and created and taught the first East Coast-USA continuing education course on “Spirituality and Social Work” for social workers and other mental health professionals. Her website is www.yogainpsychotherapy.com.