Yoga Therapy in Practice

Trauma exposure is ubiquitous in our society. Over half the general population report having had exposure to at least one traumatic event over their lifetime, with 5% of men and 10.4 % of women developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).1 As described in the DSM-IV-TR, PTSD is characterized by persistent reexperiencing of the traumatic event (intrusions), persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, numbing of general re-sponsiveness, and persistent symptoms of increased physi-ological arousal. Individuals with PTSD have a difficult time calming down or self-regulating, reflected in higher levels of sympathetic nervous system activation and lower heart rate variability, a marker of the autonomic nervous system’s flexibility. 2-