There is no question that there is increasing awareness of the healing power of yoga in the context of mental health. Especially promising is our growing understanding of the potential benefits of yoga for people with histories of trauma, as well as those who have developed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

In the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, van der Kolk et al., share their findings from a randomized controlled trial that showed that a 10-week trauma-sensitive yoga program significantly reduced posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in women with chronic treatment-resistant PTSD.

Because the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry isn’t open access, the full text of the article is only accessible through a university library. You can view the abstract here: http://article.psychiatrist.com/dao_1-login.asp?ID=10008683&RSID=93503231545779

This is certainly an exciting time to be working at the intersection of yoga and mental health!

Reference:

van der Kolk, B., Stone, L., West, J., Rhodes, A., Emerson, D., Suvak, M., and Spinazzola, J. Yoga as an Adjunctive Treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial. J Clin Psychiatry 2014;75(6):e559–e565.