The Antidote for Racially Induced Trauma? Some Say It’s Yoga

While logging her 200 training hours to become a yoga instructor, Patrice Graham found a personal connection to the trauma-informed practice.

"Trauma-informed yoga typically focuses on veterans, but I thought it was perfect for me to focus on, because I think that to be Black in America is to live a traumatic experience," she says. "As a Black woman, I know firsthand how that feels, and I wanted to bring (yoga) to Black women specifically." In 2017, she founded Colors of Yoga, an inclusive yoga community in Raleigh, North Carolina, and has taught virtual yoga sessions at the Black Mental Health Symposium. "When you think of yoga, you're usually thinking of skinny, blonde, white women," she says. "I think just by changing the face of yoga and changing who's teaching yoga, we can help make it more accessible for different people to connect."Exposure to trauma, whether as a witness or direct victim, is a daily reality for many Black Americans, and research shows a link between race-related stress and anxiety disorders, cardiovascular issues, immunological functioning and sleep disturbances – all of which can adversely affect daily functioning. Yoga focuses on mindful movements, intentional breathing and creating harmony between the mind and body. "Especially after trauma, the most important thing is to notice the difference between an activated state and a relaxed state," says Graham. "So many people are living their lives very activated and unaware that there is another option."Despite its known benefits, yoga isn't universally practiced by the demographics that could benefit most from it. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, non-Hispanic Black people are less likely to turn to yoga than their non-Hispanic white counterparts. Black men in particular could benefit from yoga, since research shows 56% to 74% of Black males exposed to traumatic events may have an unmet need for mental health services. Compassion for the body"Slow, mindful movement is really different (from other exercises), and it bathes your system in feelings of kindness, compassion and nurturing and all the things that people need when they are trying to recover from trauma," says Kristine Weber, founder of Subtle Yoga in Asheville, North Carolina, who guides trauma-informed yoga sessions and teaches mental health professionals to incorporate yoga into their clinical practices. "Recovering from trauma requires a kind and compassionate attitude to your body, so that you're giving the nervous system signals that specifically and directly contradict the fight-or-flight response." Slow, mindful movement in yoga is different from other forms of exercise, which have also proven to counter feelings of anxiety and depression. "When you're running, you're just in fight-or-flight (mode) … similar things are happening neurochemically in the system, so you need something that counteracts that."Typical trauma-informed yoga sessions include holding and repeating certain postures, or asanas, that slowly and carefully address the lived experience, and eventually center on concentrated breathing. "With trauma and anxiety, I don't start people out with the breath, because often that breath is triggering and can remind them of the survival that they had to go through during that specific trauma," Weber says. "We get to the breath, but it takes a little longer. We have to unravel a bunch of stuff in the nervous system first, so we go really slow and mindfully so we feel the sensations in the body as we're working in the poses," she says. "The breath is how you access the autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for that fight-or-flight response."Forward bends and twisting poses help to reduce the hyperarousal of the nervous system, which then reduces anxiety and stress. Reclining or backbend poses like cobra or warrior one help create an uplifting effect. Though she works to create safe spaces for anyone who suffers from anxiety, depression or trauma, Weber notes it is especially difficult to get men interested in yoga, since they often view yoga as wimpy or designed for women, she says. Graham says for yoga to gain traction in the Black community, education is key. "Especially in the South, I think that Black people are predominantly very Christian. And there is a lot of mistrust around yoga and religion," she says, since yoga has roots in Eastern, non-Christian cultures. Heightened response, awareness Following the trauma of George Floyd's murder, Graham began noticing a physical tension when she was around white people. "A lot of folks were being extra friendly. I think that was their response to George Floyd, but I am a pretty chill person, so I felt like, if it's happening to me, I imagine that much more is happening for other Black bodies."

In response to George Floyd's murder, Philadelphia-based yoga practitioner and guide Adriana Adelé offered a free, outdoor yoga series for protestors as a way to address the associated racial trauma. She also offers 90-minute restorative sessions especially for Black people that consist of gentle reclined and seated movement, focused breathing techniques and yoga."Through yoga, I hold space for intentional movement, deep rest, Black well-being, disruption of toxic dominant narratives … and affirmation of our eternal divine wholeness as individuals and in service of collective liberation," Adelé says on her website. Mental health professionals can find trauma-informed yoga practitioners in their community through the International Association of Yoga Therapists. "It's not just about physicians or clinicians telling people to go do yoga," Weber says. "It's about really understanding what yoga can do for them and finding the right practitioners in your community."

First published in Black Mental Health Today, Summer 2022 (Vol. 4).