Yoga for Emotional Trauma: Meditations and Practices for Healing Pain and Suffering

by Mary Nurriestearns, Rick Nurriestearns

Many of us have experienced a traumatic event in our lives, whether in childhood or adulthood. This trauma may be emotional, or it may cause intense physical pain. In some cases, it can cause both. Studies have shown that compassion and mindfulness based interventions can help people suffering from trauma to experience less physical and emotional pain in their daily lives. What’s more, many long-time yoga and meditation teachers have a history of teaching these practices to their clients with successful outcomes.

In Yoga for Emotional Trauma, a psychotherapist and a meditation teacher present a yogic approach to emotional trauma by instructing you to apply mindful awareness, breathing, yoga postures, and mantras to their emotional and physical pain. In the book, you’ll learn why yoga is so effective for dealing with emotional trauma.

Yoga and mindfulness can transform trauma into joy. It has done so for countless millions. The practices outlined in this book will teach you how to use and adapt the ancient practices and meditations of yoga for your own healing. Drawing upon practices and philosophy from eastern wisdom traditions, and texts such as the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the Bagavad Gita, and the Buddhist Sutras, this book will take you on a journey into wholeness, one that embraces body, mind and spirit. Inside, you will discover the lasting effect that trauma has on physiology and how yoga resets the nervous system.

Combining yogic principles, gentle yoga postures, and mindfulness practices, this book filled with sustenance and practical support that will move you along your own healing path.

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Health, Psychology, Spirituality

217 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Nicole Westen · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for a ton of yoga poses, this probably isn't it. But if you're looking for a holistic approach to well-being then definitely give this book a try. There are yoga poses, but there is also a lot of discussion of the aspect of mindfulness and forgiveness that is part of yoga as well. Yoga isn't just an exercise it's a way of being at peace with yourself.

[Leigh Anne]

Outstanding in its field, will meet you there.

Of the many yoga books a library could have in its collection, this one is unusual in that it's a consumer-friendly book about the spiritual aspects of yoga. Most of these tend to be very abstruse and off-putting to anyone who isn't already Very Serious about the non-asana yogic pursuits. Nurriestearns and her co-author, however, have produced a work that readers searching for spiritual consolation will find comforting.

Despite the cover image, only one chapter of the book covers physical postures, and even those are linked to spiritual development by virtue of their context in the chakra framework. Each set of positions is meant to correct imbalances in various chakras, and is coupled with specific mantras. The bulk of the book focuses on contemplative practices like metta, self-inquiry, meditation, chanting, lots of breath work, and mindfulness in a variety of situations. There is an entire chapter devoted to physical and emotional pain, which will be of great use not only to trauma survivors but anyone who lives with chronic pain for whatever reason, provided they're open to a spiritual mindset. The book concludes with some suggestions for structuring your practice and a good bibliography.

It's unfortunate that LC doesn't distinguish very well between yoga for exercise and yoga for inner development, lumping them both in to the same general area on the shelf. Recommend this book as a solid pick, but only if your reference interview has determined that your patron is more interested in inner, rather than outer, balance. Strongly recommended for all collections, as there is not a person in this wide, wide world who has not suffered.

[Tasha Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Received eArc from netgalley and publisher in exchange for honest review enjoyed the beginning so much I bought the paperback version

[Sara Thompson · Rating 1 out of 5]

There was a lot of writing and very little yoga in this book. I understand that it says meditations and practices for healing but the title of the book is Yoga for Emotional Trauma. Only one chapter actually had yoga poses.
In first reading this book, I thought this would be one I'd recommend to someone who was already in treatment for trauma. However, come the middle of the book, I began to wonder if this would be a book I'd recommend at all. It comes across, to me at least, as very clinical. Might be a great book for therapists or someone who works with those with emotional trauma. I, personally, wouldn't recommend it to someone who was going through a traumatic experience. No one wants to read several chapters of how trauma effects the body when they are already under the stress of it.

[Shannon Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I liked this book. The ideas practices are all things I do regularly and have found great benefit from in my own life for managing my mental health.

Very broad subject matter - covers everything from the physiology of trauma to the lasting effects, optical effects on mental health and spirituality. I wouldn't recommend this if you're specifically looking for yoga asanas (physical poses), as this is only covered for one chapter of the book. The rest is filled with background information or discussions of mindfulness and its benefits.

I found the writing itself to be fairly amateur and simplistic, but easy to follow. There was frequent reference to research literature, but was poorly communicated (ex. "This researcher proved that yoga was beneficial for healing trauma" how? Why? By what mechanism?).

[Monique Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can’t heal if the who of trauma is present

For some odd reason, the most profound information I got was two things, 1) trauma has a memory and that memory lives deep within your nervous system 2) you cannot heal if what and who of trauma is present. We have all sought therapists, joined a church, dumped a guy/girl/friends, relocated, took a new hobby or started practicing a form of meditation or prayers, only to realize that something til is not right. As simple as it was I needed to hear it, to know that it isn’t that ai am not progressing, but rather delayed because the same energy clings around my good will. We need to adapt our strategy and seek a profound source.

[Ania Gaska · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were a lot of great tools and helpful ideas early on in the book, certainly worth reading! Towards the end it felt like there was less substance but there are plenty of good reminders in there.

[Lucy Schenk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you for this book. It is powerful and inspiring.

[Danni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting idea

[LaGina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this holistic approach to the healing aspect of mindfulness and forgiveness that really goes along with yoga.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 This book goes in depth with really understanding yourself, and your feelings (especially about yourself) and basically how you carry yourself. It uses yoga and meditation to streamline you, into feelings of peace and acceptance, despite what you have endured throughout your life. Throughout the book the authors include bits and pieces from their lives, giving credence to their writing. I do wish that there was a bit more personal info about the authors, but I understand their emphasis was on instructional, rather than memoir. And it is an easy book to read. Sometimes I flipped through it taking pieces that caught my attention. Other times I read chapters straight through. I also did some of the exercises with my son, who among other things has ADHD. He was able to do a couple exercises that would have thrown his therapist off, as previously they “provoked anxiety”-- meaning he freaked out and instead of calming down started hyperventilating. Some of the ideas in the book I have read about before elsewhere, but it is nice to have them centrally located. And a lot of the information, suggestions, and explanations were new to me. The book definitely left me with a better understanding of myself, and some tools to work through some of the crazier stuff in my life. My single-poor-mama-ness has left me seeking out free week passes and the like for my classes, usually the arthritic classes, and I use a DVD at home, so I don’t have a way to include suggestions with someone monitoring there hold or effectiveness, but overall I think the book is helpful and well thought out. The writers genuinely want to help others through their own experiences, which were not always pleasant. I think that if there were a complimentary workbook that this could be incorporated into women’s shelters, support groups, etc., and with the correct instruction be a very dramatic presence in many lives.
I actually read this book last month, after I won it in a first-reads, and then passed it off to a friend to read before I reviewed it. I am not a “super-yoga” person, I never do anything more than basic yoga or Pilates, and my friend does it all. After she read it, she confirmed most of my feelings, so I feel better writing about this book now. I didn’t want my lack of knowledge to wrongly influence what I thought of the book, but I also thought it was well written for people without much knowledge. I include this because the book was capable of helping both of us, despite the extremes of our knowledge. If you find the book description interesting then you should read the book, it is well explained and predictable.

[Zimes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book on Goodreads. While I enjoyed the yoga aspects of the book, I felt like it could have more practical physical help and less emotional. This is not the type of book I would ever buy for myself but I understand the appeal. It was easy to understand and the authors take you through the mental exercises in very easy to understand language. I would recommend this book to someone who was having stress or trauma in their life but not to someone who wanted a better or deeper knowledge of the physical side to yoga.

[Katthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it enough. It's sort of useful to have this information. But to be completely frank, most of this book is in the realm of psychology rather than the western idea of "yoga." I'm fine with that, but I don't know if most people would be.

[Jamie Holloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

I posted a book review on my Jamie Chases Butterflies blog

[Michelle Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly helpful for understanding the effects of trauma and how to release it!!!

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

So glad to have this book along with my experience in my two day seminar with Mary.
Awesome, body based wisdom for healing what hurts (mind, body and soul).

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and clear theory and methods for helping one's self and others to heal from trauma via yoga. Excellent!

[Bridget Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative and well written. Would be good for all to read, not just practiioners.