By Jennifer Eder
According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder occurs in about 12 to 20 percent of veterans from the war in Iraq.
The numbers are even higher for Vietnam veterans.
A national program called Yoga Warriors is trying to lower those statistics by getting veterans and others who suffer from PTSD to practice yoga.
“The symptoms of PTSD can be so severe that they impair daily life, and while there are a number of treatment options, one in particular is emerging to the forefront with astounding success – yoga,” says Lucy Cimini, the founding director of Yoga Warriors, which grew out of her yoga studio called Central Mass Yoga and Wellness in West Boylston, Mass.
Last week, Ms. Cimini partnered with GW’s Department of Exercise Science in the School of Public Health and Health Services to conduct a Yoga Warriors teacher training workshop. The workshop, which was held in Building K on Friday and Saturday, drew people from across the country to further their yoga practice and learn how to teach yoga to military personnel and veterans battling combat stress or PTSD.
Three students and the director of GW’s Yoga Teacher Education Program participated in the workshop.
“Although I’ve been teaching yoga for 20 years and practicing for 35 years and am married to a solider, I don’t feel like I have the skills to teach PTSD victims,” says Jacque Johnson, an adjunct instructor in the Exercise Science Department and a doctoral student in the School of Education and Human Development. “I wanted the special training.”
The Yoga Warriors teacher training program provides education in PTSD causes and symptoms, the use of restorative yoga in a therapeutic setting and the unique challenges of this population.
“PTSD is based around memories. When people do Yoga Warriors, they get out of their brain and more into their body,” says Ms. Cimini.
GW’s Yoga Teacher Education Program, which is open to both undergraduate and graduate students, began in the fall of 2008 and today has 15 students enrolled. Students take a total of nine credit hours, including a three-credit-hour course on ancient yoga practices and the meaning of life, three technique courses, a teaching methodology course, an anatomy class and a practicum. GW is one of only three universities in the country to offer a 200-hour yoga certification program, which certifies students through the Yoga Alliance – the national education and support organization for yoga.
The students teach a free yoga class at noon on Tuesday and Thursday at the main gym in Building K. GW students, faculty and staff are all invited to participate.
Emily Rasowsky, a sophomore in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, has been practicing yoga since she was 10 years old. While she’s majoring in economics, she wants to teach yoga at least on a part-time level,
Nichole Danray, a graduate student in the School of Public Health and Health Services studying health promotion and an adjunct instructor in massage therapy in the Exercise Science Department, wants to combine her passion for yoga and massage therapy.
“It’s another tool for me to help people,” says Ms. Danray.
Ms. Rasowsky was interested in taking the Yoga Warriors teaching training program because she believes in the healing powers of yoga. Ms. Rasowsky works with rape victims through her organization she started on campus called GW Students Against Sexual Assault.
“Some of the breathing techniques I have learned in my yoga classes, I use when I’m talking to rape trauma survivors,” she says. “I’ve always been really interested in using yoga to help calm them down in order to really connect with them and work with them.”