Healing Childhood Abuse with Yoga

The Healing Childhood Abuse with Yoga program (HCAY) serves youngsters who have suffered severe sexual and physical abuse came out of our observations that a large percentage of homeless youth have suffered, and in many cases continue to suffer (through prostitution and violent, predatory relationships) such traumas.

The HCAY program focuses on youth currently receiving treatment for their abuse, and it is a unique partnership between yoga teachers, therapists, case workers and researchers.

Tristan is eleven years old and can hardly sit or stand without extreme fidgeting. His edgy hyper-vigilance is a direct outcome of the severe abuse he suffered when younger. Before he turns to drugs to numb his pain, before he runs away from himself onto the streets, before he expresses his severe pain through prostitution or other high risk sexual behavior, we want to help him restore a feeling of safety within his own body. This key step is a foundation for all his subsequent healing.

Our initial work with Tristan and his group yielded small successes which we are striving to deepen and repeat. At first, he was unable to sit still for half an inhale. He would look over his shoulder, spin around, chatter, and move his limbs as if trying to catch flying popcorn. After a month, he was able to sit in stillness for five slow breath cycles, and was able at other times to move his energy through a brief yoga series to bring himself calm.

Program Areas

As we more fully build this program, we will include:

• Weekly yoga classes for youth in various ongoing treatment groups, serving different populations of abuse survivors

• Monthly wellness workshops for the youth (self-care, nutrition, skin-care...)

• Weekly yoga classes for the staff and counselors who serve the youth

• Regular workshops for staff, therapists, counselors and caregivers on selected topics which correlate the ongoing yoga practices with the other therapies the youth are receiving.

The intention of this integrated approach is to create an environment where providers and caregivers help the children manage stress, handle huge emotions, identify triggers, find calm, and learn to act out in positive ways. At the same time both providers and youth will build tangible personal wellness and healthful lifelong habits.

Benefits

The project's impact will be direct, and will positively affect not only the youth, but their caregivers and guardians as well. Anticipated outcomes include helping youth:

• build compact, lifelong personal wellness practices

• heal from specific manifestations of traumatic abuse

• learn new body, self-care and communication skills

• handle crisis situations, cultivate calm, and avert violence

• learn to control how they behave.

And finally, an added benefit is that this program will give counselors, therapists, caregivers a common language of movement, breathing and meditation to share with the youth.

Hope

The echoes of abuse last a lifetime. It is only through rebuilding some measure of trust and control over one's body and mind that healing can deepen enough to overpower the fear, and permeate every cell of ones being.