Trauma-Informed Yoga for Pain Management - by Yael Calhoun (Paperback)

About the Book

This is a trauma-informed roadmap for professionals on how to teach yoga for pain management for various populations and settings. Based in the complex science of physical and emotional pain, this book focusses on the importance of safety, empowerment, and simplicity, and provides a detailed program of practice for professionals to adopt.

Book Synopsis

This ground-breaking book offers a trauma-informed guide for everyone seeking guidance on body-based strategies for pain management. Centred around principles of building a sense of safety, supporting empowerment, and maintaining simplicity, this book takes an evidence-based approach offering clear and inclusive programs of practice.

Trauma-Informed Yoga for Pain Management first explores the complex science of pain, including the Polyvagal Theory and the science of breathing. It also explores why simple stretching, gentle strengthening, and mindful breathing are effective tools for pain management. The book then presents clear ways in which to make any program trauma-informed. The final section commands half of the book and provides many easy-to-use practices, ranging from two to ninety minutes. These trauma-informed practices are designed for anyone seeking to manage pain through stretching, strengthening, and breathwork. Supplemental materials are included to support any program: handouts, audio recordings, and many other materials.

This pioneering and practical guide meets people where they are, setting everyone up for success as they learn pain management strategies and ways to heal.

Review Quotes

Trauma-Informed Yoga for Pain Management is a remarkable contribution to the field of trauma-informed care. Yael, a seasoned practitioner, has poured her extensive knowledge and experience into this guide, making it an invaluable and approachable resource. The book beautifully merges the science and art of trauma-informed care, helping all of us learn and apply pain management strategies and healing techniques. I am so grateful that this book is now a permanent resource in my practitioner library.
--Kate O'Farrell, PhD

Yael Calhoun has created an invaluable resource for practitioners, instructors and patients. Attention to anatomical and physiological details render each chapter accurate yet easy to read. Illustrations add understanding of important scientific mechanisms. This book is a delight to read and will enrich yoga practice for all who have experienced trauma in their lives.
--Margaret F. Clayton APRN, PhD, FAAN Professor Emerita University of Utah

Based on my 24 years of experience providing yoga practices for those with chronic physiological pain and complex psychological disturbances, it's clear that Yael Calhoun's approach to trauma-informed yoga has connected all the dots for working with pain management in this all-encompassing manual. It is thoroughly educational on the subject matter, evidence-based, and provides excellent guidance for leading easy-to-perform and effective practices.
--James Fox, Founding Director of the Prison Yoga Project

Here's a thorough and totally practical mind-body guide for pain management. It is informed by years of teaching trauma-informed yoga to veterans, refugees, incarcerated people, and the health care professionals working with clients among these diverse populations. I hope this book is as widely read by yoga teachers and front-line therapists helping guide trauma survivors to wholeness as it deserves to be.
--Rob Schware, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of the Give Back Yoga Foundation.

In Trauma Informed Yoga for Pain Management, Calhoun guides people with persisting pain, and their yoga teachers, in an important evolution - into an understanding of how to practice yoga in a way that address the interplay of mental health and physical health issues. The book's focus on techniques grounded in science and supported by lived experiences is exactly what so many readers need.
--Neil Pearson, Physical Therapist, Yoga Therapist, Clinical Associate Professor UBC, and co-author/editor of Yoga and Science in Pain Care

About the Author

Yael Calhoun, MA, MS, E-RYT is an long-time educator and author with a background in teaching yoga as a tool to address trauma, stress, pain, special needs, and compassion fatigue. She is a writer and series editor of over 20 books and training manuals. In 2007, she cofounded GreenTREE Yoga, a non-profit organisation dedicated to bringing the benefits of yoga to underserved populations and to those who serve them.
Yael started the trauma-informed yoga program at the Salt Lake City Veterans Adminstration in 2010, which then expanded to pain management. The programs for refugees have been translated into six languages. She has presented nationally including at the United Nations Global Summit and the Trauma Resiliency Council. Yael runs continuing education training and workshops for yoga teachers and clinicians. She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.