PTSD: What Yoga Teachers Need to Know

Apr 22, 2020

In this episode of the YHC Podcast, Cate sits down with Anissa Hudak, a yoga therapist and two-time rape survivor who works with people with PTSD.

 

What you’ll get out of tuning in:

• How yoga therapy works for people with PTSD
• How to work with people with PTSD
• Why PTSD education is so important for yoga teachers and other wellness pros

Links Mentioned in Episode:

 

• The Body Keeps the Score
• Robert Levine
• Body Thrive
• Yoga Health Coaching

Timestamps: 

• 0:25-7:35 - Anissa talks about her own experiences and the importance of getting training for working with people with PTSD.
• 7:36-12:30 -  How yoga therapy works for people with PTSD.
• 12:30-14:00 - The importance of languaging when working with people with PTSD.
• 14:00-16:03 - Cate and Anissa discuss the idea that we all have PTSD. 
• 16:04-23:42 - Additional recommendations for wellness pros who are working with people with PTSD.
• 23:43-26:00 - Cate and Anissa discuss yoga as a complement to other therapies. 
• 26:00-27:09 - Closing thoughts and recommendations.

Favorite Quotes:

• “Education became knowledge, and it became powerful because I could choose how I wanted to respond.” --- Anissa Hudak
• “My job is to get the baggage out of their body. It is not to do talk therapy. I am not a talk therapist. . . .That is not my scope of practice.” --- Anissa Hudak
• “There is no way we could be living this human experience that we’re living in this day and age without all of us having some sort of PTSD.” --- Anissa Hudak
• “Yoga is about releasing. Folks might have an emotional release on the mat. You may not understand it. . . . How are you going to handle when someone has that emotional release on their mat?” --- Anissa Hudak

Guest BIO:

As a Yoga Therapist and the founder of the Trauma Healing Yoga Therapy Program, Anissa Hudak works with women who have been sexually traumatized to help them heal their PTSD (and other trauma-related issues) with yoga therapy. As a 2x rape survivor, she intimately understands the needs these women face and helps them navigate their healing journeys.