The Body Remembers Stress and Trauma: Teaching People Grounding Techniques by Moving the Breath and Body in Harmony

Course Length: This course takes a minimum of 4.75 hours to complete. 

For the University at Buffalo School of Social Work Office of Continuing Education Trauma-Informed Certificate Programs: This course may be counted to fulfill the full requirement for Grounding & Experiential Methods course in the Trauma-Informed Care & Counseling Certificate Program or as 4.75 Elective hours in the Online Trauma-Informed Clinical Foundation Certificate Program. Visit the certificate programs website at www.socialwork.buffalo.edu/conted/traumacert     

Description:

This video training is for staff in various mental health, substance abuse and other counseling or therapy roles, who have some experience and wish to incorporate breathing and yoga-based body movement as well as mindfulness techniques into trauma treatment with adults and adolescents. These are activities that can be taught and used in typical outpatient office settings as well as inpatient programs. Five role-play demonstrations are included in the course videos. The use of breathwork and yoga-based body movement are grounding techniques useful with trauma survivors or others who need to decrease hyperarousal, learn self-regulation and improve their ability to redirect their attention away from repetitive thought. How these techniques are taught when working with trauma survivors is very important as the approach differs from traditional yoga classes with attention given to trauma-sensitive language. The guiding principles of trauma-informed care are integrated into this process to ensure the client feels safe, is able to establish a sense of trustworthiness with the clinician, feels empowered to be in control of their own learning and healing, is able to make choices about what feels comfortable for them, and moves through learning about breathwork and yoga in a collaborative process with the clinician.

Current research shows that proper breathing and learning to become more aware of our body and breathing, which is a key component of yoga, can help change the core physiology related to post-traumatic stress disorder. We begin to notice our body, where we hold it tight and learn to relax it as we re-learn how to breathe diaphragmatically restoring healthy balance in our nervous system. Tightness, tension, and stress lessens; we feel more energized and relaxed as we move our body in harmony with our breath. The brain/body and mind are inextricably connected. Changes in any one affect the other. Sometimes traumatic events occur in our lives that make us feel intense stress and overwhelm our entire being, especially our biological balance. Chemicals and hormones in our body are altered causing us to feel hyper-aroused, numb and possibly experience intrusive memories of the event. Feelings like anger, loss of control arise. Our body can either freeze or become over-reactive to certain situations. Due to part of the brain freezing, we have difficulty putting our feelings into words. Memories of the event are stored in our body which we can feel as tightness, pain or even the inability to feel our body.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify how trauma disrupts the alignment of the body, mind and spirit;
• Review the research base for the benefits of breathing  and yoga on traumatic stress;
• Identify the benefits of using yoga with survivors of trauma as well as the benefits of diaphragmatic breathing and yoga for pain management;
• Use specific techniques when working with adolescents and adults who have been traumatized to ensure their safety, power, intimacy, trust and esteem by teaching them to use their diaphragmatic breath and increase their awareness of their own sensations through rhythmic body movements that decrease hyperarousal, enhance self-regulation and improve their ability to redirect their attention away from repetitive thought.

Course Outline:

Module 1: Overview of Trauma

Module 1A: Psychoeducation Role Play

Module 2: Trauma’s Impact on Memory, Space and Time

Module 2A: Feeling and Sensing Role Play

Module 3: Healing from Trauma Using Yoga

Module 3A: Breath Awareness Role Play

Module 4: Assessing and Ensuring Safety

Module 4A: Anchor and Body Scan Role Play

Module 5: Trauma-Sensitive Yoga

Module 6: Yoga Practice with Role Play

Handouts:  If it makes it easier for you to follow the course videos and take notes, we recommend you print your handouts from the Materials section and have them available as you watch the video modules. PowerPoint’s and other handouts are in the Materials tab of the course. They can be saved to your computer or printed.

Target Audience: mental health therapists, social workers, substance abuse counselors as well as other clinicians and human service professionals

Course Availability: You have 60 days to complete the course from the date you purchase it.

ADA accommodations: If you require supports for your ADA needs in the United States, please contact us in advance by email at sw-ce@buffalo.edu or phone at 716-829-5841.

Customer service: We are happy to respond to any questions or concerns you may have. Please contact us by email at sw-ce@buffalo.edu or phone at 716-829-5841.

Course Completion:

• Use the Certificate tab in your course site to take course evaluation and quiz. Based on best continuing education practice, quizzes are included to verify your acquisition of knowledge. A score of 80% is needed to pass. You may retake the quiz if you do not achieve a passing score the first time.
• Certificate of Completion: Upon successful completion of the quiz, you will be able to print your Certificate of Completion with CEUs.

CEUs: NYSED New York Social Work, ASWB ACE, NYS OASAS, trauma foundation hours and general CEUs are included as part of your course fee and will print out on your certificate of completion.

Course content level: beginning and intermediate.

Instructor:

Renee Szarowicz, RN, BSN, LMHC is an ANCC Board Certified Psychiatric & Holistic Nurse and IAPRS Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner with over thirty years of experience in mental health nursing and working with trauma survivors. She is a certified yoga instructor and completed the Trauma-Sensitive Yoga Teaching Certificate Program from Dr. Bessel van der Kolk’s The Trauma Center. Currently residing in Buffalo, New York, Renee is well-known for her gentleness, compassion and sensitivity. She helps people move toward greater calmness and inner peace as they journey through their healing process.