Trauma-Informed Yoga Teachers and Spiritual Inclusivity: Can You Teach Without Dogma?

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At this point I have worked with a very wide range of populations experiencing/at risk for trauma or PTSD. My student groups have ranged from veterans to survivors of domestic violence, people recovering from addiction, those with chronic pain and/or terminal illness, caregivers, orphans, healthcare providers, and first responders. I have had no choice but to ask myself the big questions like:

Why do bad things happen to good people?

and

Why is there evil in the world?

My own spiritual orientation has vacillated between atheist and agnostic since the age of 7. There are times when I feel lucky to have faith, and other times when I just can’t seem to find it. This existential dilemma is inherent to the work I do. I have grown more and more comfortable with this tension of opposites, and I feel at ease holding space for both students with a spiritual practice and students without faith. I got to this point by becoming more comfortable with both possibilities within myself. If there is a higher power and life has meaning-great! If not, I have at least made my own meaning during my time on this Earth, and I will die without regrets. My experiences serving in end-of-life care facilitated this process.

I am committed to causing the least amount of harm in everything that I do, and that is why I teach a secular style of trauma-informed yoga. Trauma-informed everything has almost become a trend recently, and I think it’s important that we establish some healthy boundaries for safety.

I wrote this article to protect traumatized students from being harmed by well meaning yoga teachers.

In summation, the most important thing trauma-informed teachers can do is be upfront with potential students about the presence of spirituality in their teachings by including the terms secular or spiritual in the class description. That way, a student knows before they show up for class whether or not they will resonate with the teachings.

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