Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga is an adjunctive treatment for complex trauma that focuses on giving clients an opportunity to practice noticing body sensations (interoception) in the context of a safe relationship, based on an invitational approach to yoga forms, with no physical assists. TCTSY has been studied in a Randomized Control Trial and has shown encouraging results.
This brief history has been taken from the www.traumasensitiveyoga.com. Please feel free to explore their website.
A Brief History of TCTSY
The Trauma Center Yoga program began in 2002. Between 2003-2006, combining clinical insights and a dedication to yoga teaching for people who were suffering from psychological trauma, the first pilot studies were undertaken by the Trauma Center in Brookline, Massachusetts. We acknowledge and honor that Brookline resides on the indigenous land of the Massachuset Nation. Partners in the community such as Healthworks for Women and Back Bay Yoga graciously donated their space for the pilot studies. Some information from these initial pilots was published in 2006 in a paper called "Clinical Implications of Neuroscience Research”.
We began offering sessions for groups and individuals in 2003 along side the pilot studies and immediately began learning from our students. Over the years, many yoga teachers, mental health care professionals, and students have graciously contributed their time, expertise, and insight to the development of our yoga model, that we call Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY).
In 2009, we received the first grant given by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study yoga for trauma.
In 2014 our original study was published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Since then, several organizations have replicated our study either verbatim or with modifications.
In 2017, TCTSY became the first dedicated yoga program listed as an evidence-based program/practice for the treatment of psychological trauma.
In 2018, the United States government removed the federal listing of evidence based practices and replaced it with a general reference to yoga as a "complementary therapy" for PTSD.
Center for Trauma & Embodiment (CFTE) at Justice Resource Institute was created in 2018 with the intention to foster shared systems of power in terms of leadership and community. This formation of a new organization was a direct result of shifting away from previous abuses of power at the Trauma Center at JRI. While these abuses have since been resolved, CFTE’s mission as a distinct — yet related — organization is to generate inclusive leadership that benefits from the input and scrutiny of several people with varying identities, lived experiences, and professional competencies
