PTSD And Trauma: What Mr Iyengar, The Yoga Doctors And The Research Say

Jumpy at sudden noises, sleeping badly, always on guard, or numb and far away from everyone? These are some of the most common PTSD symptoms, and many people live with them for years. Yoga will not ask you to talk about what happened. It works on the body and the breath: a nervous system stuck on high alert, a breath that stays fast and shallow, and nights without real rest. The trials of yoga for PTSD, of slow breathing and of meditation point the same way. This guide brings together what Mr BKS Iyengar, the yoga doctors and the research say, and how we teach it in Darwin and online. Last updated: 1 November 2026.

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Can yoga help PTSD? The short answer

Yes. In the trials, yoga, slow breathing and meditation all eased PTSD symptoms, as an add-on to whatever care people already had. A 2024 review of 20 trials found yoga lowered PTSD symptoms and depression, with no serious side effects reported. In one well-known trial, 52% of women who did 10 weeks of trauma-informed yoga no longer met the criteria for PTSD, against 21% in a comparison class. In a trial of women veterans, trauma sensitive yoga did as well as a leading talking therapy, and more people stayed to the end. The research is promising rather than settled: most trials are small, and reviewers rate the certainty as low. In two trials the gains faded within months once the classes stopped. So the message is simple: find a calm, well-taught class, and keep going.

One thing to keep in mind as you read: none of these trials tested Iyengar yoga. They tested trauma-informed yoga, yoga of other kinds, breathing courses and meditation. All of them count, and they point the same way: different roads to the same place. In our view as certified Iyengar teachers, the careful, prop-supported way Iyengar yoga is taught fits what trauma-informed teaching asks for. Why the kind of yoga matters.

The bottom line: five key moves for PTSD and trauma

1. Go to a calm, well-taught yoga class every week, and keep going. The programmes that helped ran weekly for 6 to 16 weeks. Where people stopped, the gains faded. A class each week is the booster.
2. Slow the breath with pranayama. A long, smooth out-breath tells the nervous system it can stand down. Keep it slow and teacher-led: in one review, fast breathing brought more side effects than slow.
3. Feel your feet. Steady standing poses, held with attention, bring you back to the body and the room. That is the opposite of being somewhere else in your head.
4. Rest properly, with support. Supported poses and a long rest at the end of class help the body let go of being on guard. Better sleep was one of the clearest gains in the veterans’ trials. Our sleep guide has more.
5. Start now. New to Flametree, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price, in Darwin or LIVE online.

Iyengar yoga is the style we teach at Flametree. During the 20th century, Mr BKS Iyengar was the major person who codified traditional Indian yoga, through his seminal books and widespread teaching. He also pioneered the use of props, so poses can be adapted to almost any body. His style is sometimes called modern classical yoga. This guide is part of our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions, and covers Dr Timothy McCall’s Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (no. 87).

This guide in short

• Mr BKS Iyengar: no course for PTSD, but in Light on Life he writes about how old impressions return, and why a strong, steady nervous system matters.
• Dr Timothy McCall: PTSD is no. 87 on his list of conditions helped by yoga, backed by 17 research references.
• Other yoga voices: yoga as a valuable add-on, not on its own (Mary Flaherty); feelings may come up, and yoga gives the courage to keep going (Chris Lalor).
• Trauma sensitive yoga: choice, going slowly, eyes open if you like, and a teacher who asks before touching.
• The research: 19 studies listed below, from small veteran pilots to a review of 20 trials.
• Breathing: slow breathing calms; fast breathing courses were tested too, under supervision.
• Take it further: our free ebook Cutting Stress With Yoga, and classes in Darwin and online.

What is PTSD, and what are the main PTSD symptoms?

PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) is what can happen when the body’s alarm system stays switched on long after a frightening or overwhelming time has passed. Most people who go through trauma do not develop it. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports that about 75% of Australian adults have been through a traumatic event, and about 11% have PTSD at some time in their lives: 14% of women and 8% of men.

The researchers group PTSD symptoms into a few clusters:

• Unwanted memories (intrusions): memories, dreams or flashes that arrive uninvited.
• Avoidance: keeping away from places, people or thoughts that bring it back.
• Feeling on edge (hypervigilance and arousal): always scanning for danger, startling easily, sleeping badly, quick to anger.
• Low mood and numbness: feeling flat, far away or cut off from other people.

Trauma often travels with anxiety and anger, low mood and depression and poor sleep, and our guides to each go further. When trauma has been repeated or long-lasting, it is sometimes called complex PTSD: our article on yoga for complex PTSD and Annie’s story covers that.

“While mind reacts to memory, intelligence interrogates memory.”

What Mr BKS Iyengar taught about memory, fear and the nerves

In short: old impressions return, and time alone does not settle them. A strong, steady nervous system and a steady mind help, in his view.

Mr Iyengar’s Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health sets out a yoga approach for 72 health conditions. PTSD is not one of them, and we do not stretch his other courses to fit it. His nearest courses are for anxiety, depression and insomnia, which our spoke guides cover. What he did write about is memory and the mind, in Light on Life (Rodale, 2005 print edition, pp. 141 to 145). His view, in our words:

• Old impressions come back. Trauma returns as latent impressions, the deep grooves the yoga texts call samskara. In his account, “time heals” is only half true (p. 142).
• Strengthen the nerves, steady the mind. What helps, he writes, is strengthening the nervous system and steadying the mind (p. 142). That is the work of a regular practice of poses and breath.
• Memory can trap or free. One kind of memory keeps us stuck in habit and grievance; another helps us learn and move on (pp. 142 to 145).
• The body remembers too. He held that memory lives in the cells of the body, and is reached by stretching, which sends awareness down the nerves (pp. 144 to 145). His claim, from a lifetime of teaching.

In The Tree of Yoga (pp. 46 to 49) he names courage, memory and steady awareness among the qualities practice builds, and describes the mind watching quietly inside a pose. That is close to what trauma-informed teachers call interoception: sensing what is happening inside your own body, calmly. In Light on Yoga, his appendix of ailments has no entry for trauma. Its nearest entries, nervous debility and insomnia (printed pp. 429 and 426), lean, in our words, on inversions, forward bends, rest and breathing without breath holds.

We do not publish his sequences. A sequence needs a teacher who can see you and adapt each pose, which is what a class is for.

“As long as the nerves are strong, stable, and elastic, the mind is stable.”

What Dr Timothy McCall and the other yoga doctors say

In short: PTSD is on Dr McCall’s list of conditions helped by yoga, backed by the research.

Dr McCall is a US medical doctor and yoga therapist, author of Yoga as Medicine and former medical editor of Yoga Journal. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is no. 87 on his June 2019 list of 117 conditions helped by yoga, with 17 research references behind it. His book does not have a chapter on PTSD. His chapters on depression and anxiety, which explain how yoga calms a stressed nervous system, are set out in our depression guide and anxiety guide.

The other medical doctors who trained with Mr Iyengar, Dr Krishna Raman, Dr Loren Fishman and Dr J. T. Shah, do not have a section on PTSD in the material we have read so far. Dr Raman’s view of the anxious mind, quieted by steady practice, is in our anxiety guide.

“Sensitivity is not weakness or vulnerability.”

Other yoga voices on trauma

• A valuable add-on, not on its own. Mary Flaherty, in Does Yoga Work?, does not rate yoga as a stand-alone answer to trauma, but finds it a viable add-on to other care (p. 39). That matches our view: yoga sits alongside whatever care you already have.
• Ask before touching, and guide the quiet. Her tips for teachers (pp. 41 to 43): ask before any hands-on help, and guide the relaxation, because silence can raise anxiety for some people.
• Feelings may come up, and that is part of it. Chris Lalor, Certified Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher and certified Yoga Therapist, finds that poses which open the chest and hips and stretch the hamstrings can bring up anger, sadness, fear or happiness as the body softens. In her experience, yoga gives people the courage to keep practising and work it through. Her full account is in our article on yoga for complex PTSD.
• Iyengar yoga as an aid to trauma recovery. Iyengar Yoga Australia has published research by Natasha Larkin, a thesis (2021) and a paper with Jan Wright and Gabrielle O’Flynn (2022), on the potential of Iyengar yoga as an aid for trauma recovery. It is a study of teaching, not a clinical trial. Read about it at Iyengar Yoga Australia.
• The body keeps the score. Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk’s influential book argues that trauma is held in the body as well as the mind, which is the idea behind trauma-informed yoga. He also led the first big trial, listed below.

“Holding the trestler gives support and then the inner support of courage comes”

Iyengar yoga for PTSD and trauma: Mr Iyengar’s guidance after 11 September 2001

In short: shock shows in the breath, so steady the breath through quiet, supported poses. Keep the eyes open, build emotional strength, and do not chase a perfect pose.

Dr Rajvi Mehta is a senior Iyengar teacher from Mumbai who worked closely with the Iyengar family and writes for Yoga Rahasya, the Iyengar journal from Pune. Her article on trauma, with the advice Mr BKS Iyengar sent to New York teachers in the days after 11 September 2001, was reprinted in Yoga Vaani, the journal of Iyengar Yoga Australia, in 2002. In our words:

• Shock lives in the breath. We gasp at a terrible sight, hold the breath at bad news, and the heart races. When the mind is shaken the breath is hard to control directly, so poses come first: chosen poses, in a set order, held for a set time, change the breath and with it the state of mind.
• No standing poses, no backbends. New York teacher Bobby Clennell asked what to teach, and thought of standing poses and chest openers. Mr Iyengar’s answer, through Dr Mehta, was the same advice he had given teachers working with earthquake survivors earlier that year: build the students’ emotional strength, leave out standing poses and backbends for now, and use quiet, supported poses instead.
• Eyes open, even in Savasana. All poses were done with the eyes open, resting on a point in front or on the ceiling. Students were not pushed for a perfect pose, and were asked to let the breath reach the sides of the chest.
• Supported, quiet poses. The sequence leaned on lying and supported poses such as Reclining Bound Angle Pose (Supta Baddha Konasana), forward bends and Downward Dog with the head resting on a support, and Supported Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana), with the shoulders supported.
• What people said. One New York teacher wrote that the sequence had been a great help to severely traumatised students, including people who had narrowly escaped, and to the rest of the class, “numb with shock, or just exhausted from it all”.

This is teachers’ and students’ experience, known from practice, not a trial. It sits well beside the research below, and beside the trauma sensitive ideas of choice and eyes open if you like. At Flametree in Darwin (Woolner and Coolalinga) and LIVE online, you can keep your eyes open, use props in every pose, and tell your teacher what you need.

Source: Rajvi H Mehta, “Iyengar Yoga: An Aid In Overcoming The Trauma Of Disaster”, with Mr Iyengar’s sequence, Yoga Vaani 68, March 2002, pp. 22 to 23, reprinted from Yoga Rahasya 8.4, 2001. Yoga Vaani is the journal of Iyengar Yoga Australia; members can read the issue in its e-library.

What is trauma sensitive yoga, and how is it different?

Trauma sensitive yoga, or trauma-informed yoga, is yoga taught with the effects of trauma in mind. One version, Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga, was tested against a talking therapy in women veterans and did as well (see the research below). The ideas behind it are simple:

• Choice in every pose. Invitations, not orders. You can change, skip or rest.
• A predictable class. You know what is coming, and nothing is sprung on you.
• Eyes open if you like, and a place in the room that feels right to you.
• Consent before touch. Hands-on help only if you say yes.
• Props as normal, not as a sign that something is wrong.
• Attention to sensation. Noticing your feet, your breath, your weight on the floor, calmly.

In our view, much of this is how Iyengar yoga is already taught: props in every class, poses adapted to each person, a clear and steady structure, and attention to precise sensations in the body. But no trial has yet tested Iyengar yoga for PTSD. Iyengar teachers train for years before a panel of senior Iyengar teachers assesses them, and in our view that depth of training shows in how carefully a class can be adapted. Why the kind of yoga matters.

“In the future there is fear. In the present there is no fear.”

What the research on yoga for PTSD shows

In short: yoga, slow breathing and meditation all lowered PTSD symptoms in the trials, by a small to medium amount, and they did about as well as a leading talking therapy in head-to-head trials. Most trials are small and the reviewers rate the certainty as low, so this is promising evidence, not the last word. Where classes stopped, some gains faded. Why the kind of yoga matters.

Reviews of yoga and meditation for PTSD

• Across 20 trials, yoga lowered self-reported PTSD symptoms and depression, and no serious side effects were reported in the trials that checked. The authors call yoga likely a safe and effective add-on. Nejadghaderi 2024, a review of 20 randomised trials of adults with PTSD. Read the study.
• Yoga lowered unwanted memories (intrusions) and total PTSD symptoms by a small to medium amount. Sinnott 2026, a review of 9 randomised trials. The authors note a substantial risk of bias across the trials. Read the study.
• Yoga and meditation both lowered PTSD symptoms by a small to medium amount, with no clear winner between them. The authors call both promising. Gallegos 2017, a review of 19 trials and 1,173 people. Read the study.

Trials of yoga for PTSD

• 16 of 31 women in the yoga group (52%) no longer met the criteria for PTSD after 10 weeks, against 6 of 29 (21%) in the comparison group. The yoga group kept improving while the comparison group slipped back. Ten weekly one-hour classes of trauma-informed yoga, against women’s health education. van der Kolk 2014, 64 women with long-standing PTSD that earlier therapy had not shifted. Read the study. Trauma-informed yoga, not Iyengar yoga. Why it matters.
• Trauma sensitive yoga did as well as cognitive processing therapy (CPT, a leading talking therapy), and more people finished the yoga course: 65% against 46%. Ten weekly yoga sessions against 12 weekly CPT sessions. Zaccari 2023, 131 women veterans with PTSD from trauma related to military service. Read the study.
• PTSD symptoms fell more with yoga than with a wellness programme by the end of 16 weekly classes. Seven months later the gap had gone, so the authors suggest booster classes and social support. Davis 2020, 209 people with PTSD, 91% of them veterans. Read the study.
• After 6 weekly classes, veterans’ PTSD scores fell in all three symptom groups (on edge, unwanted memories and avoidance), with less insomnia, depression and anxiety. Trauma-sensitive yoga shaped for military culture and taught by a veteran. Cushing 2018, 18 US veterans, no comparison group. Read the study.
• Feeling on edge (hyperarousal) and sleep quality improved after 6 weeks of yoga twice a week. Staples 2013, 12 veterans, no comparison group. Read the study.
• Police, fire and ambulance workers had fewer PTSD symptoms than a waitlist straight after a short yoga resilience programme, and their gains in resilience lasted. The gap in PTSD symptoms had faded by 3 months. Tan 2024, 80 Australian first responders, UNSW and the Black Dog Institute. Read the study.
• After one week of yoga, sadness fell in flood survivors, while anxiety rose in the group still waiting. Telles 2010, 22 men after a flood. Read the study.

Iyengar yoga studies

No trial has yet tested Iyengar yoga for PTSD. Not yet studied is not the same as not working. The nearest is a trial of Iyengar yoga, taught by trained Iyengar teachers, for women under heavy stress. It is about distress, not PTSD, but it shows what an Iyengar class did for the anxious, stressed mind:

• Stress, anxiety, depression and quality of life all improved against a waitlist, and once a week did as well as twice. Ninety-minute Iyengar classes over 3 months. Michalsen 2012, 72 distressed women in Germany. Read the study.

Breathing practice (pranayama) and breathwork

“Breathwork” is a loose word, and these trials tested different things. Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY) is a breathing programme taught as a supervised course, with slow rounds, a fast rhythmic part and rest. The pranayama we teach is slow, nasal and taught step by step. Why the kind of breathing matters.

• A one-week breathing course lowered PTSD scores and anxiety in veterans, and calmer startle responses went with less feeling on edge. The gains were still there a year later. Sudarshan Kriya Yoga against a waitlist. Seppala 2014, 21 US veterans. Read the study.
• The SKY breathing programme was not worse than cognitive processing therapy for PTSD, at 6 weeks, 1 month and 1 year, and people dropped out of each at a similar rate. A 15-hour workshop, then two one-hour sessions a week for 5 weeks. Bayley 2022, 85 veterans; one author is at Murdoch University, Western Australia. Read the study.
• PTSD checklist scores fell by about 11 points at 12 weeks and 16 points at 24 weeks with SKY. Vasudev 2020, 21 civilians with PTSD who finished, no comparison group. Read the study.
• Pranayama eased symptoms in people with PTSD, depression and other conditions about as well as standard care. Fast breathing had more side effects than slow breathing. Mutze 2025, a review of 6 trials and 517 people. Read the study. Not PTSD alone. Slow breathing is what we teach.

Meditation and mindfulness

In our view, mindfulness overlaps with yoga and pranayama: you cannot hold a pose or follow the breath without being in the present moment.

• Mindfulness meditation lowered PTSD symptoms related to military service more than comparison groups did, whether in groups or one to one. Sun 2021, a review of 19 trials and 1,326 people. Read the study.
• The 8-week mindfulness course (MBSR) gave medium drops in depression and PTSD symptoms in military veterans. Li 2024, a review of 13 studies and 1,131 people, by authors from James Cook University in Townsville. Read the study.
• Mindfulness programmes lowered PTSD symptoms by a medium amount, similar to second-line options such as medication. Jovanovic 2024, a review of 69 reviews. Read the study.
• Loving-kindness meditation was not worse than cognitive processing therapy for PTSD at 6 months, and depression fell further. Twelve weekly group sessions. Kearney 2021, 184 veterans. Read the study.

“Right practice of pranayama soothes the nerves and quietens the mind.”

Which breathing helps with PTSD: slow or fast?

Both were tested, and both helped in the trials. But they are not the same thing.

• Slow breathing with a long, smooth out-breath is the classic way to calm the nervous system. It is part of most yoga classes, and it is what we teach.
• Sudarshan Kriya includes a fast, rhythmic part. In the veteran trials it was taught as a supervised course by trained instructors, over days and weeks. It is not a home recipe.
• Fast breathing brought more side effects than slow breathing in a 2025 review of pranayama in mental health conditions (Mutze 2025). For someone who already feels on edge, slow is the safer road.

At Flametree, pranayama is slow and teacher-led: staircase breath (Viloma), ocean breath (Ujjayi), alternate nostril breath (Nadi Sodhana), humming (Bhramari) and a gentle shining skull breath (Kapalabhati), each brought in step by step as you are ready. Our article Is pranayama safe? goes further.

Can yoga help hypervigilance, sleep and feeling on edge?

Hypervigilance, being always on guard, is one of the most tiring PTSD symptoms, and it often wrecks sleep. It is also where the trials found some of the clearest changes. In a small veterans’ trial, feeling on edge and sleep quality improved after 6 weeks of twice-weekly yoga. In the Sudarshan Kriya trial, calmer startle responses tracked the fall in hyperarousal, and the change held for a year. In the military-tailored yoga trial, insomnia eased alongside PTSD scores. For more on sleep, see our sleep and insomnia guide; for the anxious, angry side, our anxiety and anger guide.

For men: PTSD and the people who serve

PTSD is more common in women, but about 8% of Australian men have it at some time in their lives. Many of the people in the trials above were veterans, serving members and first responders: police, fire and ambulance workers. Darwin has a large defence community, and many of them are men.

Yet men do far less yoga than women. In a national survey of Australian yoga practitioners, 85% were women. The things on this page suit men just as well: strong, steady standing poses, a breath that slows you down, and a room of people who notice when you are not there. You do not have to talk about anything. Bring a mate or come alone, but give it 12 weeks.

“The world may spin around you, but the mind is steady.”

How this comes together in a Flametree class

Everything above points the same way, and it is how we teach in Darwin and online.

• Trauma-informed, in every class. Our teachers, men and women, teach trauma-informed classes: choice in every pose, eyes open if you like, and hands-on help only if you want it.
• A steady, predictable structure. Standing poses to ground you, supported poses to open the chest and hips, and a long rest at the end.
• Props in every class: chairs, blocks, belts, blankets, bolsters and the wall, so every pose fits your body on a good day or a hard one.
• Slow, teacher-led breath: every class ends in rest, our restorative yoga classes go slower, and our pranayama classes go further.
• Tell your teacher what you need, if you want to: a spot near the door, eyes open, no touch. You never have to say why.
• The same faces, week after week. In the trials, the gains faded when classes stopped. A weekly class keeps them going.

Flametree and Darwin’s defence community: Flametree has taught yoga courses for veterans and current ADF members under contracts with both the Navy and the Army, at Robertson Barracks and at the base in Darwin city. Those were one-off courses, now finished. Flametree has also run courses with Mates4Mates to help veterans and current serving members with PTSD-type issues. On Anzac Day we also mark the day with the Warrior poses: see ANZAC yoga classes.

Prefer to start one to one? Chris offers private trauma-informed yoga sessions, for one person or a small group.

Read more on trauma, PTSD and calm

• Yoga for complex PTSD: Annie’s story and what the research says
• How to calm your nervous system
• Is pranayama safe?
• What is restorative yoga? The science behind lying still
• Box breathing
• Yoga for anxiety, and breathing exercises that help
• Yoga for stress management
• ANZAC yoga classes and the Warrior poses
• Related guides: anxiety, panic and anger, depression and low mood, sleep and insomnia and stress and burnout

Take it further

• Classes, in Darwin or LIVE online: new, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price. Already practising yoga? See the non-beginner half price pass. See every class time.
• Veterans and ADF: Flametree has taught yoga courses for Darwin veterans and current ADF members for the Navy, the Army and Mates4Mates.
• Masterclasses: our 2027 Sunday Arvo Masterclasses with Chris Lalor, Certified Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher and certified Yoga Therapist, include Yoga For Sleep And Energy (10 January) and Yoga For Anxiety And Anger (18 April), two of the things PTSD hits hardest. You come away with the poses, sequences and breath practice to put this guide into action. See the masterclasses.
• Retreats: a week of daily, adapted yoga in Bali. See the retreats.

Other conditions are in our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

PTSD and yoga: questions people ask

What are the main PTSD symptoms, and which did yoga help most?

PTSD symptoms fall into a few groups: unwanted memories and dreams, avoiding reminders, feeling on edge (hypervigilance, startling easily, poor sleep), and low mood or numbness. In a 2026 review of 9 trials, yoga lowered unwanted memories and total PTSD symptoms by a small to medium amount. In veterans’ trials, feeling on edge and sleep showed some of the clearest gains.

Can yoga help hypervigilance and feeling on edge?

In the trials, yes. In a small veterans’ trial, feeling on edge and sleep quality improved after 6 weeks of yoga twice a week. In a breathing trial in veterans, calmer startle responses went with less hyperarousal, and the change held for a year. Steady standing poses, a long out-breath and supported rest all help the body stand down.

Does yoga help veterans with PTSD?

The veteran trials are promising. In 209 people, mostly veterans, 16 weeks of yoga lowered PTSD symptoms more than a wellness programme. In 18 veterans, 6 weekly classes of military-tailored yoga lowered PTSD scores and eased insomnia, depression and anxiety. In Darwin, Flametree has taught yoga courses for veterans and current ADF members for the Navy, the Army and Mates4Mates.

Did yoga do as well as talking therapy in the trials?

In head-to-head trials, yes. In 131 women veterans, trauma sensitive yoga did as well as cognitive processing therapy, a leading talking therapy, and more people finished the yoga course (65% against 46%). A breathing course and a loving-kindness meditation course were each not worse than the same therapy in veterans. Yoga sits alongside whatever care you already have.

What is Sudarshan Kriya, and is fast breathing a good idea with PTSD?

Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY) is a breathing programme with slow rounds, a fast rhythmic part and rest, taught as a supervised course. In veterans it lowered PTSD scores, with gains still there a year later. But a 2025 review of pranayama found fast breathing brought more side effects than slow breathing. Flametree’s pranayama is slow, nasal and teacher-led.

Does mindfulness or meditation help PTSD?

Yes, in the reviews. Mindfulness meditation lowered PTSD symptoms related to military service across 19 trials, and the 8-week mindfulness course gave medium drops in PTSD and depression in veterans across 13 studies. In our view mindfulness overlaps with yoga: you cannot hold a pose or follow the breath without being in the present moment.

Do the benefits of yoga for PTSD last when classes stop?

Sometimes, but not always. After a breathing course, gains were still there a year later. But in a 16-week yoga trial the extra benefit had gone by 7 months, and in a first responders’ trial the drop in PTSD symptoms faded by 3 months. The authors suggest booster classes. A weekly class is exactly that.

What is the window of tolerance, and how does a yoga class help?

The window of tolerance is a teaching idea used in trauma sensitive yoga: the zone where you can feel sensations and still think clearly. Above it you feel on edge; below it you feel shut down and numb. In class, choice in every pose, eyes open if you like, props, slow breath and rest help you practise staying inside the window. It is a way of seeing, not a study finding.

What did Mr Iyengar advise for trauma after 11 September 2001?

Through Dr Rajvi Mehta, Mr BKS Iyengar told New York Iyengar teachers to build their students’ emotional strength with quiet, supported poses, to leave out standing poses and backbends for the time being, to keep the eyes open in every pose including Savasana, and not to insist on a perfect pose. A New York teacher wrote that it greatly helped severely traumatised students. It was reprinted in Yoga Vaani 68 (2002), the journal of Iyengar Yoga Australia. It is experience from practice, not a trial.

Should I keep my eyes open in yoga if I have PTSD?

You can. In the sequence Mr BKS Iyengar sent for people traumatised by 11 September 2001, every pose, even Savasana, was done with the eyes open, resting on a point in front or on the ceiling. Trauma sensitive yoga also offers eyes open as a choice. At Flametree in Darwin and online, eyes open is always fine; tell your teacher if it helps.

Where this comes from: Rajvi H Mehta, “Iyengar Yoga: An Aid In Overcoming The Trauma Of Disaster”, with Mr Iyengar’s sequence, Yoga Vaani 68 (Iyengar Yoga Australia), March 2002, pp. 22 to 23, reprinted from Yoga Rahasya 8.4, 2001. BKS Iyengar, Light on Life (Rodale, 2005), pp. 141 to 145; The Tree of Yoga, pp. 46 to 49; Light on Yoga, Appendix II; Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health (Dorling Kindersley); Astadala Yogamala. Geeta S Iyengar, props demonstration in Sydney, 1996. Timothy McCall MD, Yoga as Medicine (Bantam), and his June 2019 list of health conditions helped by yoga. Mary Flaherty, Does Yoga Work?, chapter 3. Harvard Health Publishing, An Introduction to Yoga, p. 9. Iyengar Yoga Australia, research posts by Natasha Larkin. Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times, 2013, via Iyengar Yoga UK. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Stress and trauma. Penman and others, Yoga in Australia, a national survey, 2012 (link). Studies as linked above, checked on PubMed. Everything is summarised in our own words.

This page is general information, not medical advice. Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin and LIVE online.