Yoga for Rehab + Recovery

The community of students at the Volunteers of America Drug + Alcohol Treatment Center has been exploring yoga within their treatment program two mornings a week to learn:

• how to have a new relationship with their body,
• how to navigate the process of drug and alcohol withdrawal symptoms, and
• how to develop life skills that include their physical body, such as:
  • mindfulness of sensations to increase self-awareness,
  • improved capacity for impulse control and "getting comfortable feeling uncomfortable" (less reactivity),
  • portable mind-body interventions for anxiety, such as coordinating breathing, sensing + moving, and
  • interpersonal respect, mutuality, and encouragement, as they all endeavor to learn new things in a physical practice. 

Yoga is more and more integrated into treatment centers asa proven trauma-informed, somatic practice that helps alleviate the symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain.

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From Christine, one of our VOA teachers:

For the last year (2018 - present), I have volunteered to teach yoga at VOA.  It has been a really rich, wonderful opportunity to work with women who were growing a lot personally and spiritually.  The yoga students were in the legal system and were mandated to receive drug and alcohol treatment.  Most of them were in the program for approximately 6 weeks and had experienced significant trauma in their lives.  

While in the program, they had the opportunity to practice yoga twice a week with their peers in a safe setting. They generally come into their first yoga class somewhat nervous and apprehensive.  Maybe they had never done yoga before.  Maybe they didn’t think of themselves as “athletic” or in good shape.

Practicing yoga helped them learn about and appreciate their bodies, the body’s connection to the brain, and how to better regulate their nervous system. 
It helped them develop trust in themselves, in interpersonal relationships, and in something larger than themselves.
They also developed mindfulness and other skills that they could take out of the yoga room and carry with them even after leaving the program. 

I find teaching at VOA to be a great opportunity to provide support and nurturance to the women in the program as well as a great place to grow and develop as a yoga teacher.  It gave me the opportunity to teach yoga in a therapeutic way…in a way that best suited the needs of the students. 

​Over the course of the past year, I developed more confidence in the yoga that came through me and its healing effect on the women in this program.  It was very rewarding to see both the growth in each of the women as well as the development that occurred in me.   

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If you are interested in working with us, send us an email via our contact page.