Yoga and BTE in the integration of trauma

I started practicing yoga in the upper fourth, falling in love with it and never leaving it again. I still remember that lesson in which I burst into a very strong cry because the practice had awakened and brought out an old trauma that I had tried to suffocate in the eyes of the world and mine. I still remember the surprise in finding myself there, in front of my memory, that memory that belonged to me and that had marked my path, my life. I was there with my eyes closed, in a practice room among other people but at the same time I was sunk inside myself, in the vivid emotion of a memory that at that moment seemed more relevant than ever. There I understood that in a psychotherapy the body could not be excluded from therapy but it was a fundamental part of the journey of listening and self-seeking. The memories that hold the body are chests that are just waiting to be opened by delicate hands that with loving kindness and professionalism approach them to take care of them together with our alert and open, welcoming and curious / non-judgmental gaze. There I decided that the direction of my journey would be to help the other take care of himself without being afraid of his own history and reactions. There I decided that I would go to a psychotherapy school that also combined the body in psychotherapy, possibly as yoga did. There I experienced on myself the wonder, albeit painful, of an authentic unlocking that involved all koshas (as yoga calls it) or the 5 levels of being (as BtE calls them): a simultaneous activation. of the physical, energetic or pranic, emotional, mental and spiritual body. There I once again touched that 'getting lost in order to find oneself' which is a very dear subject to BtE, since it opens the way to a precious opportunity to find Self.

Dr. Elena Casiraghi

I started practicing yoga at 17 on the advice of friends. I had no idea what this world was, beyond some banal prejudice like the idea that it was excessively New Age practice. What kept me tied to yoga for the first few years was the benefit on back pain: from the first meeting it disappeared for a few days. Not only that: every time I stopped practicing low back pain due to laziness, it came back, every time I recovered it passed. There was something that kept me “in spite of myself” linked to yoga, a practice of which at the beginning I only saw the benefits linked to the physicality of the positions and to the performance in breath control practices. It took years to meet teachers who can also pass on the spiritual side of yoga to me. The authentic transformations began to happen the moment I received the teaching to experience the practice on the mat as an opportunity to have full access to my inner dimension, a world hitherto unknown. So I realized that every time I kept my balance in one position I was cultivating a deep balance that sprouted within me with every breath; whenever I learned to manage the frustration of not being able to do something perfectly I learned to tolerate frustration even in my daily imperfections; every time I learned to accept a teacher's correction, I was giving myself the opportunity to accept advice without necessarily experiencing it as personal criticism. I was thus able to find a way of accessing the destructive emotions, the unheard needs of the body, the whirling flow of thoughts and, in general, the traces of my personal history on the five levels of being.

Dr. Laura Morbioli

TEACHING YOGA

When, after a few years of practice, they started leading yoga classes, the way they taught was through personal, strong and authentic experiences. And in a natural way it integrated with the studies of Psychology and Medicine, and subsequently also with the contents, practices and ways that BtE teaches and brings to life.

It often happens in class that some people have important emotional breakouts. It is respectful and dutiful to accompany the students with caution and delicacy, because in fact they come with stories that we do not know and that sometimes even they do not fully know. Each of their unlocks is a possible and powerful resource that they have at their disposal to integrate the shadows and make them become great allies of the journey.

THE ENCOUNTER WITH BTE

We deeply believe that our work, which we love very much, is like the work of an explorer who puts himself in the position of creating the best conditions so that everything that needs to emerge can reach the eyes of conscience with hospitality and with a terrain ready to integrate it. in a restructuring on several levels or levels of being, finding oneself more and more each time and returning to be what one is authentically beyond everything.

But it can be done when the therapist first of all has welcomed himself and has looked and continues to look at himself with the eyes of an explorer, without ever ceasing to be amazed at himself and at the journey he is making and that life offers him. Deeply and authentically. With hospitality, humility and honesty.

Our life follows these tracks now and we are immensely grateful for it.

THE BEGINNING OF A COLLABORATION

The first collaboration between Elena and Laura took place in 2020, when Laura, in coordinating a manual on addictions, asked her friend and colleague Elena to jointly write one of the chapters on yoga, entitled "The contribution of yoga in treatment integrated trauma "(in: 'Bottom-up practices in addictions: towards a new approach with oneself and with patients', Morbioli et al., Ed. CLAD Onlus, 2021). 

The world of profound discomfort needs a new gaze, which involves all levels of being and a way of welcoming and descending into discomfort that uses the meditative connection between therapist and patient, the sensitization to deep listening to one's own body and just be.

Yoga has a psychological framework that BtE has expanded and amplified. And through the psycho-corporeal practices we get to master the discomfort, the resources and the Self.

OUR PROFESSIONAL PROPOSAL

After writing that four-handed chapter, we felt like taking a further step and therefore organizing and proposing specific meetings on trauma through the help of yoga and BtE and we called this path 'Yoga and BtE in the integration of trauma. '.

COVID-19 has allowed us to explore this world also through the Zoom platform and the path includes the first three online meetings lasting half a day, during which theoretical and practical material is also released.

But we also decided to share a final weekend in presence where space is left for more dynamic and interactive psycho-body practices, compared to the more meditative ones that are offered online.

OUR INTENT

Thanks to this work of integration, trauma can no longer be seen as a symptom to be fought, but rather as the manifestation of a process to be joined in order to access the resources of the Self. 

Bibliography:

• Casiraghi E, Morbioli L. The contribution of yoga in the integrated treatment of trauma. In: Bottom-up practices in addictions: towards a new approach with oneself and with patients. Edited by Morbioli L et al. Ed. CLAD Onlus, Verona; 2021

• Emerson D, Hopper E. Overcoming Trauma Through Yoga - Reclaiming Your Body. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books; 2011

• Lattuada PL. Biotransenergetics. Ed. ITI, Milan; 2012

• van der Kolk B. The Corps Accuse the Hit. Milan. Ed. Raffaello Cortina Editore; 2015