This book is a resource for developing a trauma-sensitive yoga practice to support anyone in recovery or seeking personal growth. This guide provides a partial approach for developing a complete yoga and mindfulness practice, including breathing techniques, mindful movement, and meditation. With helpful tools for dealing with stress, tension, addiction, and anxiety, this book is for people who would otherwise not have access to yoga, or who would like to continue their practice outside of a studio setting. Presented in a straightforward manner using proven methods compatible with a variety of recovery programs, we offer a chair yoga practice, a gentle practice, and an intermediate practice.
The Transformation Yoga Project serves people who are impacted by trauma, addiction, and incarceration, through trauma-sensitive, mindfulness-based yoga programs driven by education and research. Our highly-trained instructors offer a breath-centered yoga practice based on proven methods to decrease symptoms of anxiety and depression, activate the relaxation response, lower blood pressure, and reduce stress. We facilitate classes and workshops in residential treatment centers, PHP and IOP programs, recovery residencies, collegiate recovery clubs, alternative high schools, detention centers, prisons, and through community partners.
For more information, visit TransformationYogaProject.org
Huggins, Michael D.: - In 2009, a guilty plea to a misdemeanor landed Mike Huggins a nine-month prison sentence. As he marked the slow passage of time within the confines of prison, Mike struggled to cope mentally, physically, and emotionally. Surprisingly, the yoga he had practiced and taught some years before became his salvation. With this new understanding of the power of mindfulness-based yoga, Mike began a grassroots effort that evolved into a comprehensive yoga program within the prison. Upon his release in 2012, Mike founded the Transformation Yoga Project to bring yoga to people facing difficult circumstances. The Project has expanded to training others to bring the meditative practice of yoga to those struggling with addiction or caught in the justice system. Mike's mission is to provide helpful tools for dealing with stress, tension, addiction, and anxiety to those who would otherwise have no access to yoga. He has dedicated his time and passion to demystifying yoga by breaking down the powerful and positive aspects of the practice in a straightforward manner to which at-risk populations can relate. Mike remains active in teaching yoga in addiction recovery facilities, prisons, and hospitals, and he has been featured in the Huffington Post and on PBS, ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC news affiliates. He is the author of Going Om: A CEO's Journey from a Prison Facility to Spiritual Tranquility.
Moore, Andrew J.: - Andrew discovered yoga in 2011 during a transitional and transformational time in his life. He was not thinking about healing trauma or spirituality; he simply thought yoga would be a good way to gain core strength and flexibility. As is his way, he jumped into a 90-minute power yoga flow for his first class. As he lay on his back in final resting pose, humbled in a pool of his own sweat, he knew that he was changed and that his reasons for "trying yoga" were no longer related to why he would continue to practice. Since that first class, Andrew has maintained his yoga practice and applied the principles of yoga to many aspects of his life. As a community health worker with the Peace Corps serving in rural Namibia, he developed an introductory yoga program for the youth in his community. This was part of a larger life-skills curriculum to help grade eight learners deal with the complexities of adolescent life in hostel schools of the Kavango West region. He is a graduate of Transformation Yoga Project's Yoga Teacher Training, earning his RYT200 through a unique partnership with the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, which brings yoga students from the community and prisons together to become certified instructors. Andrew works with youth in residential placement and is actively teaching trauma-informed yoga. He holds a Bachelor's degree in sociology from Penn State University and a Master's in applied statistics from West Chester University of Pennsylvania.
Transformation Yoga Project: - Transformation Yoga Project (TYP) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit serving people impacted by trauma, addiction, and incarceration through trauma-sensitive, mindfulness-based yoga supported by education and research. TYP teaches practical skills for reducing stress and anxiety, healing trauma, and improving overall quality of life. TYP has active programs running in numerous facilities throughout the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware area, including addiction treatment centers, prisons, and VA hospitals, as well as behavioral health settings, alternative schools, and juvenile detention centers. Each program is tailored to the specific needs of the participants and staffed by instructors trained to teach trauma-sensitive yoga. TYP also provides special training for yoga teachers and committed yoga practitioners interested in working with people who have been impacted by trauma. For more information, visit TransformationYogaProject.org facebook.com/TransformationYogaProject or on Instagram @transformation_yoga_project Transformation Yoga Project P.O. Box 762 Kennett Square, PA 19348 info@transformationyogaproject.org
