How Yoga Therapy Can Help Heal Trauma, Anxiety, and Depression: A Guide to Somatic Healing.
For anyone struggling with anxiety, depression, or seeking trauma release, the variety of therapies available can feel overwhelming. With so many treatment options to choose from, it’s hard to know where to start.
In this blog, I’ll break down:
How Yoga Therapy can help you manage trauma, anxiety, and depression.
The benefits of somatic healing exercises for emotional wellness.
How to choose a qualified yoga therapist for your healing journey.
When I first began my search for the right therapy, I too felt overwhelmed. There were so many questions that kept coming up:
How do I know which therapy is best for my emotional and mental health needs?
How can I trust my therapist or practitioner?
Is online therapy effective for healing trauma and anxiety?
My Journey to Healing: Finding the Right Therapy for Anxiety, Depression, and Trauma Release
I struggled with anxiety, depression, and unhealed trauma for years.
I knew I needed help, but I was uncertain about which form of therapy would work best for me. So, I tried a variety of treatments, including medication, talk therapy (psychotherapy), yoga, and meditation.
Through this journey, I discovered that true healing requires an approach that addresses mental, emotional, and physical wellness simultaneously.
The problem I encountered with traditional talk therapy was that I wasn’t at a place where I could fully articulate my emotions.
I needed a therapy that allowed me to simply feel and connect with my body.
Why Talk Therapy Alone May Not Be Enough When it Comes to Anxiety, Depression, and Trauma
When people get close to the story of their trauma, the area of the brain responsible for language production (Broca’s Area) can shut down.
For this reason, traditional talk therapy - in the beginning of one’s healing journey - can sometimes feel ineffective when processing deep emotional pain.
Expressing trauma verbally becomes difficult when the brain's language center shuts down.
This knowledge helped me understand why I wasn’t seeing much progress in my talk therapy sessions. I needed to tap into my body and emotions in a different way.
The Role of Yoga Therapy in Managing Anxiety, Depression, and Trauma
Yoga therapy and somatic healing exercises offer a more holistic, body-based approach to mental health.
This alternative holistic approach combines gentle physical movement, breathwork, interoception practices, and more to release trauma stored in the body, helping to heal emotional tensions and restore balance in body, mind, and spirit.
Here’s how yoga therapy helped me heal:
Trauma release: Yoga helps release trauma stored in the body offering a deeper form of healing.
Anxiety relief: Breathing techniques and mindfulness help calm the nervous system.
Emotional balance: Somatic healing exercises help you improve awareness to emotions, thoughts, and sensations.
How to Choose a Qualified Yoga Therapist for Your Healing Journey?
When looking for a qualified yoga therapist to support your healing, it’s important to choose someone with expertise in trauma-informed care.
Here’s what to consider when selecting a yoga therapist:
Credentials and experience: Look for a therapist who is certified in yoga therapy (C-IAYT) and has experience working with trauma, anxiety, and depression.
Trauma-sensitive approach: Choose a therapist who uses a trauma-informed approach, ensuring that you feel safe and supported during the healing process.
Safety and trust: It’s essential to feel safe and trust your therapist. The therapeutic relationship is key to healing.
Is Online Therapy Effective for Anxiety, Depression, and Trauma Release?
The rise of online therapy has made mental health support more accessible than ever.
Many people wonder if virtual therapy can be as effective as in-person sessions. While face-to-face sessions have their benefits, online yoga therapy offers a flexible and comfortable way to heal from the comfort of your home.
You can still receive high-quality, personalized therapy sessions remotely.
How Yoga Therapy Helps Improve Mental, Physical, and Spiritual Health
Once I began practicing body-centered therapy (specifically yoga therapy), I started to truly feel how my breathing, body tensions, and thoughts were affecting my overall well-being.
This holistic approach allowed me to address the root causes of my mental and physical health challenges, leading to profound improvements in both areas.
For example, if you're dealing with anxiety, it’s not just a mental experience—it's also felt in your body.
Common physical symptoms of anxiety include:
Increased sensitivity of the sympathetic nervous system (responsible for the "fight or flight" response)
Decreased activity in the parasympathetic nervous system (which calms the body)
Reduced heart rate variability, which is a key indicator of stress levels
Body-centered therapy helps stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, improve heart rate variability, promoting relaxation and recovery.
Yoga Therapy Heals the Body, Mind, and Spirit
Body-centered therapy (yoga therapy) is an invaluable tool for healing a wide range of physical and emotional issues, such as:
Anxiety
Depression
Chronic pain
Stress
Trauma release
Yoga therapy offers somatic exercises that support the mind, body, and spirit together, creating a whole and balanced holistic healing experience.
What is Yoga Therapy?
There are many different types of somatic therapies available. One of the most effective methods is yoga therapy.
Somatic therapy is a treatment that focuses on the body and how emotions and experiences are stored and expressed within the body.
According to Amanda Baker, a clinical psychologist at the Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders,
“Somatic therapies posit that our body holds and expresses experiences and emotions, and traumatic events or unresolved emotional issues can become 'trapped' inside.”
The Role of Yoga Therapy in Your Healing Journey
Yoga therapy is a specific form of somatic healing that incorporates evidence-based yoga techniques to address the physical, mental, and emotional needs of the individual. These techniques include:
Therapeutic yoga postures
Breathwork to regulate the nervous system
Meditation techniques for mindfulness and stress reduction
Inner awareness exercises to cultivate emotional intelligence
You might think of yoga as just a physical practice centered around stretching and movement, but yoga therapy is a different approach entirely.
It combines therapeutic somatic-based techniques to help you become more mindful of your body, emotions, habits, and thoughts.
Trauma-Informed and Gentle Healing with Yoga Therapy
Yoga therapy is designed to be gentle, trauma-informed, and supportive.
These private, one-on-one sessions create a safe and welcoming space for you to be seen and heard as you explore your healing journey. The goal is to help you connect with your body and release trauma, stress, and emotional tensions in a compassionate and nurturing environment.
What happens inside a private yoga therapy session?
A certified yoga therapist helps clients release emotional and physical tension in their body using various mind-body techniques such as yoga nidra, breathwork, body awareness, guided meditation, affirmations, asanas, and inner-awareness exercises.
A client might book a private yoga therapy session with a wellness goal to release trauma, manage depression, or reduce anxiety.
A session with a yoga therapist will include a combination of:
Physical practices: Such as breathing techniques for nervous system regulation and heart rate variability. Stretches to release tensions within nerves and muscles.
Emotional/mental practices: Such as journaling and affirmations to build inner-awareness to one’s own thoughts, feelings, and emotions surrounding their illness.
Spiritual practices: Such as guided meditations and Yoga Nidra to reduce stress and boost mindfulness.
What’s great about yoga therapy is that your therapist will provide you with a self-care routine (containing active-healing tools) so you can self-regulate your issue in-between and beyond the sessions.
A Yoga Therapist provides clients with a small at-home self-care routine (typically 10 minutes) which allows them to explore the practices from home on a consistent basis.
When it comes to healing, success lies in commitment to a consistent daily practice (for mind, body, and spirit) to reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and/or trauma long-term.
Clients receive research-backed somatic exercises that are shown to regulate the nervous system, balance hormones, release tensions, and modify any non-serving thought patterns or habits.
Clients gain a greater sense of self-control to manage responses to various stimuli.
What specific somatic healing exercises are explored in private yoga therapy?
There are plenty. A particularly powerful one is the breathwork practice Bhramari Pranayama (also known as the humming-bee breathing technique).
Research shows that it effectively stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, helps reduce heart rate and blood pressure (Pramanik et al., 2010).
Another study shows that Bhramari Pranayama elicits neurological activity involved in mental processes such as attention, working memory, learning, and conscious perception. (from AJNA Yoga)
Who May Benefit From Yoga Therapy?
Just about anyone can benefit from Yoga Therapy, in fact:
“Recent research has pointed to somatic therapy as being effective when used as a treatment for trauma and/or post-traumatic stress disorder”
— Forbes Health Article: www.forbes.com/health/mind/somatic-therapy
People of all ages and identities can greatly benefit from private yoga therapy. It supports a vast range of physical and mental health issues including:
Depression, anxiety,
Stress,
Trauma,
Chronic pain and fatigue,
PTSD
…and more.
What to specifically look for in a yoga therapist?
If you’ve searched online, you may find yourself inundated with the amount of healers, teachers, and practitioners. But how can you know who to choose?
Here’s a few things to look for:
Is your Yoga Therapist licensed? For example: The International Association of Yoga Therapists provides a C-IAYT certification to all registered practitioners.
Has your Yoga Therapist completed trauma-informed training? Language and sensitivity of your chosen therapist makes a major difference to creating that safe space for healing.
What school did the Yoga Therapist study with? Don’t be afraid to ask and then research the reputation of the school.
Check their reviews: Take a look at the Therapists Google and/or Facebook reviews to hear feedback from real clients and build your consensus.
Bottom Line:
If you’re someone seeking support for trauma release, anxiety, depression, or just ready to feel more mindful and present, yoga therapy is an approach that you might love.
Although it’s not mainstream just yet, it's increasing in popularity as the benefits of mindfulness and yoga are researched and books such as ‘The body keeps the score’ are widely known.
The benefits of yoga therapy are studied, and can be applied to a range of ages, identities, and experiences.
Discovering the link between your emotions, thoughts, and how this affects your body and vice versa is incredibly empowering for everyone.
Next Steps:
If you're ready to break-free from depression, trauma, and/or anxiety, my online 1:1 yoga therapy can help.
This holistic approach to therapy guides you through somatic-based healing to cultivate mindfulness of your body, emotions, habits, and thoughts.
Online 1:1 yoga therapy is designed to help you reduce stress, manage mental health, and improve self-care.
Book a free 20-minute consultation and start your healing journey today: https://wildwomb.space/privateyogatherapyhealingsessions
Joss Frank, Yoga Therapist C-IAYT
I’m Joss, founder of Wild Womb, and I specialize in empowering people to heal, reclaim their power, and build lasting self-confidence.
After years of struggling with depression, anxiety, and trauma, I discovered that true healing comes from within. Through my personal journey of self-healing, I learned that the key to overcoming physical and emotional challenges lies in reconnecting with the body, cultivating inner awareness, and embracing holistic practices.
As a certified Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT), I now guide people through transformative healing processes that address both the physical and emotional aspects of their well-being. My work combines somatic therapy, yoga therapy, and emotional healing practices to help people cultivate self-love and lasting inner peace.
Whether you're struggling with mental health, trauma recovery, or building a positive relationship with your body, I’m here to support you on your healing journey.