This week on the Beyond Trauma podcast I touch on a sensitive but important topic, my work bringing trauma-sensitive yoga to the NYPD. This offering began in 2015 and continues to this day more sporadically through the work of the nonprofit Three and a Half Acres Yoga. In this episode, I interview former Sergent Annie Labrada who experienced my offerings as an officer and went on later to get certified in yoga and then trauma sensitive yoga through Three and a Half Acres.
Police officers and other first responders are exposed to trauma multiple times in a single day and are at high risk of traumatization through that exposure. This is something we discuss in detail in the episode. Their traumatization can result in hypervigilence, dissociation, or a combination of both that can impact their work, making them either edgy and over-reactive or uncaring and disengaged. Yoga practice is one way of moving and releasing the stored trauma response and potentially softening those responses so they can be more calmly alert and engaged during their service. This was why it was so important to Three and a Half Acres Yoga to provide trauma sensitive yoga to officers in Harlem and greater Manhattan.
Annie attended my classes downtown at NYPD police headquarters and later in Harlem. Soon after she became certified in trauma sensitive yoga and began teaching for NYPD Blue Karma Yoga, an NYPD sports team that got yoga widely taught and accepted amongst officers. Three and a Half Acres Yoga partnered with them on a health and wellness event for cops in Central Park. These classes became an outlet for highly stressed officers to process their trauma through their bodies instead of intentionally or unintentionally exposing others to its implications.
Getting the okay to bring offerings like this one to the NYPD is nearly impossible from outside the force, so I was glad to see insiders having some success. Unfortunately, like many programs, it’s been challenging to maintain trauma sensitive yoga in within the NYPD, largely due to personnel change. Annie and many of her colleagues retired in the last year and Annie is now with her family in a pretty exciting place which you can hear all about on this episode.
What do you think about offering trauma sensitive yoga to the NYPD and others in positions of power? Take a listen to the episode on the Beyond Trauma Podcast and send me a message with your thoughts.
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