This advanced course trains yoga therapists to work with pregnant people who have PTSD, C-PTSD, or symptoms of trauma, either from a previous traumatic birth experience, experiences of abuse throughout childhood, and/or one, or more than one, more recent experience of trauma in adulthood such as physical, sexual, or emotional violence. This vulnerable population is particularly sensitive; the correlation between experiences of trauma and people of child-bearing age is statistically relevant, and the impact of this relevance has far-reaching implications for our species. Female bodies are traditionally under-catered to medically, and even more so in areas of research, and this shows up particularly strongly with pregnancy and trauma.

The combination of pregnancy, trauma and yoga therapy is unknown. The author conducted a comprehensive literature search for an experiential, qualitative study on trauma, yoga therapy and pregnancy with seven South African women (thesis available on request). The outcome showed no published literature available on this intersection. The course is based on the author’s considerable experience with pregnancy, yoga therapy and trauma.

Course content includes protocols that were used in the above study, studying PTSD as it relates to birth trauma, conditions that make the state of pregnancy particularly vulnerable to trauma, minimal provision in many countries in the world, particularly developing countries, for mental health during pregnancy, the resistance to treatment of complex PTSD (C-PTSD) and how yoga therapy breaches this gap, and how to ethically work with this vulnerable population so as to avoid risk or harm. The training also studies how working in groups with this demographic benefits trauma healing.