Ep. 18: Trauma-sensitive yoga effective with LGBTQ+ youth
Release Date: 11/18/2022
Ep. 18: Trauma-sensitive yoga effective with LGBTQ+ youth
Justice In Action
Sexual assault, bullying and harassment are traumatic for all survivors of any age. Transgender and non-binary youth are at high risk for encountering these experiences, which can lead to the development of complex trauma that may include a lack of trust in other people and even estrangement from their own bodies. About half of all transgender or non-binary youth have experienced sexual assault. As a result, many experience anxiety and depression, including suicidal thoughts, and are more likely than their cis-gender peers to live with a sense of...
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Ep. 17: Substance Use Recovery
Justice In Action
Guiding our clients toward recovery from substance use disorder The opioid epidemic has increased the demand for effective recovery services, and Justice Resource Institute’s Mary Chao is leading the organization’s training program for clinicians and other staff members to aid them in helping clients recover. Chao has been with JRI for nine years and works with the agency’s health, training and community-based services divisions, developing and coordinating substance use programming throughout the agency. She works closely with clients ages 12 to 24 and the JRI clinicians who help them...
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Ep. 16: Mental Heath Treatment for Clients with Developmental Differences
Justice In Action
Mental health clinicians are often reluctant to treat people who have intellectual and developmental differences (IDDs) for fear of doing something that could worsen rather than improve the client’s condition. In this episode of Justice in Action, two JRI clinicians, Dr. Jacquelyn Kraps, Metrowest Area Director and Clinical Director of Outpatient Services, and Bailey McCombs, Licensed Metal Health Counselor and Expressive Arts Therapist, talk about the rewards and challenges of working with children with a range of differences, from autism spectrum disorder to chromosomal differences,...
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Ep. 15: Data and research improve treatment of complex trauma
Justice In Action
Few social service agencies are as committed as JRI to improving treatment through research and data. In today’s episode of Justice in Action, we talk to Hilary Hodgdon, Research Director at Justice Resource Institute, and Lia Martin, Senior Associate Director of Quality Management. Together, they are part of a data and research division that is unusual among social service agencies for its size and scope. JRI clients suffer from complex trauma. On average, a child or adolescent seeing a JRI therapist has experienced three different types of trauma, such as neglect, physical abuse or...
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Ep. 14: Courageous Conversations
Justice In Action
Staff of Justice Resource Institute don’t shy away from talking about tough issues like racial justice, immigration policy or vaccine hesitancy.
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Ep. 13: Covid-19 pandemic boosts need for foster homes
Justice In Action
More than 8,400 Massachusetts children are in foster care, and the need is growing as the financial and emotional strain of the Covid-19 pandemic and the state’s opioid crisis continue to take a toll on children and families.
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Ep. 12: Permanent Connections are Vital for a Child’s Success
Justice In Action
We all need the people in our lives who know us and care about us, who celebrate our successes and comfort us in hard times. These are the people we call when we get a new job, lock our keys in the car or are facing a big decision.
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Ep. 11: Children's Advocacy Center
Justice In Action
CAC mental health clinicians Brittannie Moroz and Jillian Allen shared CDC data stating one in four girls and one in 13 boys under age 18 suffer trauma as a result of child sexual abuse. Those children are some of the approximately 75,000 Bristol County children age 16 and younger be-lieved to have suffered trauma from abuse, violence, addiction in their homes or other causes of childhood trauma.
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Ep. 10: Trauma-sensitive yoga w/ Jennifer Turner
Justice In Action
Trauma-sensitive yoga helps sufferers use their bodies to heal their spirits
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Ep. 9: The Wounded Healer
Justice In Action
Helping the healer when their work unearths old symptoms of trauma
info_outlineSexual assault, bullying and harassment are traumatic for all survivors of any age. Transgender and non-binary youth are at high risk for encountering these experiences, which can lead to the development of complex trauma that may include a lack of trust in other people and even estrangement from their own bodies.
About half of all transgender or non-binary youth have experienced sexual assault. As a result, many experience anxiety and depression, including suicidal thoughts, and are more likely than their cis-gender peers to live with a sense of powerlessness and alienation from their own bodies.
Justice Resource Institute works with transgender and non-binary youth who live with “embodied trauma” that causes a range of physical symptoms that traditional forms of “talk therapy” or drug therapy have been mostly ineffective. One of JRI’s approaches is “trauma sensitive yoga” that Jenn Turner, co-director of JRI’s Center for Trauma and Embodiment, says has proven to be an effective approach for trauma survivors because it addresses the physical manifestations of trauma that many survivors live with.
She said it has been used effectively as an intervention for female-identifying veterans who were sexually assaulted in the U.S. military.
Shaina Doberman is the director of the Younity Drop-In Center in Gloucester, which seeks to empower young adults ages 16-25 by providing a space where they can identify goals, overcome barriers, and explore what inspires them. The center operates under a Peer Support model, and specializes in assisting youth and young adults who identify as LGBTQ+.
Embodied trauma occurs because overwhelming experiences are stored in our bodies and trauma-sensitive yoga is an effective way to reconnect survivors of complex trauma with their own bodies. Participants are never told what to do with their bodies and are invited to participate in the embodied mindfulness as much or as little as they want and need.
JRI’s Center for Trauma and Embodiment recently received a grant from the Tower Foundation to train future instructors in trauma-sensitive yoga. The training lasts for seven months and is in addition to traditional training for yoga instructors.
You can learn more about the work of the Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga program at the center’s website. If you are interested in supporting their work, you can donate here.