Psychological benefits of trauma-focused yoga intervention on female prisoner population

Annual Congress and Medicare Expo on Trauma & Critical Care

March 07-09, 2016 Madrid, Spain

Yoika Danielly and Colin Silverthorne

University of San Francisco, USA

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Trauma Treat

Abstract :

Until now, practitioners of trauma-focused yoga have suggested that it has many benefits, but little research has been conducted to test these possible benefits. As a part of the Yoga Prison Project, female inmates at 2 correctional facilities in South Carolina served as subjects. Inmates were selected from those who applied to be allowed to participate in a ten-week trauma-focused yoga program. To create control and experimental groups, inmates who requested to participate in the yoga class were randomly assigned to either be in the class (Experimental group, n=33) or placed on a waitlist (Control Group, n=17). Inmates on the waitlist joined the next class so all who wanted could participate. A variety of psychological measures were tested and data were collected from both groups before the class began and again at the end, 10 weeks later. To assess the changes from preintervention to postintervention, mixed design ANOVA�s tests were conducted. Inmates in the yoga group reported a significant decrease in depression (p<0.05) and stress (p<0.01) and improved self awareness (p<0.02). No significant effect was reported on anxiety, rumination and self-control in the treatment group. Although not substantial, anxiety scores did decrease and self-control scores improved for the yoga group. Inmates in the control group reported a worsening or no change on these measures. Rumination stayed about the same for both groups. The results suggest that yoga is an inexpensive intervention that could benefit both inmates and prison staff by reducing negative behaviors and possibly mental health problems. Future studies should include male participants and measure the effect of a longer yoga program