1. Treating PTSD with Yoga & Meditation

2. Bill Daniels Veterans Service Center Volunteers of America CO
Supportive Services for Veteran Families (Back Home SSVF)
The Bill Daniels Veterans Service Center also hosts multiple partner agencies including legal clinics, VA CRRC, Soldiers Angels, and the Department of Labor
Between , SSVF Back Home has assisted 1,258 Veteran households obtain/maintain permanent stable housing across CO

4. Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D. THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE

5. Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD The Body Keeps the Score
Began working with Veterans in July of 1978
Noticed pattern of men experiencing similar symptoms receiving multiple disorders
1980: American Psychiatric Association lobbied by group of Vietnam Veterans
Van der Kolk denied grant to research biological traces of traumatic memories

6. “The act of telling the story doesn’t necessarily alter the automatic physical and hormonal responses of bodies that remain hypervigilant, prepared to be assaulted or violated at any time. For real change to take place, the body needs to learn that the danger has passed and to live in the reality of the present. Our search to understand trauma has led us to think differently not only about the structure of the mind but also about the processes by which it heals.”
-B. van der Kolk

7. Stress Hormones Increased cortisol
Moves energy to parts of body that need to fight back and away from parts that are not needed at that time
Increased adrenaline
blood circulation, breathing, and carbohydrate metabolism and preparing muscles for exertion
Increased norepinephrine
Increased heart rate, blood pressure, arousal, alertness, hypervigilance
Decreased thyroid hormones
Also increases heart rate, increased blood pressure, and controls metabolic functions in the body

8. The Limbic System

9. The Amygdala: The Smoke Detector
Identifies pertinent incoming sensory info
If threat detected, signal is sent to the body
Responsible for triggering the release of stress hormones

10. The Hippocampus
Relates new incoming sensory information to past experiences and memories
Damage to this area causes trauma victims left unable to differentiate what memories are more recent and which ones have occurred in the past
Unable to find footing in current timeline

11. The Thalamus: The Cook
Collects sensory info to integrate into auto- biographical memory
Acts as filter / gatekeeper
Responsible for focus, attention, and concentration
Feeling of, “This is what is happening to me right now.”

12. Prefrontal Cortex: The Watchtower
Responsible for deciding what event should involve the amygdala
Enables individuals to predict what might happen next
Allows us to hover calmly over our thoughts, feelings, and emotions

13. “As we begin to re-experience a visceral reconnection with the needs of our bodies, there is a brand new capacity to warmly love the self. We experience a new quality of authenticity in our caring, which redirects our attention to our health, our diets, our energy, our time management. This enhanced care for the self arises spontaneously and naturally, not as a response to a “should.” We are able to experience an immediate and intrinsic pleasure in self-care.”
- Stephen Cope, Yoga and the Quest for the True Self

14. Your Nervous System on Yoga
Heart Rate Variability (HRV): A measure of how well your Central Nervous System is working
CNS is divided into 2 branches:
Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS)
Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS)

16. Ian Cohn 303-505-6263 icohn@voacolorado. org http://www