Mary NurrieStearns - Yoga for Emotional Trauma: Meditations and Practices for Healing Pain and Suffering

Mary NurrieStearns, LCSW, RYT, is a psychotherapist and yoga teacher with a counseling practice in Tulsa, OK. She is author of numerous articles on psychospiritual growth, coeditor of the book Soulful Living, coauthor of the book Yoga for Anxiety, and has produced DVDs on yoga for anxiety and emotional trauma. She leads transformational meditation and yoga retreats and teaches seminars across the United States.

Rick NurrieStearns, is a meditation teacher, coauthor of the book Yoga for Anxiety, and coeditor of Soulful Living. For ten years he was the publisher of Personal Transformation, a magazine focusing on psychospiritual growth. He has been immersed in consciousness studies and yoga practices for nearly four decades. In 2009 he survived a nearfatal airplane crash that resulted in chronic pain. He credits the practice of meditation with helping him navigate through extreme pain and the journey of recovery.

Visit the NurrieStearns online at www.personaltransformation.com.

Yoga for Emotional Trauma fills a gap in the trauma and recovery literature. Anyone who is working to heal from past trauma will benefit from reading this book. Then, following the easy instructions for yoga poses will move their recovery in a new way. Well written and easily understood.

Charles Whitfield, MD, author of Not Crazy: You May Not be Mentally Ill and Wisdom to Know the Difference, and Barbara Harris Whitfield, RT, CMT, author of The Natural Soul, Victim to Survivor, and Thriver

To be alive in the twentyfirst century is to be traumatized, but we need not stay traumatized. Our age is witnessing an efflorescence of methods to eliminate suffering and move to a place of joy, fulfillment, and serenity. The NurrieStearns are leading the way.

Larry Dossey, MD, author of Healing Words and One Mind

You dont have to have a history of trauma to benefit from this manual of practices from the yoga tradition, but if you do, Yoga for Emotional Trauma is essential reading. The NurrieStearns write with compassion and understanding about the journey home to your true nature, the place that has never been sullied by your trauma. The NurrieStearns write clearly, humbly describing their own recovery from trauma along with the recovery stories of the many clients with whom they have worked. Thank you NurrieStearns for giving us in clear and readable prose, the brain science that explains the effects of trauma and how yoga can help us recover.

Amy Weintraub, founder of the LifeForce Yoga Healing Institute, and author of Yoga for Depression and Yoga Skills for Therapists

This is simply a fantastic book. It captures the full spectrum of practical knowledge of yoga and makes it accessible for all of us so we can use this ancient knowledge and proven practice for healing our body, mind, and spirit. Without overwhelming the reader, the book encourages us to try out a number of thoughtful compassionate and gentle exercises to soothe and harmonize all three aspects of ourselves: body, mind, and spirit.

Georg Eifert, PhD, Chapman University Professor Emeritus of Psychology and coauthor of the Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety

Margaret Mitchell once wrote: Every problem has two handles. You can grab it by the handle of fear, or the handle of hope. This book has a firm grasp on the handle of hope. This book offers a gentle, timetested, nurturing approach to guide the reader through their recovery from trauma. It is a muchneeded balm for a wounded world.

Henry Emmons, MD, integrative psychiatrist and author of The Chemistry of Joy, The Chemistry of Calm and The Chemistry of Joy Workbook

Yoga teachers, students, and even folks new to the idea of yoga will benefit from the stories and information in this thoughtful book. The healing power of yoga is vast and endless both physically and emotionally. The authors have done a wonderful job of explaining how it works with easytounderstand true stories and references to science. I appreciate this work and plan to share it with all of my students and teacher trainees. We can help so many people, and we can begin with ourselves.

Desiree Rumbaugh, certified yoga instructor

Publishers Note

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books

Copyright 2013 by Mary NurrieStearns & Rick NurrieStearns

New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

5674 Shattuck Avenue

Oakland, CA 94609

www.newharbinger.com

Yoga posture photographs copyright Carol Curry, Studio-Curry.com, 2012.

Illustration of seven chakras Copyright Surabhi25/Shutterstock.com, 2012. Used under license from Shutterstock.com.

All Rights Reserved

Acquired by Jess OBrien; Cover design by Amy Shoup; Text design by Michele Waters-Kermes; Edited by Marisa Sols

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

NurrieStearns, Mary.

Yoga for emotional trauma : meditations and practices for healing pain and suffering / Mary NurrieStearns, LCSW, RYT, Rick NurrieStearns.

pages cm

Summary: In Yoga for Emotional Trauma, a psychotherapist and a meditation teacher present a yogic approach to emotional trauma by instructing readers to apply mindful awareness, breathing, yoga postures, and mantras to their emotional and physical pain-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-60882-642-1 (pbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-60882-643-8 (pdf e-book) -- ISBN 978-1-60882-644-5 (epub) 1. Psychic trauma--Alternative treatment. 2. Post-traumatic stress disorder--Alternative treatment. 3. Hatha yoga. 4. Self-care, Health. I. NurrieStearns, Rick. II. Title.

RC552.T7N87 2013

616.8521062--dc23

2013014283