The Feathered Pipe Foundation is proud to have helped launch, through its past fiscal sponsorship, the Veterans Yoga Project, founded by Dr. Daniel J. Libby. He founded the Veterans Yoga Project as an effort to increase the resources that are available to Veterans with post-traumatic stress and other trauma-related difficulties and to the yoga therapists who work with them.
Veterans Yoga Project is partnering with the Feathered Pipe Foundation again in the summer of 2018 to provide 4-day healing programs tailored specifically for Montana veterans. Learn more here.
Veterans Yoga Project
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) treats nearly 500,000 Veterans each year for the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This number is expected to rise dramatically as the over two million American men and women who have served in U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan come home. Up to 50% of the heroes of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan return home with significant psychosocial problems including PTSD, traumatic brain injury, chronic pain and depression. Unfortunately, even the most effective psychotherapies do not work for all veterans and many veterans who successfully complete psychotherapy continue to suffer with symptoms.
Recognizing the limitations of conventional treatments, over 25% of VA Specialized PTSD treatment programs now offer yoga a part of a comprehensive approach to treatment. It is becoming increasingly clear to mental health clinicians and treatment program coordinators, that yoga for Veterans with PTSD and similar trauma-related difficulties must be tailored in a specific way that maximizes benefits and minimizes risks. The primary way Veterans Yoga Project achieves its mission is to provide training to yoga teachers and mental health professionals on the special considerations and specific best practices involved in using yoga as a complementary therapy for PTSD and other trauma related conditions, and for using yoga to promote physical, mental, and emotional resilience.
To date, over 250 yoga teachers have been through the Veterans Yoga Project training including over 30 vets and active-duty service members. Many of these teachers are teaching in VA and other healthcare settings, teaching the five tools of the Mindful Resilience protocol: breathwork, meditation, mindful movement, guided rest, and gratitude. These simple practices, chosen and adapted based on the feedback of hundreds of veterans and active-duty service members, are aimed to help the veterans we work with breathe easy, focus clearly, move freely, rest deeply, and develop an “attitude of gratitude”.
Feel free to call us at (406) 442-8196 if you’d like to learn more about the specifics of our projects and how you can be a part of our seva. As well if you desire that your tax-deductible donation go to support specific projects, please contact Executive Director, India Supera, at [email protected].
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