Enhancing the Seeking Safety group intervention with trauma-sensitive yoga practice: A program evaluation.

Area of Science:

• Mental Health Interventions
• Complementary Therapies
• Trauma-Informed Care

Background:

• Seeking Safety (SS) is a manualized group counseling intervention for trauma.
• Trauma-Sensitive (TS) yoga is a mind-body practice for trauma recovery.
• The combined use of SS and TS yoga has not been previously evaluated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the integration of SS and TS yoga at a community mental health agency.
• To assess the perceived effectiveness of this combined intervention strategy.
• To explore how this integration impacts individual therapy approaches.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative Utilization Focused Program Evaluation.
• Data collected through key informant interviews and focus groups.
• Content and thematic analysis of qualitative data.

Main Results:

• The combination of SS and TS yoga was perceived as an effective complementary intervention.
• Clients and clinicians reported positive outcomes with the integrated approach.
• The combined strategy addressed limitations of individual interventions.

Conclusions:

• The findings are specific to the evaluated community mental health agency.
• Integrating SS with TS yoga moderated the weaknesses of each individual approach.
• This evaluation provides a foundation for further research on combined trauma therapies.