For years, Bilski suffered from panic attacks, nightmares and feelings of low self-worth. Until she discovered yoga.
On a “classic” post-university trip to Southeast Asia, she thought to herself: “Okay, let’s try this yoga thing. It’s probably for hippies.” Every day, during savasana – at the end of the class when participants lie on the floor in relaxation – “I would cry and cry and cry,” says Bilski. “I was crying from places that I didn’t even understand. I was feeling different things. I was feeling safety in my body in a way that I didn’t realise I needed. It was such a huge shift in one week.”
Bilski cancelled all her plans for partying and instead, “went from yoga retreat to yoga retreat, and then ended up training, and then ended up going into yoga therapy”.
Yoga therapy, she says, is distinct from other forms of yoga – not all types of yoga are good for PTSD sufferers, One recent review found evidence that types of yoga such as kundalini, satyananda, and hot yoga – which is practiced in a heated environment – could be most useful as an intervention.
In addition, most yoga teachers, says Bilski, are not equipped to deal with trauma. “You need a trauma-informed teacher. There are a lot of yoga teachers out there that could potentially provide classes that end up triggering people.” If your body doesn’t feel like a safe place to be, for example, but a yoga class brings a high level of awareness to your body, “then you can end up becoming triggered”.