Lynn Stoller, the Founding President of the Sensory-Enhanced Yoga® Institute, previously worked for 36 years as an occupational therapist at Cotting School, where she frequently incorporated yoga practices into individual and group sessions for students with anxiety, ADHD, and sensory modulation disorders. Since 2008, she has trained yoga instructors and health professionals in sensory-based techniques for PTSD. Lynn's notable achievements include being the associate investigator and first author of the influential Iraq yoga study on combat stress. She has also made significant contributions as a faculty member of veteran/military yoga organizations. Lynn is a certified yoga therapist and has been teaching therapeutic yoga classes for veterans for many years. Meg Hennessey Schofield, a passionate yogi and highly experienced registered yoga teacher, holds a Master's degree in Severe Special Education and a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education. Throughout her teaching career, Meg integrated sensory and mindfulness-based yoga and meditation practices into her classrooms, benefiting all her students and inspiring her colleagues. Her dedication led her to complete yoga and meditation trainings worldwide, including Registered Yoga Teacher Training, Meditation for All, Autism Yoga Teacher Training, and Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction. Currently, as the Director of the SMYLE program, Meg focuses on promoting sensory and mindfulness-based yoga for all learning environments, making a positive impact on individuals seeking holistic and inclusive educational experiences.
"In their book, Lynn Stoller and Meg Hennessey Schofield have taken a deep dive into the nature of the body's response to chronic or toxic stress, and the psychological and neurobiological consequences of traumatic experience as way to set the stage and provide evidence for ingredients of their ""sensory enhanced"" approach to the practice of yoga for children and adolescents. However, their amplification of the significant role of the senses, sensory modulation, and sensory integration is an important contribution to the literature on yoga practice as an adjunct treatment for PTSD, as well as complex trauma. The authors' attention to sensory details such as the reduction of visual clutter, avoidance of low, threatening sounds, or the use of slow, even rhythms to better support a felt sense of safety for a client give practitioners concrete and useful advice. Specific guidance regarding postural movements and positions in relation to traumatic experience offers the practitioner insight into body memory, the importance of an invitational approach, and care required when engaging the body in trauma treatment. And the specific steps for teaching breathwork to children and adolescents which are illustrated with photographs will persuade readers that this can be done even with young children. Yoga, when used as a somatic intervention for trauma, can be hugely beneficial when yoga teachers have this kind of background and awareness to inform their practice. -- Elizabeth S. Warner, Ed.M., Psy.D. Co-developer of Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment (SMART)"