Military & VeteransThough everybody is dealing with their own mind and body during a yoga class, there is something powerful about practicing in a group. When teaching veterans with PTSD in the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program, Mr. Yura brings a holistic approach to his teaching. Focusing less on traditional poses and more on somatics — a way of re-educating the way our brain senses and moves the muscles — he helps the group develop a series of movements from which they can readily feel the benefits and use post-program to contribute to their own well-being.
Marty Yura is a yoga teacher and co-owner of Vista Yoga. A veteran with a Masters in Psychology, he served as a psychologist in the military for five years. He now teaches yoga to civilians as well as to veterans with PTSD and other physical and mental health conditions through the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program.
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I do think that the group does foster more of a involvement, more participation. I never get the sense that people are comparing - that may be a bit more common in the public or other classes, not in this environment. I think for the most part people are willing, very willing, to discover. And some people have had yoga experience before. Universally — not some of the things that I’m working them on, like the somatics. And there are other offerings to the military population of yoga. More, how do I say it, more traditional in the sense that they’re doing poses and different things. But I’m coming from an angle of I want to empower people to be able to do at least some things on their own. And if I’m successful, perhaps they will cultivate an appetite and go search out someplace to practice yoga that works for them. And you have to be, I think, discerning because there’s a lot of fast-moving yoga that is not addressing safety and people’s real well-being. But I’m coming from the perspective of kind of a holistic approach so that people can contribute to their own well-being and begin with a finite repertoire of movements that they are likely to feel the effects of readily.
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About the author: Marty Yura, MA
Marty Yura is a yoga teacher and co-owner of Vista Yoga. A veteran with a Masters in Psychology, he served as a psychologist in the military for five years. He now teaches yoga to civilians as well as to veterans with PTSD and other physical and mental health conditions through the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program.
