Yoga for children and adolescents with psychiatric conditions
24 Aug 2022
Professor Nóra Kerekes at University West has led several studies where the effects of yoga on behavior, mental health and on personality dimensions have been studied in different care contexts. Her study on trauma-adapted yoga in forensic psychiatry is ongoing at national level in Sweden. Now a new study is being launched - this time focusing on children and adolescents who suffer from trauma and mental health problems.
Nóra Kerekes, Professor of Medical Science (Psychiatry) at University West.
- Our research team has been in the USA this summer where staffs in Child and Adolescents Psychiatry Care have been trained before the implementation of a new international research study, says Nóra Kerekes.
Trauma-adapted yoga is a unique yoga method that takes into account commonly occurring mental health problems with safe and beneficial methods specifically adapted for care. Josefin Wikström, founder of Trauma-Adapted Yoga Sweden has developed the yoga programs and a training concept and has worked together with Nóra Kerekes in several of her research projects and is also involved in the new collaboration with the USA.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry staff members are given key roles
Twenty-three physicians, psychologists, art therapists and nurses who work in child and adolescent psychiatry will soon complete their trauma-adapted yoga instructor training at SUNY Upstate Medical University, New York. Several of them will be an important part of the new research project that will be started in the fall of 2022.
As there are not yet studies with yoga in child and adolescent psychiatry, the first step in the new study is to evaluate the feasibility of including trauma-adapted yoga as a complement to the usual care in child and adolescent psychiatric clinics.
Staff in Child and Adolescents Psychiatry Care at Upstate.
Yoga as a possible complementary treatment
If feasibility of the method is proven, Nóra Kerekes aims to evaluate whether trauma-adapted yoga practice, in combination with the standard treatment in child and adolescent psychiatric clinics, will reduce trauma symptoms, anxiety, depression, aggression, self-injurious behaviors and relationship difficulties, as well as increase patients' resilience and impulse control.
- It has previously been shown that yoga improves the physical and mental well-being of children, as well as adults, and helps young people to improve resilience, mood and self-regulation of emotions and impulses.
Nóra Kerekes points out:
- An important aspect of our ongoing and new projects is the aim to investigate whether inclusion the possibility for patients to practice yoga within their care, could promote the well-being of the healthcare staff, which is a rarely explored perspective of treatment studies.
Scientific evidence is a prerequisite of healthcare
According to Nóra Kerekes, the study is important in improving evidence-based and effective care for children and adolescents suffering from mental health problems, as well as filling a scientific knowledge gap about the function of yoga as a care method.
Contact: Nóra Kerekes, Professor of Medical Science (Psychiatry), University West, nora.kerekes@hv.se, +46 739 01 34 03
Read more:
Center for Holistic Psychiatry research “CHoPy”