NASW Social Work Talks - EP38: Bringing Yoga to Jail

Episode Date: September 24, 2019

Our guest Michael Wilkins, LCSW, is therapist at the Center for Trauma & Resilience in Denver. We speak with Michael about his work bringing yoga and breathing techniques to inmates in Colorado. Michael is a yoga instructor, an ultra-marathon runner, and is certified in auricular acupuncture. Michael helps clients attain skills that enable them to experience an active lifestyle as a means to better physical and mental health. See the show notes for resources and a transcript. And if you like this show, please leave us a review!

I'm Kat MacDonald and this is NASW Social Work Talks. Michael Wilkins, LCSW, is a therapist at the Center for Trauma and Resilience in Denver. He's a yoga instructor, an ultramarathon runner, and is certified in auricular acupuncture. Michael helps clients attain skills that enable them to experience an active lifestyle as a means to better physical and mental health. thanks for joining us today michael thanks so much so how and why did you uh start doing yoga um what i initially i i didn't know what i learned now is specifically how how it relates to trauma and what i what i what i believe now is that it's a great way of um probably the best way as far as helping clients alleviate stress on their own, any type of a mental health issue.

I just come to finding myself that doing self-care on my own, that it does work, you know, be it yoga or any kind of physical activity. It does have a positive influence on our mental health. So people who've never done yoga might expect that you have to be flexible and fit to do yoga. Can anybody do yoga? Absolutely. And that's one of the big things that i share with the inmates is that traditionally it's always been you know a young white female that works in studios and you didn't see a lot of people of color there's nobody that looked like us in fact that was my experience at first too and so in going into the into the jails i share with the inmates that that we can do this too and we can utilize our own voice and

do it in our own way but it's not just limited to one specific population so you're bringing yoga into a prison setting um so for people who have never been inside a prison can you describe for us what it looks like and what it feels like for you to be in that space absolutely and again i want to emphasize i'm not in prisons i'm in the jails okay but it's practically um the same type of security but nonetheless you're going in as you expect you gotta you know make sure you don't have anything in the army that you ain't supposed to um and at that point when the lock's behind i get a little a little worried myself but it's okay it's challenging in a sense because um you're not in a regular yoga studio so there's constantly going to be noise and interruptions you're going

to hear doors open and closing and it's constantly it's very active area so that's that's one of the bigger challenges i even take that opportunity to share with the guys the importance of staying in the moment even with throughout all the noise and distractions to try to really take that moment to focus on being mindful and for the most part they do good until they're distracted by getting their commissary the distractions again the loud noises mainly that's the big big challenge also gender expectations is a factor for most times what happens is some of the guys aren't comfortable going in because of the stereotypes with yoga until they see other men go in and i see that less since i've been doing it now in the jail so over the last year and a half of getting more

comfortable and my the classes are getting bigger but that's one of the bigger challenges that comes up in addition to a lot of the physical noise and surroundings also too it's like the security part i come in with a big old bag full of mats always get these strange looks by the sheriff but i just go and open the bag to get in everything and going about my way but it is very obvious and it's interesting how the guards respond. So what are some of the mental and emotional issues that you see prisoners or people in the jails are dealing with? A lot of substance abuse. Primarily, I would say that's probably about 80 to 90 percent of what led to their situations in there. And so what I share with them specifically is how trauma works and how in their drug use, how they've been

utilizing that as a coping skill, and I teach them that yoga can be a great way of replacing that, and what I really do more than anything is rather than focusing on the postures, we really go at it upon the breathing techniques and how they can do a better job of regulating their body and getting out of that limbic system and getting their mind open and really talking about how trauma works and its significance and how yoga can play into that, and it's very interesting too, because at the end of every session, the guys will say, yeah, I feel really good. I had one guy today, like, wow, I feel high, but I'm not on drugs. And I haven't felt this calm. And so the response will always consist of them more of the same, just the idea that I can actually

feel calm without the use of substances, or I can feel calm and still work through the problems I have in my life. That's really powerful, actually. And about trauma, I'm wondering, you know, when people get really still sometimes the trauma can come up even more in that stillness um how do you help people deal with that when that comes up or if that comes up and how do you ensure that the yoga sessions that you do are trauma informed well first and foremost i don't engage in any kind of physical touch so i just stay basically in front i don't even walk walk around i just stay visible in front of them because of this particular population so they can see where I'm at and I tell them up front that I did I share with them that I'm

not going to be big on the moves but more on the breathing and to really focus on postures I'm finding finding a way that's comfortable in that in the postures that we go into and I'm always encouraging to modify we're on the floor lots I always constantly encourage those finding more challenging to modify utilizing more than me it's a really feel comfortable and that tends to work through there's a few guys that want to be challenged a little bit more so but I really make it a conscious effort to encourage the importance of modification but for the most part I think there hasn't been any like triggers or

anything so to speak I think that's on my part it's important not to be aware of my boundaries and just so for you what's the connection between yoga and social work when we're offering yoga now it's clearly systemic in a sense that it's it's physical and mental um on a micro level on an individual level so i'm thinking you know what if we provide this because i'm a family person like how does this look in a home with families like some family can practice this on their own and make it a part of their normal routine but I just see that both on a very basic individual need for some macro relational way that if most of us, if we train ourselves to really pay attention to what trauma looks like and

how to alleviate some of those stresses through yoga, I think it'd make the world better. I think it'd make our relationships better. I just think it'd make our job better. It'd make the inmate feel better and alleviate any kind of stress and anxiety. And it gives them the skill to do it on their own. And I have one guy today who's like, he just said, he's like, you know, I'm learning I can do this stuff on my own. I was like, you know what, that's what I want to hear because I want to get rid of the idea of therapist and the idea of talking, but really taking these methods, whether it's breathing exercises, meditation, to really utilize that and do it for themselves.

And again, like the young man told me today, like, I feel like I'm in control. And that's the best thing I think I can teach and spread to everybody. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. So you're using yoga as a tool for healing and supporting people in jail, but I'm wondering what other populations might benefit from yoga. Absolutely. Well, here at our agency, again, the Center for Trauma and Resiliency, I specifically do a lot of the work in the jails, as well as another counselor. She works with the females. But we also offer yoga with various other populations, such as we have a yoga program for women of color. We have another program that's very popular for our older

adults, our elder program, and that's really growing. So we're really spreading out. In addition to just working in the jails, we are doing that here. And again, at the Center for trauma resiliency. We're giving them that same message, the idea of utilizing experiential techniques in ways of helping teach the trauma, but really for us is utilizing more of those ideas and practicing them here. We also provide what's called NADA, which is a form of ear acupuncture. In short, I think what people like about yoga, it gives them the skills to do it on

their own, both physical and mental. Do you think there are um maybe populations for whom yoga would not be a good a useful tool i've had one situation i felt was kind of challenging was um some very unspiritual population faith-based organizations there seems to be a little challenge there uh and i wasn't expecting that i was working with a family and again i presented some particular types of um ideas around yoga and ageist is like Absolutely not. But they were receptive to breathing techniques. So that's been the most resistance I've come across.

And that was folks who felt like there's the spirituality aspect of yoga might conflict with their own religious beliefs? Yes, exactly. Okay. That's something to be sensitive to. Absolutely. Yeah. So what advice would you give to other social workers who are thinking about incorporating yoga into their work or bringing yoga to populations that they work with?

To be trauma-informed, to be very focused on the idea of what trauma looks like in conjunction, how yoga looks in conjunction to this particular population, as well as, again, And getting, teaching them the basic skills, not so much the postures, but the idea of how to calm themselves down, to teach them how trauma works, let them practice those skills on their own. I just can't say enough about that. What kinds of things do you say at the beginning of the class to sort of open people's minds up to that, to the practice? Well, first of all, a lot of times what I'll do when I get a new gentleman in, and I'll present who I am, and I acknowledge who they are, and I share first and foremost what I do, what we're going to be doing,

is really not so much focusing on the posture, utilizing this time to learn how to focus on our breathing. And then at that point, we'll just start with a warm-up. And it's very, I use a lot of the same moves that way. It doesn't become so unpredictable. And at that point, we go very slow, and I just say, I don't use a lot of the chakras, those particular terms. Sometimes I'll mix it up or not.

I'll just be very direct in my language and I'll just say, on an inhale, we're going to bring our arms up. Or clearly I'm speaking in our language and not a lot of big words, you know, just keeping the language very simple. I think that's very important. And so I start there. And what I like to do is I start from a standing position. And so I like to just do a little warm-up, a few exercises.

But when we get to the floor, I like to encourage them for what we do is we push a little bit more. And I tell them, we're going to take it a little farther for some of us. And if you're not okay with the modifications, I really like to make some of the moves kind of challenging. For instance, the downward dog. And so we'll work some of those things, some more of the physical types of movements. And, again, I'm teaching them the importance of breathing. and so they get really good work and i can tell because i get uh and at that point i take advantage of that point of letting them then allowing the body to recover and i let i tell

them that as we change through the move like we'll come back to a child's call and i'll share okay at this point now i'm going to let the body recover and while you're recovering just pay attention to your body my main point is i'm always driving home the idea of being aware how their body's feeling at the time of those movements be it very physical or whether they're calming down And what I do is once I finally get them to that point where we're pretty tired, that's when I take advantage of really utilizing more slower movements and meditations. And at that point, we really come down. And that's when we're really able to notice the difference in body recovery.

And it works very, very well on the guys. They're very calm, quiet. Yeah, I can imagine there are not a lot of quiet, still places in jail. No, not at all. yeah that's one of the challenges in there too the distractions of the guards when they're coming in disrupt my they don't intentionally mean it but they got to give commissary and so that that just breaks any kind of concentration because that's their snacks and food and so that's one of the biggest challenges here but the problem with that is they forget themselves as a high turnover rate

and half them they don't know i'm there half the people they see me they won't see me and so it's It's like the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, as you would expect in a large department like that. But I guess that's part of the reality is you have to sort of find the stillness even in the midst of all of the sort of noise and distractions and all of that. I think that's part of the, you know, beauty of meditation and yoga is that that's what it helps you do, even if there's wildness and craziness going all around outside. Absolutely, yeah, that's a good way of putting it. and even through that noise i'll encourage them like as you're meditating i'm like well if you want to even focus on the hip sounds that you hear whatever i'd like to stay in that moment the inmates they enjoy it and doing yoga so long i don't know how to do it without being in the

in the jail but we work through it it's been an experience for me coming out of grad school because this was not on my this was not on my list of ideas and just to know that now I can have it in LCSW and helping people in this way is very, very, very unique. I've run a lot, and so I've always been mindful of what exercise means to me. Wherever I go now, I'm brought on this idea that I can't work on, we can't work through mental health if we're not addressing physical health. I'm just totally convinced of that, that they both have to be addressed in unison together, or it's just not going to work.

Thank you so much, Michael Wilkins, for speaking with us about doing yoga in jails. I just appreciate this opportunity and sharing what we do. Thanks so much. Thank you so much. You have been listening to NASW Social Work Talks, a production of the National Association of Social Workers. We encourage you to visit NASW's website for more information about our efforts to enhance the professional growth and development of our members, to create and maintain professional standards, and to advance sound social policies. You can learn more at www.socialworkers.org.

Don't forget to subscribe to NASW Social Work Talks wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for joining us. We look forward to seeing you next episode.