Yoga instructors Annabelle Teleki and Veronica Geretz arrive at San Quentin each week to guide the residents through a practice known as “trauma-informed yoga.”
Teleki said her status as a teacher and guide for the Prison Yoga Project comes with a great responsibility that she does not take lightly. She shows up to San Quentin week after week to help facilitate a transformative change that she said starts with students turning inward and getting to know themselves.
“When an individual has experienced trauma and is also incarcerated, this person is living in a traumatic environment on top of the initial trauma,” said Teleki.
She went on to say that practicing yoga offers people a way to self-regulate the nervous system, the opportunity to practice being more aware of present feelings, and the ability to manage impulse control.
By supporting people with traumas, it creates a community that values humanity, healing and the growth of emotional intelligence as a collective.
“As one of my teachers says, ‘the issues live in our tissues’!” she said.
Teleki expressed that it is an honor to witness the growth of her students in their yoga practice.
“My students at San Quentin have been some of the most dedicated practitioners I have had the pleasure of guiding in my 16-plus years of teaching,” she said. “Witnessing the expansion and growth of the students continues to offer me hope and faith. This work is deep and requires courage and the willingness to be vulnerable. These are qualities that all my students have embodied — amazing!”
For Geretz, she said she started teaching yoga at San Quentin in 2016 in response to the presidential election of Donald J. Trump, which reminder her “that we all are responsible in creating the world we all deserve.”
Once she learned about the Prison Yoga Project, which was founded by James Fox in 2002, she knew it was the perfect opportunity to practice the work of trauma transformation.
“When I leave from San Quentin twice a week after sharing yoga with those incarcerated here, I feel so certain I’m doing the best I possibly can to foster peace in the world,” said Geretz.
Geretz began teaching yoga in the summer of 2010 while in Sierra Leon, West Africa where she was invited to teach the practice to former child combatants.
“I was reluctant at first … but fate had a different clarity. After teaching that group for six weeks, it was remarkable to hear their testimonies of feeling essentially the effects of somatic-trauma transformation. Everyone deserves the self-regulatory and nervous system anchoring benefits of yoga, especially those who have endured compound trauma, shame, etc.,” said Geretz.
Studies have shown that incarcerated people who participate in yoga experience less stress, less physical pain, improved rational decision making, as well as a calmer temperament and better emotional control, according to a column in the Rockford Register Star by Stacy Morrissey who is a program director and facilitator for the Prison Yoga Project.
She wrote that part of transforming trauma is understanding the restorative justice view that acknowledges individuals who commit crimes have often been victimized, traumatized or neglected themselves. For people and communities who want to focus on the recovery and healing process, improved outcomes have been shown when underlying traumas are addressed.
“The impact of past trauma doesn’t excuse behaviors, but when we have an understanding of what trauma is and how it shows up in the brain and body, we can respond accordingly,” Morrissey wrote. “So what does it look like to invest in people as a community? What would it look like to offer resources instead of walls?”
