David Emerson

David Emerson is the founder and director of Yoga Services for the Trauma Center at the Justice Resource Institute in Brookline, Massachusetts, where he coined the term “trauma-sensitive yoga.” He was responsible for curriculum development, supervision, and oversight of the yoga intervention component of the first-of-its-kind, NIH-funded study, conducted by Bessel van der Kolk to assess the utility and feasibility of yoga instruction with severely traumatized adults with post-traumatic stress.

Emerson has extensive experience in the instruction of yoga with post-traumatic stress in various populations, and has developed, conducted, and supervised yoga groups for rape crisis centers, domestic violence programs, residential programs for youth, military bases, survivors of terrorism, and Veterans Administration centers and clinics.

In addition to coauthoring several scholarly articles on the subject of yoga and trauma, David Emerson is coauthor of Overcoming Trauma through Yoga, and author of Trauma-Sensitive Yoga in Therapy. He leads trainings for yoga teachers and mental health clinicians in North America, Europe, and Asia.