By Richard Miller
As a clinical psychologist, meditation teacher, researcher and someone who works with active duty service members, veterans, and others experiencing PTSD, I know it’s possible to heal from the symptoms of trauma and PTSD. One tool I use to help people heal trauma and its symptoms is iRest® Yoga Nidra.
What is iRest Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra is an ancient meditation practice that supports psychological, physical, and spiritual healing (Yoga: your interconnection with all of life and Nidra: throughout all changing states of consciousness). Yoga Nidra is made up of a sequence of practices that help you feel connected to yourself and to the world around you, and teach you how to respond, rather than react to your emotions, thoughts, and actions, no matter your state of mind or body.
Integrative Restoration or iRest, a modern-day variation of Yoga Nidra, is an educational practice that teaches you self-care tools that focus on health and healing at all levels of your life: physical, psychological, and spiritual. iRest Yoga Nidra helps you get back on track, stay on track, heal your PTSD, and get on with living your life with meaning and purpose.
iRest is integrative, as it addresses psychological and physical issues, including stress, trauma, insomnia, and pain. It helps you feel yourself as a fully functioning, integrated, and healthy human being. iRest is restorative as it helps you recover your inner resources of joy, peace, and well-being, which enable you to feel connected to yourself and all of life. The practice of iRest integrates and restores, so that you can experience self-mastery, resilience, and well-being wherever you are, whoever you’re with, whatever you’re doing, and whatever you’re experiencing.
Research and Military Recommended
Research reveals iRest as a complementary intervention that supports all methods for healing PTSD. A 2006 research study on iRest, sponsored by the Department of Defense, led the Deployment Health Clinical Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to begin providing iRest classes to wounded service members to help them heal their wartime trauma and PTSD. As a result of this and subsequent iRest research, programs are now in place bringing group and individual iRest classes to men and women in VA Centers, military facilities, and numerous medical and recreational facilities throughout North America and around the world. Studies at these and other sites join a growing body of research on iRest that is taking place at university and clinical settings across North America and abroad.
Tools for Life
The iRest program offers you ten essential tools to help you heal symptoms of trauma and PTSD. These tools are designed to empower you to meet each moment of your life, no matter how challenging or difficult. Using these tools will help you heal your PTSD and experience within unshakable peace and well-being, no matter your circumstance.
Richard C. Miller, PhD - Founder, Executive Director and President of the Board of Directors of Integrative Restoration Institute - is a clinical psychologist, author, researcher, yogic scholar and spiritual teacher. For over 40 years, Richard Miller has devoted his life and work to integrating the nondual wisdom teachings of Yoga, Tantra, Advaita, Taoism and Buddhism with Western psychology. Among his mentors were Jean Klein, T.K.V. Desikachar and Stephen Chang.
Richard is the founding president and CEO of the Integrative Restoration Institute, co-founder of The International Association of Yoga Therapy and founding editor of the professional Journal of IAYT. He is also a founding member and past president of the Institute for Spirituality and Psychology and a senior advisor for the Baumann Foundation for the study of Awareness and its impact on well-being.
Author of Yoga Nidra: The Meditative Heart of Yoga, Richard serves as a research consultant studying the iRest Yoga Nidra protocol that he has developed (Integrative Restoration ~ iRest, a modern adaptation of the ancient nondual meditation practice of Yoga Nidra) researching its efficacy on health, healing and well-being with diverse populations including active-duty soldiers, veterans, college students, children, seniors, the homeless, the incarcerated, and people experiencing issues such as sleep disorders, PTSD, chemical dependency, chronic pain, and related disorders.
In addition to his research and writing projects, Richard lectures and leads trainings and retreats internationally.
To learn more about Richard Miller and iRest, click here.
"You are love itself." —Nisargadatta
