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The Grace Gawler Institute offers specialised yoga programs to help people recover from cancer – such as lymphatic drainage poses and stretches, easy breathing routines to reduce stress.

Patients dealing with cancer also deal with varying levels of depression, stress and trauma but new studies show that people suffering from PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) can find real relief with yoga.

In a study published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, a prominent PTSD expert found that a group of female patients who completed eight yoga classes showed significantly more improvement in symptoms—including the frequency of intrusive thoughts and the severity of jangled nerves—than a similar group that had eight sessions of group therapy.

The study also reported that yoga can improve heart-rate variability, a key indicator of a person’s ability to calm herself. The study’s most striking findings were patients’ own descriptions of how their lives changed, says the author, Bessel van der Kolk, a professor of psychiatry at the Boston University School of Medicine and medical director of the Trauma Center, a clinic and training facility in Brookline, Massachusetts. Van der Kolk, who has studied trauma since the 1970s, is considered a pioneer in the field.