


Press Reviews
Shirley Telles MBBS, Ph.D., Director, Patanjali Research Foundation, Haridwar, India
Dr. Gail Parker has covered the important subject of race-based trauma with sensitivity, scientific precision and empathy. Yoga is presented with the principles of yoga, detailed practices, convincing case histories and anecdotes as a way to achieve deep healing. A compelling read for everyone interested in health, healing and harmony!
Matthew J. Taylor, PT, PhD, C-IAYT, director of SmartSafeYoga, past president of IAYT, and international pain and yoga safety expert. www.smartsafeyoga.com
Dr. Parker has gifted the world with this elegant, powerful book of insights, challenges, and hope. She masterfully weaves the worlds of yoga, healing, trauma and culture in clear, powerful prose. The practices offer you a new understanding of "yoga." You aren't addressing the cultural kleshas? Then get the book!
Desiree Cooper, author, Pulitzer-Prize nominated journalist, race and gender activist
Gail Parker has delivered a surprising, thoughtful, rigorous book about how yoga practice can exacerbate racial trauma, especially if it is done without awareness of the unique aspect of race based stress. Chock full of concise examples and concrete steps, Restorative Yoga for Ethnic and Race Based Stress and Trauma prepares instructors and practitioners alike for the spiritual work of healing racial wounds. This book should be required reading for yoga studio owners, yoga teachers, yoga therapists and for everyone practicing yoga while black.
Patrice Gaines, author of Laughing in the Dark
We should all be thankful that Gail Parker, wounded by her own experience of racism, stumbled upon a yoga class. Later, as a psychologist, she came to recognize the healing possible in the stillness of Restorative Yoga. This book is Parker's gracious offering, a beautifully written survival guide for those who have experienced ethnic and race-based stress and trauma, but also for those who wound and re-wound others. It demands we be honest and no longer deny or repress our pain or the pain we inflict upon others. It brilliantly shows us that we have the ability to heal and accept with grace the commonness of our humanity.