University of Oslo research highlights how adults with complex trauma describe yoga as a treatment adjunct

Current assessment: The available evidence supports a narrower and more accurate version of the proposed story: a University of Oslo researcher’s peer-reviewed review found that adults with complex trauma experiences commonly described yoga as a meaningful adjunct to treatment, including for body awareness, daily coping and personal growth. It does not establish that yoga itself produces trauma recovery or should replace established mental-health care.

Reported facts

Mirage News published a University of Oslo release on August 14, 2026, featuring Kari Evelin Arellano Lorentzen, a psychologist and PhD researcher at the university’s Department of Psychology. The release says her research concerns yoga as treatment for adults with complex trauma experiences rooted in childhood.

The release reports that Lorentzen reviewed international research on patients’ experiences of yoga and conducted qualitative interviews with 13 adults who had practised yoga as treatment. It also says she interviewed 15 Norway-based yoga therapists. Participants described greater connection to body and feelings, a sense of agency and, for some, new ways of managing everyday challenges. Lorentzen explicitly characterized yoga as an integrated supplement rather than a replacement for therapy or other health services.

Supporting evidence

The central peer-reviewed publication located for the report is a March 2025 qualitative evidence synthesis by Lorentzen and five co-authors in the European Journal of Trauma & Dissociation. The review searched seven databases through July 25, 2024, screened 1,973 records and included five peer-reviewed qualitative studies after appraisal.

Its findings were experiential rather than clinical: the authors synthesized participants’ accounts into themes involving new encounters with oneself during practice, perceived support for coping in daily life and opportunities for personal growth. The authors rated confidence in those qualitative findings as moderate to high. That is meaningful evidence about how the selected participants experienced yoga, and it is consistent with the university release’s emphasis on agency, embodiment and safety.

Separate evidence on PTSD symptoms is more mixed and less directly applicable to the University of Oslo report’s population of adults with complex trauma experiences. A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials examined yoga for PTSD, while the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs notes that controlled-study evidence suggests yoga can be associated with improvement in self-reported PTSD symptoms compared with some controls. The VA nevertheless concludes that the evidence base remains insufficient to recommend yoga as a primary PTSD treatment.

Limitations and competing evidence

The distinction between qualitative experience research and efficacy research is central. The 2025 review did not test a standardized yoga intervention against another treatment, measure a uniform clinical outcome, or establish that reported changes were caused by yoga. Its five included studies represent a limited evidence base, and the release’s reported interviews with 13 adults cannot establish effectiveness, safety or suitability across people with different trauma histories.

The university material itself identifies an important practical limitation: yoga can be confronting for some people with complex trauma, especially when bodily attention becomes overwhelming. Its account emphasizes individualized adaptation, participant choice, reliable boundaries and appropriately trained leadership. This aligns with the VA’s current position that complementary and integrative practices, including yoga, are not supported as first-line or primary treatment for PTSD, even where preliminary findings are promising.

It also remains unclear from the sources reviewed whether Lorentzen’s wider PhD thesis has been formally submitted, examined or published in full, and no clinical outcomes, intervention dosage, attrition data or adverse-event rates were supplied for the 13-person interview component. Those omissions do not undermine the reported participant accounts, but they limit any claim about therapeutic effectiveness.

Current conclusion

The available record supports reporting that University of Oslo research highlights recurring, participant-reported ways yoga can be experienced as a supportive part of care for adults with complex trauma. A cautious reading is that yoga may be useful for some people as an adapted, voluntary adjunct within broader treatment,not that the research demonstrates yoga “aids trauma recovery” in a clinical or universal sense. Evidence from controlled studies in people with complex trauma, including clearly defined interventions, safety reporting and comparison with established care, would materially change the strength of that conclusion.