ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the two prominent mind-body traditions used with acquired brain injury (ABI) survivors, Yoga and Tai Ji. Traditional psychological approaches to neurorehabilitation in the West rely on seated-based talking therapies that make inevitable demands of a survivor’s ability to control their mental and physical experience. In contrast, mind-body approaches from Eastern Asia have evolved over thousands of years to offer a range of different positions and relationships between an individual and their mental experience. Psychological difficulties can also be intertwined with physical and cognitive impairments, such as an intensification of distress during states of neurological fatigue and difficulties managing negative thoughts/experiences in mind as a result of working memory/attention deficits. Asian spiritual traditions are both ancient and diverse, operationalising different ideas of the mind and spirit. A mind-body community psychosocial intervention for survivors in ABI, that is long-term in remit, available in the community and has the potential to support deeper dimensions of spirituality and meaning, remains outstanding.
