Trauma-Sensitive Yoga and Mindfulness Training

Trauma-Sensitive Yoga Training…for yoga teachers, mindfulness instructors and therapists

Many trauma survivors seek out yoga or mindfulness to support them in their healing journey. However, without the proper awareness or safeguards in place, meditative practices can be unintentionally re-traumatizing. The act of becoming more mindfully present through focus on the breath, body or through certain intentional movements or postures can trigger memories, emotions or physical sensations that are painful or overwhelming. Some students or clients may find themselves discouraged, upset or coping by bottling up, overriding or dissociating, reluctant to return.

Combining the principles of yoga therapy and Somatic Experiencing™, this training will allow you to:

• Explore the neuroscience of trauma, stress and emotional dysregulation
• Find out how yoga and mindfulness practices can backfire
• Identify ways to minimize the risk of triggering trauma responses
• Integrate new skills and practices to enhance your existing approaches

Come explore how to incorporate trauma-informed principles in your work, alternative practices that may be less activating, and other considerations for increasing safety, stabilization, choice, voice and empowerment.

Discover concrete ways to create a safer and more empowering experience for students and clients!

The workshop will cover the following topics:

• The neurobiology/physiology of trauma,
• How emotional dysregulation occurs and how to recognize it in our students (and ourselves!)
• Why certain yoga and mindfulness practices can backfire, and concrete ways to make the practice of yoga – whether individually or in a group class – emotionally and physically safer.
• The Panchamaya (Koshas) model of yoga therapy and how it applies to trauma
• Chakras and trauma
• Understanding the role of dissociation in trauma and “spiritual bypass”
• How the language used in many classes can be triggering, and how to use language to create a safe environment full of choice and control for the student.
• Using somatic exercises to help a student to reorient to the present (coming out of a trauma/fight/flight response).
• Which asanas are generally more soothing vs. more triggering for students.
• The complex and multidimensional aspects of trauma from both a Western and Eastern view.
• Neuroception, interoception and proprioception
• Polyvagal theory and the vagus nerve in relation to trauma
• The role of the psoas muscle in trauma
• Working with dukha / sukha (pendulations between trauma and healing, constriction and expansion)
• Anatomy of the breath, its relationship with trauma and the nervous system, and how to teach breath techniques safely and effectively.

Through a combination of lecture material, case examples and hands-on practices and exercises, participants will develop a better understanding of how to incorporate trauma-informed principles in their yoga teaching, alternative practices that may be less triggering or activating for students, and other consdierations for increasing student safety, stabilization, choice, voice and control.

TRAINERS:

Sarah Schlote, MA, CCC, SEP
Sarah is a therapist, Somatic Experiencing™ (SE) Practitioner, and trainer who is certified through the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. She holds a Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology from the University of Victoria in British Columbia, completed her formal training in SE under Berns Galloway, Kathy Kain, and Dr. Peter Levine, and is currently an approved general training assistant at all levels through the Somatic Experiencing™ Trauma Institute in Boulder, CO. She has been practicing mindfulness and self-compassion since 2003 both personally and professionally, and is passionate about increasing awareness of trauma-informed and trauma-specific care. Her experience includes mental health and addictions, eating disorders and impulse control, sexual abuse, peri-natal and early attachment trauma, shock trauma, stress and anxiety, dissociation, identity development, grief and loss, healthy aggression and boundaries work. Additional approaches she uses include dialectical behaviour therapy skills, psychodynamic therapy, ego state work, inner child work, cognitive-behavioural therapy, and equine-facilitated therapy.

Caroline Owen, BA, E-RYT500
Caroline runs yoga classes and teacher trainings out of her studio in Norwood, Ontario (Peterborough area). She became interested in yoga for survivors of trauma after completing 5 year yoga therapy training in the U.S. and India with TKV Desikachar and other teachers. Having witnessed many students, and personally experiencing yoga’s power in healing trauma, she now had a set of tools to help others to slowly and safely release their own past traumas. She has been teaching yoga since 1991 and practicing yoga therapy since 2009. Her main teachers include TKV Desikachar, Sharath Jois, Esther Myers, and Diane Bruni. She has produced a full-length professional recording, “Open Heart – Yoga to Awaken Loving Kindness”, and offers trainings and workshops for yoga teachers, as well as a 200-hour trauma-sensitive yoga teacher training (dates for upcoming trainings can be found on the Wavelengths Yoga website listed above) and a 300 hour advanced yoga teacher training. She also has a passion for outdoor adventure travels, and leads wilderness treks, horseback rides and retreats throughout the world, often combined with yoga, meditation and mindfulness.