Four week online course with Lynn Fraser and Alyson Raskin, PhD
Whether you are new to our trainings or have studied with us before, we invite you to join us for the Teaching Trauma Informed Yoga Practicum, starting on February 18, 2025!
Unique to our practicum is the incorporation of Internal Family Systems as
nurturing jumping off and ending points for each of our four themed sessions,
namely:
*Resourcing
*From freeze to flow
*Sympathetic arousal: anger and boundaries
*Courage and post traumatic growth
In order to refine teaching, integrate understanding and deepen embodiment of trauma informed yoga principles, we will present short trauma informed segments.
You can either practice teaching or experience these principles in small groups, with a transcript for each practice which you can choose to use or not.
Also Included in this practicum are:
* office hours on Thursdays at 4:00 pm
*Private discussion after Lynn’s mediation and Alyson’s trauma informed yoga class on Fridays at 9:00 am.
*access to the latest teaching trauma informed yoga training videos
Join us!
It’s personal, it’s collective, it’s growth!
Embody your practice and teaching in a supportive environment!
Not just for yoga teachers!
Deepen your understanding
Transform your personal practice and teaching
This is for you if:
You are a yoga teacher and/or yoga practitioner who wants to deepen your understanding of how the impact of trauma shows up within your students’ nervous systems as well as your own
You want to increase your toolbox of reliable and powerful somatic tools when teaching and for your own healing practice
You wish to deepen your ability to more easily self-regulate and/or co-regulate with the class
You want to bring trauma informed principles (from the 6 week trauma informed yoga course with Lynn and Alyson) into practice
If you didn’t take the previous course - when you sign up for the practicum you receive video recordings of the entire six week course on Teaching Trauma Informed Yoga including: principles of trauma informed asana; trauma basics; welcoming and diversity; mental health and illness; and student/teacher relationships.
You will practice and refine:
Supporting students and yourself with energy management and co/self-regulation strategies, including resourcing, working with boundaries, and containment techniques
The subtleties of trauma informed yoga, including using language, breath, meditation, and interoceptive/ somatic techniques
Teaching and experiencing trauma informed yoga within the supportive container of the group
This practicum course is on Tuesdays from 7 to 9 PM Eastern
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We will do the “ground” work for teaching trauma informed yoga by:
Reinforcing our own self-care practices of:
Building self-compassion
Strengthening our own resources
Healthy boundaries
Connecting with the group
Integrate “parts” work from IFS (internal Family systems) to support the practice
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Energy management
Coming safely up out of freeze into sympathetic arousal
Integration of interoceptive/somatic movements
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Depression
Collapse
Anxiety
Nervous system regulation
Integration of interoceptive/somatic movements
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Explore healing and growth through
Movement, including “completing” and “undoing” movements
TRE: tension and trauma release exercises (new in the practicum, not covered in the 6 week course)
Included
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Alyson demonstrates the principles
Breakout rooms to practice teaching each other
Lynn’s short guided practices on breath, grounding, and orienting
Q&A and sharing
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Each Thursday from 4 to 5 PM Eastern
Bring your questions, comments, observations
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Video of full class (except breakout rooms which are not recorded)
PDF of slides
Write ups of the breathing and grounding practices, and yoga sequences
List of trauma informed pose variations and movement sequences
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Join us any Friday year round at 8:15AM Eastern for a half hour trauma informed yoga class with Alyson Raskin
Zoom 1/2 hour Q&A with Alyson Fridays at 9AM from February 22 to March 15 to talk about the principles Alyson just taught in the class at 8:15
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While taking this class, you have access to resources on this world renowned yoga teacher training site
Unlimited yoga and meditation classes during the training (live or on-demand)
Trauma is what happens in us, in response to what happens to us. Our bodies store unresolved experiences of being hurt and feeling powerless. Yoga is an effective way to heal trauma through our whole mindbody. We gradually resolve the obstacles to knowing stillness, and find our way home to ourselves.
Trauma informed yoga
One third of the general population has a significant trauma history from childhood that may lead to an ongoing, persistent experience of shame and disconnection from the self and others. People may have difficulty coping with daily life, as is evidenced by the increasing prevalence of anxiety, depression, and increase in medication. Many of us turn to yoga for healing.
The predictive mechanisms of protection in our unconscious mind drive much of our emotional dysregulation, leaving many people in a chronic state of hypervigilance or freeze. As trauma informed yoga teachers, we recognize what is happening, and help facilitate optimal conditions for people to enjoy a deep experience with yoga.
Benefits include reducing anxiety and stress, increased power of focus and mental clarity, improved breathing and physical health, and connection within.
As we come into the shavasana relaxation pose at the end of a trauma informed yoga class, our nervous systems are settled, and we are better able to relax and assimilate the benefits of our practice.
A trauma informed yoga teacher recognizes and meets people where they are with kindness and compassion
We catch calmness or anxiety from those around us. We understand and normalize the effects of trauma, and how it impacts our mindbody. We create a conducive environment for healing.
This 4 week practicum is an opportunity to implement the principles outlined in Teaching Trauma Informed Yoga, a 6 week course by Lynn Fraser and Alyson Raskin. By signing up for this practicum, you receive all of the videos and other resources from that course. See below for more about that course.
In this practicum, we build on the elements of the six week course with a focus on practice implementing the principles in yoga asana and classes.
About the six week Teaching Trauma Informed Yoga
You receive video replays and other resource material when you register for this practicum.
COURSE COMPONENTS
Education: what is trauma informed yoga; the basics of trauma as it shows up in students in class; safety and nervous system regulation; somatic mindfulness; the new understanding of neurobiology; bringing a trauma informed approach to all aspects of practicing and teaching yoga – from recognizing trauma in students, to class set up and sequencing, to inclusive language, and encouraging a context for personal agency.
Practice: live guided practice during class; demonstrations of specific asanas in our two hour weekly classes; opportunities to practice with each other
Teaching: trauma informed from asana to shavasana; normalizing the student’s range of experiences and trauma responses; cultivating strength, agency and resilience.
Sharing and questions: during class, in small groups, and in weekly office hours
ALL CLASSES LIVE ON ZOOM WITH REPLAYS FOR ALL SESSIONS
Course details:
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How is trauma informed yoga different from other forms of yoga? Why is it important to perceive through a trauma lens?
Reading signs of nervous system dysregulation and fight/ flight/ freeze in students; breathing as a foundational practice for healing; and nuances of breath experience with traumatized students.
Trauma 101 two hour pre-recorded video given in advance of first class
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We begin with a focus on resourcing: grounding, centering, orienting. We focus on building interoceptive awareness within ourselves and students.
Basic principles include inviting and normalizing a range of experience; compliance and pleasing; consent to touch and adjust; and connection with students. Demonstration of teaching using asana.
Demonstration of teaching asanas inclusive for mental health conditions and diversity; class set up and sequencing; cues; trauma inclusive language.
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Knowing and honoring our identities, backgrounds and social location; challenging assumptions of sameness; accessible language (pronouns, Sanskrit and jargon); teaching for body size and ability; student histories of trauma and shame.
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Common conditions include high stress, anxiety, and depression; intrusive thoughts; contra indications for silent meditation; alternate nostril breathing and other safe practices.
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Deeper understanding of trauma and healing; role of yoga teacher in mental health and yoga therapy; continuing to deepen learning and our own healing; relationship ethics; be part of the ongoing conversation on trauma with other yoga teachers; emotional and peer support.
ABOUT LYNN
Lynn Fraser brings the depth of twenty five years experience teaching meditation and yoga. She specializes in holding a safe, trusted space for healing trauma in her online groups and classes. Lynn lives near family, ocean and forest in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Lynn is a senior teacher in the Himalayan Yoga Meditation tradition and founder of the Stillpoint Method of Healing Trauma.
ABOUT ALYSON
Alyson Adashko Raskin, PhD. is a Certified Yoga Teacher, an Advanced Clinical Hypnotherapist, and a Neurogenic Yoga® and TRE® (Tension and Trauma Release) facilitator. She is also a certified Personal Transformation Intensive leader and Bilingual (Spanish) School Psychologist who specializes in Yoga for Resiliency.
She aims to help individuals build body/mind strategies to manage stress, release trauma, and feel more connected and alive. She feels the integration of the embodied therapeutic practices, which are rooted in the latest research in neurobiology, are imperative for greater health in this stress-filled world.