Six week online course with Lynn Fraser and Alyson Raskin, PhD
Not just for yoga teachers!
Deepen your understanding
Transform your personal practice
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 learn and practice the basics, like consent around adjustments, and you want to go deeper into how systemic oppression impacts students feeling seen and fully welcome in your class
You want to bring trauma informed yoga into your life and the life of your students
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 Teaching Trauma Informed Yoga course is online on Tuesdays from 6:30 to 8:30 PM Eastern October 15 through November 19, 2024.
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 often leads to an ongoing, persistent experience of shame and disconnection from ourselves and others. People with a significant trauma history may have difficulty coping with daily life, as is evidenced by the increasing prevalence of anxiety, depression, and increase in medication. Many of us with trauma backgrounds 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 know how to set up optimal conditions for people to enjoy a deep experience with yoga.
Benefits include reduced anxiety and stress, increased focus and mental clarity, ease in our breath, improved physical health, and deeper connection within.
As we come into the shavasana relaxation pose at the end of a trauma informed yoga class, our nervous systems have the opportunity to settle, 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 refine our ability to understand and normalize the effects of trauma, and how it impacts our mindbody. We create a conducive environment for healing.
About this six week training: Teaching Trauma Informed Yoga
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 each 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 with Lynn
10 CEU Yoga Alliance credits upon successful completion.
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.
INCLUDED
This live online course is on Yoga Farm Ithaca, and you’ll also receive
Replays of all classes in our private online learning and connection platform
A comprehensive online classroom with links to all your coursework and live events
Daily free live offerings in yoga, qigong and meditation within the larger Yoga Farm Online Academy community
Office hours with your instructor
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.