Trauma Sensitive Yoga for the Recovery from Trauma – TSY
This course is created to establish a safe, predictable and non-judgmental space in which trauma survivors can begin to get to know their bodies again. TSY is an evidence based course for healing trauma, created by David Emerson from The Trauma Centre in Boston, and it has extensive research behind it to suggest that body centred therapy is healing for trauma survivors.
Trauma can be described as a deeply disturbing or distressing event or experience. Like animals, human beings have the same defensive mechanisms of fight, flight, freeze or submission, when we feel our lives are in danger. Unlike animals though, human beings are the only living beings that hold onto trauma.
This frozen energy, can be seen as the residue energy from an unresolved response. We know today, thanks to Pioneering Trauma expert Bessel Van Der Kolk, that ‘The body keeps the score’ 1. By storing the trauma in our bodies and cells. This affects the entire human organism – from mind, to body and brain. From our biology, right out to our Social lives. This can lead to dysfunctions’ in our body, mind and beliefs. We know that dysfunctions of the body are reflected in the mind and vice versa, dysfunctions of the mind are reflected in the body.
After trauma, the world is experienced with a very different nervous system. The survivor’s energy is now focused on suppressing inner chaos, instead of enjoying the spontaneity of life. The nervous system can lock into the defence mechanism and we can continue to defend against a threat that belongs in the past. This can make us hyper vigilant, distressed, alert and on defence.
It is critical to recovery that trauma survivors engage in treatment that engages the entire organism of body, mind, and brain. Or a whole range of physical, physiological, emotional, spiritual and psychological symptoms can arise including: Chronic fear & fatigue, stress related ailments, auto-immune diseases, paralysis, disassociation, nightmares, constant triggering, heightened extreme emotions, loss of a sense of Self, inability to make decisions, muddled mind, being off-line mentally and emotionally, disconnection from others and our bodies etc.
We begin our approach to trauma sensitive yoga in the body and from a place of non-harming. This strengths-based course is created to assist in:
- Re-establishing safety in our mind and body
- Reclaiming your body
- Helping to rebuild a sense of agency and ownership of oneself
- Working with understanding ‘Interoception’ and the ‘felt-sense’ – the sense of the internal state of the body and
- We learn how to make choices that are comfortable and appropriate for where we are at.
Through this 10-week procession of movement, breath and relaxation, clients learn to be present with their mind and bodily sensations to reconnect with their internal state and to reclaim their body.
This course focuses on recovery from trauma, stress and PTSD*.
*What is PTSD?
Trauma is the Greek word for ‘wound’. When we refer to someone who has trauma we connect it to psychological trauma which is a condition in which a person has experienced a difficult event that has wounded their psyche. With the support of family, friends and perhaps professionals most people manage to process the traumatic event and are able to return to normal daily functioning. Though some will go on to develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). They experience stress very differently and it affects their daily living. They can feel the physical sensations and the impact of the traumatic event, like it’s happening again, in their daily living. There are many symptoms including re-experiencing the trauma ie. memories, flashbacks; sleep problems; emotional numbing and avoidance and increased arousal.
Rhonda Weatherby has been teaching Yoga for over 8 years. She has a specialty certification for teaching both: Trauma Centre Trauma Sensitive Yoga Facilitator (TCTSY-F) and Kundalini Yoga for the support of people with PTSD. Rhonda creates a safe, supportive, predictable and non-judgemental space for clients to journey towards healing.
No Prior Yoga Experience necessary
When: 11th September – 13th November 2019
Where: Kundalini House
Facilitator: Rhonda Weatherby (TCTSY-F)
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