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I was taken by surprise when yoga arrived as an important part of my healing two years after the death of my husband in 2013. My intentionality had been to try a new-to-me form of exercise, and what I found instead has been the catalyst for my own ability to experience peace and a big part of the professional work that I now do.
It took me a long time to build an understanding of why my system responded so keenly to those first yoga experiences. What I know now, as I complete my degree as a trauma therapist, is that movement, of varying kinds, is so valuable in helping to process the things we have been through. Our brains are not the only part of us that experience the difficulties of life…holistically, our nervous system (our sense of physiological safety) can be impacted too. These very systems that are so intricately connected to protect us also require the same nourishment and tending to that our physical bodies do. We can feed our nervous system with spaces that feel accessible, with genuine connection and with regular access to rituals that communicate safety (and invite the parasympathetic nervous system to come online!).
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Additionally, I have learned that the practice of Yoga means different things to different people; none of these meanings are right or wrong or better or worse yet all of them involve the journey of the Self (capital S is intentional because it refers to your unique and very specific innermost Self). The kind of yoga that assisted the grief, anxiety, numbness and PTSD that I encountered, was and is the yoga called trauma-informed yoga.
Trauma-informed work involves six principles:
- Safety (sharing what to expect, giving advance notice whenever possible, repairing when necessary, open communication)
- Trust (consistency in practice, sharing of humanity, naming when mistakes are made, being transparent)
- Choice (skip, modify, take a break, the teacher is not teaching from a place of ego)
- Collaboration (together we protect spaces that are dedicated to enhancing our individual understandings of ourselves)
- Empowerment (you are the only expert in you!)
- Cultural Awareness (this doesn’t just refer to ethnicity but also financial culture, grief culture, religious culture, etc. etc.)
In this modality, while there is the foundation of the tradition of the yoga practice, the focus is not heavily on the perfection of shapes that our bodies make (beyond that of safety, of course). Instead, an emphasis on the individual experience and the softening of any external barriers to the practice take precedence. The sequencing in trauma-informed work is informed by something called energetic sequencing which is the understanding of nervous system states and movements and breathwork that can gently invite the body back into a state of regulation.
This work feels important because it quite literally reconnected me to myself.
This work continues to be important because these carefully curated spaces can remove barriers to deeper understanding, connection and healing.
In 2024, I had the honor of training 19 beautiful people who are now knowledgeable and empathetic YTT instructors and who bring the trauma-informed mindset into their personal and professional lives.
I am so excited to open registration for The Grief Ritual’s next Trauma-Informed 200 Hr. Yoga Teacher Training beginning this May in Point Pleasant.
If this is something that feels important to the professional work you already do, to complement your mission of meaning-making (that’s how I got started!) or as a deepening of your own journey with this kind of Self study, you can find some helpful links below.
May 2025 Yoga Teacher Training
Want to take a trauma-informed yoga class with me?
Looking for other trauma-informed classes? Feel free to reach out so that I can recommend one of my trainees! E-mail: katie@thegriefritual.com
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