Studio owner and TCTSY trauma trained yoga teacher, Jessica Devi is pleased to offer 6 week courses throughout the year to support your body and mind.
Each course is 6 weeks in length (one session per week) and can be funded by ACC ISSC, or self funded. Each course includes 6 in-person group sessions, recordings of all practices plus handouts. The courses are offered in-person at our beautiful Browns Bay yoga studio.
The in-person course is currently available to women only, an online version is available on request.,
Our courses are co-facilitated by Yoga Within owner Jessica Devi and registered therapists Yoko Obata and Vic Hathaway.
Trauma Sensitive Yoga is a body centered approach that uses gentle, mindful movement, reflective practices, breathing, meditation and yoga to support you to reconnect to your body and move in ways that feel helpful to you.
In the sessions you are provided with flexibility and personal choice in how you participate in the movements or practices being offered. A variety of options are provided to accommodate your level of physical and emotional comfort. The program content is flexible, and the choice of movement is entirely yours.
Classes are limited in number to foster a’ safe container’ and there are 2 facilitators present at all times to provide instruction and support.
Please note: This course is not a substitute for talk therapy with a registered counsellor, psychologist or psychotherapist. If you are working with a mental health care professional this course can be a helpful complimentary addition. If you are not working with a counsellor or therapist the course stands alone as a way to support your overall physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.
If you are a lead provider and have clients who you feel would benefit from this work, please click the button below to be taken to our ACC supplier’s expression of interest/registration page.
(If you do not have an ISSC claim with ACC you can self-fund the course if we have places available. To get in touch about this option please email Jessica).
How can this course help you?
The material offered in the course is resource based, meaning it is intended to introduce you to tools and resources you can use to support your growth, resilience and recovery both during the course and onward in your life. The course provides long term benefit for each person in a way that supports them as individuals.
The key points for this course include:
Empowering individuals to make choices in how they experience and inhabit their bodies through the use of invitational languaging and education on self permission.
Resourcing and fostering resilience (the ability to recover from adversity) via gentle mindful movement, breath awareness and reflective practices which may include journaling, art making, writing, group discussion and meditation.
Offering life affirming practices that may be helpful in the recovery and maintenance of conditions that include pain, reduced immunity, mental health, fear, anxiety, sleep, eating disorders and relational problems.
Potential benefits from this course include:
- A decrease in symptoms related to trauma and/or difficult life circumstances; including times of transition, grief, loss and uncertainty.
- Increased ability to understand, accept and move forward in life.
- Improved sleep, decreased pain, more awareness of emotional and mental states and the ability to use tools for self-support.
- Increased ability to function and undertake life tasks such as shopping, work, child care, home life and personal relationships.
- Overall improvement in feelings of ease, wellbeing and security.
- Increased feelings of personal power, inner resources and connection to self.
- Ability to make decisions in life that previously felt daunting and overwhelming and led to increased symptoms/coping mechanisms.
Evidence Based
The practices offered in this course are a useful adjunct to talk based therapy and backed by evidence based research into the areas of body based therapy and post traumatic growth. The practices can help regain a sense of control, connection and ownership of your body as you make choices about how to move based upon what you feel.
Empirical evidence demonstrates that traumatic events (big and/or small in nature) can leave an imprint on the cells and tissues of the body, leading to dysregulation and imbalances in nervous system function that can manifest as symptoms such as insomnia, chronic anxiety, depression, relational problems, and disordered eating. Due to the impact of trauma on the nervous system, an individual experiencing symptoms of trauma may be constantly hypervigilant, chronically depressed or fatigued, have chronic pain, feel numb or dissociative, have biorhythm disturbances (such as sleep and metabolic issues), and adopt unhelpful coping mechanisms.
Trauma and adversity can leave physical and emotional imprints that affect a person for years after a period of difficulty or trauma has passed. The autonomic nervous system responds with what is often referred to as a flight, fight, freeze or flop reaction. Survivors often experience this nervous system response as a chronic state long after the trauma has passed. This the hallmark of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Inviting your body into gentle, mindful practices can support you to discover new possibilities for inhabiting your body. As no one thing exists in isolation, new possibilities for movement inevitably lead to new possibilities for thinking and therefore for life.
About Jessica
Vic Hathaway
If you are interested or would like to know more please chat with Jessica on:
Phone: 021 884 518
Email: jessica@yogawithin.co.nz
