Yoga for Mental Health
"Concentrating on poses clears the mind. While focusing on the breath helps the body shift out of fight or flight mode." - Melanie Haiken
Trauma isn't just a mental thing...
It can also be held in the body. This means that mind-body practices like yoga can be challenging, or even harmful, for those who have experienced any form of trauma. Trauma-informed yoga addresses the specific needs and symptoms of trauma survivors. As a trauma-sensitive yoga teacher, I'll guide you through breathing techniques, slower-focused movements, and heightened sensory awareness so you become intentionally present and create balance in the nervous system.
Yoga is a journey.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, I started incorporating mindfulness and meditation into my everyday life. Quarantining, isolation, and working from home brought more physical stress than I imagined so I started practicing yoga. I became a Certified Trauma-Sensitive Yoga Teacher (100hrs) through YogaFit for Warriors training program in 2022.
With a mindfulness approach in trauma-sensitive yoga, you will be encouraged to practice making empowering choices with your body based on what you are feeling in the present moment – helping you to explore and connect to your body in a safe and supportive environment. No experience is required and we don't focus on postures. The goal is to connect to the somatic body while we safely navigate and address emotions and the cognitions that arise as a result in a compassionate way. We focus on using our natural breathing as an anchor to help promote relaxation, mindfulness, and embodiment. By incorporating the mind, the body, and the spirit into treatment we’re offered an opportunity to heal using our innate resources.
MY APPROACH:
My style is a gentle and meditative flow with gentle joint warmups, breath, and movement. We will then move gently and methodically into yoga postures designed specifically to ground you in the present moment.
Meditation is usually included.
Trauma-informed and mindfulness principles bring YogaFit's Essence philosophy and lifestyle:
Breathing, feeling, listening to the body
Letting go of expectations, judgments, and competition
Staying in the present moment
Want to learn more? Schedule a free 20-minute consultation!
"If you can breathe, you can do yoga."
Trauma is much more than a story about something that happened long ago. The emotions and physical sensations that were imprinted during the trauma are experienced not as memories but as disruptive physical reactions in the present…The engines of posttraumatic reactions are located in the emotional brain. In contrast with the rational brain, which expresses itself in thoughts, the emotional brain manifests itself in physical reactions. The fundamental issue in resolving traumatic stress is to restore the proper balance between the rational and emotional brains. Neuroscience research shows that the only way we can change the way we feel is by becoming aware of our inner experience and learning to befriend what is going on inside ourselves.” – Bessel van der Kolk, Founder and Medical Director of the Trauma Centre at Justice Resource Institute in his book, The Body Keeps the Score.