Healing Through Yoga for Trauma Survivors (8 week Course)
Reclaim your Body
Class dates: Fall 2020
Dear Courageous Soul,
As a survivor of trauma, I can empathize deeply with some of the experiences you are navigating in your day to day life. I never imagined the years of detachment I would experience from my own heart and body. I wasn’t prepared for the way my past experiences of trauma would sneak up on me and leave me off kilter and overwhelmed. Within my body, there manifested painful memories still plaguing me after years of therapy. It seemed so unfair!
So I began a deeper journey of healing to explore alternative ways of healing and this led me to trauma informed yoga… After experiencing a traumatic event, our bodies may experience sensations long after the trauma occurred. These feelings can overwhelm our nervous system, resulting in a lack of safety. Trauma-informed yoga is focused on creating an environment that focuses on cultivating a deeper sense of safety, trust, choice and control in relationship to our body
The focus of trauma informed Yoga is to provide a safe and accessible way for individuals to explore reconnecting with their body, heart and spirit. It seeks to support healing internally so that the layers of pain can become uncovered and released and the core of who they have always been may emerge. Through a serious of postures and breath-work, individuals are able to release the negative effects that trauma may have left them with. My course is intended to help guide survivors back to a balanced and more grounded state of being.
My WHY for doing this is deeply tied to two notions… 1) I believe we all need gentle reminders that some days all we can do is show up (and we are still more than enough on those days and 2) we don’t have to be alone in our healing. We all are deserving of support in the harder moments of our lives!
Whether you join us or not, I acknowledge your strength in exploring ways to heal from your traumatic experience.
With love,
Shelley
“You are enough exactly as you are in this moment and you are not alone.”
-Shelley Nielsen
Join us for:
A Safe SpacE
Each class offers trauma survivors a safe, non-judgmental, compassionate space facilitated by empowerment-based language that supports choice and trust so that participants gain greater self-awareness and peace with their bodies.
Connection
Each class has a different theme. The first hour of the class centers on education, offerings (mantras & affirmations) and interactive experiential activities (writing, drawing/doodling, painting, collaging, etc.) Participants are invited to share with their peers any truths that arise during this time. Please know everything is voluntary! Individuals are encouraged to listen to themselves and honor how much or how little they would like to share.
Trauma Informed Yoga
The second part of the class offers an hour long trauma informed yoga class where individuals can explore re-connecting to the self through mind, body, and spirit. During this time, individuals are led through postures and breathe work that is intended to assist with uncovering trauma imprints and support the healing process. Trauma informed yoga will provide survivors an opportunity to begin becoming reacquainted with their bodies, help them become grounded in the present moment, and allow them to explore the benefits of mindfulness as they flow breath to movement in guided practice and meditation.
“Trauma has a deep and long-lasting effect on the entire organism, from chemical and anatomical changes in the brain, to changes in our body’s physiological systems, to the subjective impact on the experience of a survivor. We believe that treatment for trauma must consider the person as a whole and address the broad-ranging effects of trauma on an individual. This needs to be done through an equal measure of patience, compassion, and gentleness. If we are to help people recover from the insidious violation of their humanity that is trauma, we must be able to offer a varied array of tools to aid in this task.
”
Healing Through Yoga benefits anyone who wishes to come back to their bodies
and deepen their healing…
Each week offers tools off the mat to utilize on their journey of healing in addition to the yoga practice. Class creates space for individuals to gain greater self-acceptance and acquire tangible benefits that will become noticeable throughout their weekly practice. The entire experience of practicing yoga, can help survivors find union between seemingly disconnected and challenging aspects of the self; allowing participants to slowly build the pieces into an integrated whole.
Please contact me if you have further questions!
We would love to have you join us if you are ready!
$40 per session, $320 series
*Scholarships available thru Healing Through Yoga Scholarship fund
**Pre-registration required
Kind Words
“It is empowering as anything I could have ever felt with a therapist to be in that safe space, surrounded by angel-women processing these focused feelings about intense experiences and ancestral patterning. Breathe into this.... Thank you! ...For creating a profound healing space!”
- Healing Through Yoga Participant
"I walked away from the trauma informed yoga series with valuable tools and with new insight. Shelley worked hard to make the space feel as safe as possible. She was good at checking in to make sure we were all feeling safe and comfortable. I felt empowered knowing that it was my choice to participate and I wouldn't be judged if I chose not to do something. Shelley has a kind heart and I felt she really cared about us and our healing."
- Sara
“Love to you my amazing wonderful new friend. Thank you for these last eight weeks of healing and loving care. Last night was so beautiful it was worth the time. I totally forgot what time it was or that it even mattered. I needed to do that for me”
– Healing Through Yoga Participant