We all suffer from the dysregulation of trauma, but some of us more than others.  Trauma can come from childhood, single events including medical interventions, and the stress of modern life.

Science is pointing to the fact that trauma is held in all cells of the body and must be released by the body for complete healing to occur. Talking therapy is only part of the picture and mindful body-based approaches like Trauma-Sensitive Yoga can be a vital part of the healing journey.

The foundation for this Yoga & Mindfulness course is carefully exploring safety in our body-mind.  This is a useful skill set that we can use in our daily life to help us to sleep, rest, connect with others and feel more joy in life.

There is no one size fits all way for healing so the course offers choices within the practice as we learn skills of self-regulation and resilience building through the possibilities of moving, sound, breathing and relaxation.

As we begin to attune to the ways that work for us, we can make better choices to begin to re-wire our nervous system.  This tending and befriending gradually opens the door to a sense of self-empowerment.

Expect a little science of nervous system regulation woven in to help us understand why we feel certain things and why certain ways of doing things are helpful for our post-traumatic growth. This understanding can nourish our self-acceptance.

When we have PTSD or other kinds of trauma, regular Yoga classes may not feel safe enough to relax into and get its benefits.  For example we may finding breathing practices and closing our eyes too uncomfortable.

So, Sally is offering this specialised class to help yous find your own ways into an appropriate practice.  She draws on over 21 years experience of teaching Yoga, Mindfulness & Compassion, her personal journey of healing trauma and her study into Yoga Therapy and the science and practice of trauma healing. Over the past 5 years she has been offering trauma-sensitive Yoga & Mindfulness in organisation in the North East.

The courses can be taken consecutively as one course or you can do the parts separately.  Part 1 is a pre-requisite for Part 2.   This is a popular course that runs regularly and you are welcome to repeat either part as many times as you like to embed the learning.  Re-wiring our nervous system can be slow and we need to work gently and appropriately.  If you repeat the course you will find the themes and theory are repeated (with some evolution over time) but the movement sequences are different.  So you get to consolidate your learning spiced up with some variety.

Sally suffered from chronic fatigue in her early 20s which sparked her healing journey and drew her to Yoga. This has included Trauma-Sensitive Yoga, learning about nervous system regulation, Feldenkrais and Somatic Experiencing.

Over the past 5 years she has offered Trauma-Sensitive Yoga & Mindfulness (including Chair based classes) for people with trauma often manifesting as chronic illness, pain and fatigue at Sunderland Recovery College, Northumberland Recovery College, Tyneside Women’s Health, NIWE, Cygnus Support & Mentoring, the Road to Recovery Trust, Mind & Sole Alnwick and Shantibee–Holistic Well Being Centre.

Her career began as an Information Scientist and then a Community Education Worker/Women’s Support Worker, before finding her vocation as a Yoga and Meditation teacher in 2001. She has done full training courses in Hatha Yoga, Anahata Yoga (500 hr), Scaraveilli-Yoga and Lakshmi Voelker Chair Yoga.

Currently she is nearing the completion of her training to be a Yoga Therapist specialising in Mental Health with the The Minded Institute and offers an evidence informed approach to her range of specialist classes and courses.

Sally runs regular Mindfulness and Compassion courses and weaves its insights and practices through her Yoga. She has completed 4 years of training with the Mindfulness Association as well as International Compassion teachers, Paul Gilbert, Kristin Neff and Chris Germer. She adheres to the Good Practice Guidelines and is on the UK listing of Mindfulness Teachers.

Her teaching reveals the threads of many influences from Yoga, including Heather Mason (Yoga Therapy for mental health), Kristine Weber (Yoga for mental health and resilience building) David Emerson (Trauma-Sensitive Yoga), Yasmin Labat (Yoga for Chronic Pain-Myo-fascial approach), James Reeves (iRest Yoga Nidra for PTSD).  Also other professionals who specialise in trauma Peter Levine, Irene Lyon, Bessel Van der Kolk and Pat Ogdon.