Spirit Wellbeing on Trauma Sensitive Yoga

Last week we held a beautiful Mind Love Ceremony for Mental Health Awareness Week and our dear friend Bridget McNamara lead us through a guided meditation. We spoke to her about the work she does as a psychologist and trauma sensitive yoga teacher. 

The yoga style we teach is not religious, nor affiliated with any particular yoga style.  It is based upon the work of the Trauma Centre in Boston, USA whom I have started my 300-hour Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) Certification with. TCTSY is an empirically validated, adjunctive clinical treatment that has foundations in Trauma Theory, Attachment Theory and Neuroscience. All of these principals inform the Hatha Yoga practice which has emphasis on body based yoga forms and breathing practices.

The objective of our trauma sensitive yoga groups is to support participants to heighten their body awareness – noticing what is happening in the present moment – and allowing them to make choices about how to move their bodies based on what they feel. The practice aims to be empowering – placing the individual in charge of how they want to move their body, not on achieving proper form or shape. We say there are no Instagram moments in our classes!

Whilst I continue to immensely enjoy the physical practice of yoga, I am dedicated to sharing my knowledge and teachings of trauma sensitive yoga, and the inextricable connection between our mind, body, and spirit for optimum wellbeing.

You can read more about the key struggles faced by our younger generation and insights from student-led mental wellbeing organisation Silverline Otago about what we can do about it in the latest issue of Ora Magazine - Issue 3.0 'Mindfulness'