How does trauma affect the brain and body?

The best way to explain this is to think of our nervous system - which is made up of the brain and all the nerves that run down into the organs and limbs - as a regulator and interpreter of stimuli. It's a bit like a circuit board.

So when we go through a stressful event, our stress response will activate via the nervous system to get us out of the way of danger. The heart rate will quicken, the muscles will clench, digestion is paused and the breath becomes short and shallow.

This response happens in a split second, sending a cascade of signals from the brain to the adrenals to release cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine which get us moving. It's a remarkable evolutionary mechanism that promotes our survival and helps us to flee danger.

What happens when we undergo a traumatic event, however, is that the brain continues to perceive a threat and will stay in fight, flight or freeze mode.

Rather than finding regulation in the nervou system, unresolved trauma means the brain will continue to respond to a threat that no longer exists and the amygdala (the fear centre) will keep ringing the alarm.

With the alarm ringing and the stress hormones still flooding the body, many will encounter adrenal fatigue.

Without rest, and a physical feeling of safety, our minds and bodies cannot heal, digest, metabolise food, or absorb nutrients – not to mention sleep, feel creative, or find connection through relationships.

Rest is absolutely essential to our survival. 

For anyone stuck in fight/flight or freeze, emotions will be expressed out of proportion to what’s actually happening. Reactions will be extreme, perhaps violent.

One of the most common symptoms is a feeling of being out of control, stuck in time, unable to move forward, unable to make any decisions. And that's because the areas of the brain responsible for executive thinking and time processing are affected. 

So are the regions responsible for language, communication and memory, which explains why it can be really hard for people to express what they're feeling and going through, to situate themselves or to recall what happened.

With so many of the brain’s major regions closing down, there’ll be a lot of brain fog, a lot of confusion and violent outbursts can be very common. 

As a way of dissociating from the pain, connection between the mind and body cuts off and we no longer receive vital information from the body. The more disembodied we are, the more in our heads we are. And when everything is signalling a perpetual threat, it's easy to see how living in one's skin becomes unbearable.

Which leads me to...

This is my 8-week mentorship for yoga teachers like you who want to go deeper in your skill, knowledge and expertise when working with trauma-impacted students so you can support them to feel safe within themselves and move forward in life.

If you're finding yourself working with students for whom these symptoms sound familiar and you want to understand the evidence basis and techniques for working with trauma, I'll be sharing all this – as well as how to take your work off the mat and into the world with a trauma informed pilot yoga program of your own – in next summer's Becoming a Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher.

Early Bird pricing with 20% off ends November 20th.

Yoga Education for Medics

I had a real adventure in September with the (temporary) move to France and the weekly returns to Bristol University, where I was launching my Yoga for Medical Student Wellbeing program.

(I realised, btw, that I love both the peaceful country and the vibrant, creative city life and that my focus from here is to create a hybrid of the two, somehow.) 

This highly impactful, trauma-informed course has evolved out of a similar program I offered at LMU during my Masters and later at Queen Mary University between 2019 and 2022. Next year it's looking hopeful that it'll expand to Kent & Medway and Exeter universities too (fingers crossed!)

The program works as a support for student mental wellbeing, personal development and whole-person education and explores yoga practice, science, history, spirituality and philosophy as well as the evidence basis for using yoga in managing stress and anxiety, reducing burnout and healing trauma.

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93% of students surveyed before the course said they wanted to change something about their mental health. 

 Surveyed afterwards, 100% claimed the program had positively impacted their wellbeing 

What's vital is that trauma informed yoga practice and research brings a holistic complement to medical students’ knowledge of the body’s biomedical workings and asks them to confront their own humanness and vulnerabilities. 

We examine non-Western models of healthcare; the nervous system; the mind-body connection; the gut-brain axis; self care; contemplative practices such as compassion and gratitude; mindfulness; and the connection between personal and planetary health. 

In taking time to examine their own personal thoughts, patterns, behaviours and lifestyle choices, students are given a chance to focus on themselves as subjects worthy of examination and care, and to set themselves up for successful professional practice with their own wellbeing in mind.

Through self-awareness and self-compassion, by knowing how to self-soothe and self-regulate, they mature emotionally. By sharing personal insights, they create an environment of mutual trust, non-judgement and openness between peers. 

And by being trauma informed, they can apply that knowledge to their own symptoms and responses to their environment as well as to those of their patients and colleagues - all crucial skills if they are to provide compassionate and resilient care in the future.

Photo: our final session exploring restorative chair yoga. Taken with permission

Hear from our final Summer graduate on the East Coast of America

Read on to find out how Laurie used her many years' experience as a school teacher in the U.S. to find inspiration for her trauma informed yoga teaching. 

Firstly, hats off to anyone who works to educate children and young people! There's a need for so much energy and quick-thinking in those spaces and let me tell you, Laurie has it in spades!

Not only that, but she's a hugely generous and compassionate person which made it easy to see how capable she was of bringing a grounding, calming presence into her classroom. 

Meeting Laurie made me more convinced than before that yoga teachers are needed in every school and educational setting.

Following our learning on the science of trauma and yoga, Laurie got really interested in our Self Care & Boundaries module and recognised that what we were learning in the trauma informed space was highly relevant to her role as an educator in the American public school system. 

When it came to bringing all her learning together to craft her own trauma informed pilot yoga program to take into her community, she realised she wanted to serve women taking care of others. 

She designed her program with the idea to offer it to 5 people for free and to open it to other educators or women going through grief or health issues. 

Because she didn't have a space available for her to offer it in-person and she wanted to prioritise people being able to take care of themselves at home, she designed it as a 10-week online course of 90 minute sessions. 

Begin From Within is Laurie's offering which teaches students to take care of themselves so they can take care of others.

Her program combines elements of coaching, accountability and ritual with tools for integrating daily meditation, gratitude, celebration through art, forgiveness, yoga nidra and, of course, weekly trauma informed movement to release, rest and restore. 

Laurie's program is yet another example of how generous and giving she is as a role model and guide for people and we can't wait to hear how it lands with those she touches.

Very best of luck to you, Laurie!

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If you'd like to take your own inspirational journey in becoming trauma informed and applying your knowledge so you can teach, change lives and make impact with young adults, emergency workers, cancer survivors or whichever community whose causes you care for...

I'm running Becoming a Trauma Informed Yoga Teacher once next year - in June and July. 

To sign up, email me using the button below:

Here's how we create impact all over the world with trauma informed yoga...

When the lovely Eilidh, a yoga teacher from Scotland, joined Becoming a Trauma Informed Yoga Teacher this Summer, I knew straight off that she was going to create ripples of deep and peaceful healing in her community.

Despite being a little unsure at the outset where she wanted to take her teaching, with my support Eilidh narrowed her focus and got clear on wanting to support women to return to health and connection with themselves following trauma of any kind.

Introducing the Yamas and Niyamas is Eilidh's signature trauma informed yoga program where each week's focus on a yama or niyama offers insight that can give us somewhere to start on our journey of self reflection and building a relationship with ourselves following the rupture caused by trauma. 

Placing the philosophy of yoga at the centre of her weekly sessions creates focus and grounding for those who have been traumatised. 

The yamas and niyamas can form the foundation of our practice and provide so much inner strength when we're rebuilding anew. They can help us build positive and supportive environments in which we can begin to thrive. 

They can help us maintain self discipline and humility within challenging situations. They offer purpose, structure and understanding to our yoga practice and they can be explored at whatever level we are starting at - and revisited throughout our yoga
journey.

In her own words, "I offer an opportunity for us to reconnect to ourselves, to feel safe within our bodies so that we may open the door to healing and recovery."

Eilidh was also inspired by the work of an addiction-focussed yoga project whose details I shared in our training and decided to start writing a second program tailored towards addiction-specific practices and participants. 

She's already been approached by a drug and alcohol addiction support group to offer it in a wellbeing centre which is fantastic. 

We wish her all the luck as she steps forward on her path of trauma informed yoga teaching!

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If you'd like to take your own inspirational journey in becoming trauma informed and applying your knowledge so you can teach, change lives and make impact in a community whose causes you care for...

I'm running Becoming a Trauma Informed Yoga Teacher just the once next year - in June and July. 

🦩 Early bird pricing will be released shortly 🦩

To be the first to get access to discounted pricing, sign up here:

Ready to be inspired by how trauma informed yoga can change the world?

Meet Ulrika, a Swedish teacher and summer graduate of BTIYT who draws from her career in the humanitarian aid sector to create a trauma informed yoga program for professionals working in highly stressful, specialist and specific locations all around the world.

I can't tell you how much I love this!

Ulrika and I trained together in the Sivananda ashram back in 2014 and hadn't seen each other since then. But when she got in touch earlier this year to say she'd been following my work and was ready to become trauma informed and fulfil her vision of supporting fellow colleagues in the humanitarian aid sector, I was thrilled. 

Most of my trainees use their personal experience to share with others on the path behind them what they've learned but when this work makes its way into other sectors - with which there is so much intersection and need, and yet just not necessarily a yogic approach to doing it - the impact is HUGE.

I give a lot of support inside Becoming a Trauma Informed Yoga Teacher to understanding why you want to do the work you seek, who you want to serve by offering it and what exactly the purpose and outcomes of your trauma informed yoga program would be. 

It's this depth of thinking that brings clarity to your mission and helps you get your work into the places it's needed.

Ulrika used her decades+ experience working in the field to really drill down and understand what challenges and pains her fellow workers in the humanitarian aid sector face and how yoga can support them. 

Among them are: working weeks of 6 or 7 days, long hours, insecure and hostile environments with limited access to healthy food, gyms, exercise and nature. 

With a lack of social activity in the evenings, or even safe streets to wander, people often lean towards staying in alone and drinking too much. While workers are far from friends and family with limited access to decent internet connection, they're also commonly on short-term, insecure contracts leading to high levels of performance stress. The staff are lonely, don't feel able to share their mental health struggles, sleep poorly and have limited free movement.

Add to all this the fact that aid organisations tend to have low funds and inefficient management and you're left with high staff frustration and people unable to help the affected population swiftly or strongly enough. 

So what did Ulrika do?

She designed a 10-week online yoga program using her new knowledge on trauma, yoga and healing for humanitarian aid workers based in the Middle East, Africa and Europe to help them relieve daily stress and anxiety, and improve their sleep, coping skills and response to emergency situations.

Her mission is to support humanitarian aid workers to improve their own health so they can create better circumstances for the most affected populations and continue to do the work they love. 

Her trauma informed yoga program combines therapeutic movement, mindfulness, rest/yoga nidra and breath work while weaving in all-important themes to support student resilience and growth such as ahimsa, accepting change, gratitude and celebration. 

Ulrika has already garnered interest and encouragement from the Wellbeing Manager within her organisation which is amazing. 

We wish her every success with her program!

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If you'd like to take your own inspirational journey in becoming trauma informed and applying your knowledge so you can teach, change lives and make impact in a community whose causes you care for...

I'm running Becoming a Trauma Informed Yoga Teacher next June and July. 

To join the wait list, click here:

See what this summer's trainees created in Becoming a Trauma Informed Yoga Teacher

Meet the lovely Kim, a Belgian designer and yoga teacher who guides women challenged by anxiety, stress and trauma to build resilience and self love through yoga. 

Following our 8-week training in trauma informed yoga, Kim wanted to draw from the anxiety and struggles with body image she saw in her dance background and work with women struggling with poor self esteem, low self confidence and eating disorders.

Building Resilience and Self Love Through Yoga is Kim's signature program which she plans to offer online to women aged 25-45. 

At the heart of her program is a focus on supporting women to love themselves, to navigate toxic environments and to know that they deserve to be, feel, give and receive love.

Kim wants to support her clients in building their own practice and become their own healers. 

She includes breath-led asana with dance, guided meditation and yoga nidra in her program.

Wishing Kim every bit of luck as she takes her onward journey to supporting more women!

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INTERESTED IN BECOMING A TRAUMA INFORMED YOGA TEACHER WITH AN EMPHASIS ON TAKING YOUR TEACHING OFF THE MAT AND INTO THE WORLD?

Becoming a Trauma Informed Yoga Teacher will run once next year. It's the only program out there that trains you in the neuroscience of trauma and how to work with it as a yoga teacher AND supports you in applying your knowledge and getting it into the world. 

Dates haven't been announced yet but I love knowing when's a good time for you to study so I can set the schedule at a time that works for most. I know you all have work, kids and other projects to work around.

Let me know when suits with this quick poll

See what this Summer's Becoming a Trauma Informed Yoga Teacher mentees created...

Meet Alice, a Paris-based yoga teacher who crafted a trauma-informed yoga program for overloaded executive women to improve their mental health and wellbeing. 

Following our 8-week training in trauma informed yoga, Alice created a yoga program for 30-40 year old women with high levels of stress and anxiety, depression, burnout and exhaustion, who are likely unaware that they're carrying trauma. 

Rest and Release with Yoga: 10 Weeks to Build a Healthy Routine Towards Rest is Alice's signature online program. It seeks to address a well-known but chronically under-resourced systemic challenge: that professional women (who are often mothers) tend to put their own wellbeing below others’ and lack the time, self-confidence and motivation to practice regularly.

Not only that, but they have limiting beliefs around their worthiness for self care.

Alice identifies how in high-functioning, executive circles of professional women, it’s seen as a weakness to talk about mental health struggles - and especially if you’re a mother because people imagine it should be painless and seamless, nothing but a pleasure.

She wants to provide a space where these women are safe to say that they’re not ok, where they can fill their own cup and have a mindset reset.

In Alice’s words, “I want to normalise resting, slowing down and prioritising mental health among busy, professional women with accessible, adaptable yoga. My aim is to support my clients to build their own easy, realistic and replicable yoga routine with daily tools, tailored to the individual so they can manage stress and anxiety in the moment, boost their energy levels and mood, create mental clarity and calmness, sharpen their concentration and introduce positivity to their lives.”

We wish Alice the best of luck in her onward teaching journey!

Here’s what she had to say about her time in the training:

“I had been wanting to do this training for a long time, and couldn’t find any other course that was so in-depth around the topic. I am extremely satisfied that I joined. I was able to unlock knowledge and skills which will really help me make my teaching more inclusive to people with trauma symptoms, and develop my work with a different audience. Not only Ellie provides practical tools to teach in a trauma-aware manner, but also she helps you tailor an approach that is 100% yours and gives invaluable business advices too. There was a lot of theory in the course but at the end of it I felt armed to use all this new knowledge in the real world and in my classes. In addition, I find Ellie a very genuine, gentle and patient teacher. The whole experience was stressless, I felt surrounded by kindness. Thank you so much!”

— Alice Dunoyer

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Interested in becoming a trauma informed yoga teacher with an emphasis on taking your teaching off the mat and into the world?

>> To learn more about Becoming a Trauma Informed Yoga Teacher, and to be the first to know about 2024’s training dates, click here.

My clients come to me when... 👁

• They’ve been seeing more and more students who are presenting with trauma and they don’t know how to work safely and more deeply with them
  

• They want to do something bigger and bolder with their work in the community
  

• They’ve cut their teeth on the studio circuit and are wondering what’s next
  

• Their revenue has plateaued, they’re frustrated and wanting more for themselves, to go to the next level / become a specialist
  

• They knew they came here to do more and they want to be mentored so they can step into their next phase of growth and purpose (and wave goodbye to feeling insecure and undervalued)
  

• Or, they come because they’ve followed what I’ve created in my work and they want a slice of it for themselves
  
  You're in the right place if...
  

• You want to support students presenting with trauma but don’t know where to start
  

• You're ambitious about taking your work into schools, hospitals, mental health clinics, prisons - anywhere you know that it's needed
  

• You need support getting more 1:1s
  

• You're running around between studios teaching ‘yoga for everyone’ and it’s tiring you out
  

• You can’t make the money you desire and you don’t know how to get there
  

• You want to get over the fear of not knowing what and how to teach - and how to set your rates.
  
  And right now you’re…
  

• Going round in circles, adding more group classes to your schedule.
  

• You’re tired of wondering if your unique skills and huge expertise is lost on the world. And yet, you know that yoga is needed in so many places and you’re ambitious about wanting to make a mark and make a living doing it.

  Besides, this is the only work you want to do, right?!
  
  I’ve got you covered.
  
  In my free masterclass I share my 3-part framework for becoming a trauma-informed yoga teacher who makes impact and income.
  
  It distils 10+ years experience in yoga and social entrepreneurship and for those curious about my Mentorship, will introduce you to how I work, what I teach and how I like to mentor.
  
  

 If you're ready to step on the path to being a confident trauma-informed yoga teacher who gets paid to do work you love, I'd love to invite you to apply.

Here's what past mentees have had to say about The Trauma Informed Yoga, Social Change & Mindful Business Mentorship.

5 spaces are available next month. 

👉Apply here👈

Much love,
Ellie X

What makes trauma-informed yoga unique?

 D'you know the question I get asked the most?

"What style of yoga are we practicing in trauma-informed yoga?"

I love this question because it gives us an opportunity to look at the science and methodology behind trauma-informed yoga which is specific, intentional and subtly distinct from a 'regular' practice.

In answer to this question, we're practicing Hatha yoga.

The reason?

It gives us time and space to process and experience the breath, the postures, and the transitions between them.

Isn't that what all yoga does?

Well no, not necessarily. Vinyasa, for example, is a comparatively fast-paced, athletic practice that for these reasons I definitely wouldn't be teaching in a space populated by traumatised people.

So why does this matter?

The pain of traumatic experience is such that the human response is to disassociate from the body and cut off connection to visceral signals and sensations.

Quite simply, the pain is intolerable and therefore the body will do what it can not to feel it.

It's a millennia-old response designed to protect us from harm and yet the fallout of this disembodiment means we no longer receive vital biofeedback about the state of our body (cold, hunger, pain, tiredness etc) and we become stranded, or imprisoned, in our minds.

It's the reason so much mental ill health, addiction and violent behaviour is associated with people who've been traumatised.

But when we practice mindful movement and breath-work, and begin to pay close attention to what our shoulder is doing in this posture, say, or the feeling of the foot just so on the mat....

We positively rewire the connection between mind and body and light up the attentional circuitry of the brain that helps us to feel, sense and perceive again beyond the limited confines of a brain that is on high alert for danger.

As we reconnect with felt sensation, we learn to befriend previously 'intolerable' experiences and thereby increase our tolerance for discomfort, which leads to resilience and personal growth.

We come to find that what was once deemed impossible or intolerable is now, in fact, totally doable.

This titration method - where practice moves slowly and carefully, bit by bit - is what allows students to gradually cultivate a considered response to threats and signals of danger rather than responding with knee-jerk reactions.

Which means reactions off the mat become calmer and more considered.

And it's this way of working that contributes to a trauma-informed approach.

Because when we understand why we're teaching in this way, we empower our students to understand it too.

It's not random and it's not guesswork.

It's deliberate, intentional and scientifically-backed.

If you're ready to step on the path to being a confident trauma-informed yoga teacher who gets paid to do work you love, I'd love to invite you to apply.

Here's what past mentees have had to say about The Trauma Informed Yoga, Social Change & Mindful Business Mentorship.

5 spaces are available next month. 

👉Apply here👈

Much love,
Ellie X

Should I play music in trauma informed yoga?

Before I share my thoughts with you, what are yours?

What’s your experience of music been in group yoga classes?
How has music added to or detracted from your practice?
Has it deepened your experience or distracted from it?
Did you like the music?
Did you like all of it or just some of it?
Did you find yourself singing along, or tuning in to the lyrics?
Did it trigger memories (happy or otherwise)?
Did the teacher share an intention for what the music was used for?
Did it make you feel a certain way, or even multiple ways?

These are some of the things to consider when deciding whether music is relevant to yoga full stop.

But in a trauma-informed approach, I train my teachers to wean themselves and their students off using it.

Why? Read the comments

Because it detracts from the present moment. And while we’ve all treasured classes that have been thoughtfully accompanied by a really good playlist, there are too many reasons against using it.

Let’s look closer.

Trauma Informed Yoga is designed to:

Ground students in an embodied, moment to moment experience of their bodies
Detect gross and subtle sensations arising in real-time
Choose what to do with their bodies on account of being connected to them
Viscerally override the trauma signals and chemicals keeping them stuck in the past

If we’re playing music - however beautiful and soothing you think it may be (and remember, you’ve no idea what might trigger someone else and potentially re-traumatise them) - you take your students out of the present moment.

It’s that simple.

The intention of yoga is to make connection with ourselves through audible, conscious breath-work and mindful movement.

There are enough distractions in modern life as it is. And if we can’t carve a space for prayer in yoga, where can we?

Try phasing out the music and tell your students why you’re doing it.

Own it.

It’ll probably feel a bit uncomfortable for a bit - you may even lose some pupils, who knows? - but stick with it and you’ll see your students’ focus, development and attunement ripen as they deepen their practice and intimacy with self.

Let me know how you get on x

If you're ready to step on the path to being a confident trauma-informed yoga teacher who gets paid to do work you love, I'd love to invite you to apply.

Here's what past mentees have had to say about The Trauma Informed Yoga, Social Change & Mindful Business Mentorship.

5 spaces are available next month. 

👉Apply here👈

Much love,
Ellie X

How to care for someone going through post-traumatic growth

It’s simply that yoga teacher trainings don’t cover the effects of trauma and the potential for frightening and overwhelming experiences brought about by yoga that are hard to make sense of.

What’s interesting about healing is that it doesn’t run in a straight line. It’s more of a helter skelter, a slow bloom and an onion being peeled of its layers (all rolled into one weird metaphor!)

“Post-traumatic growth” is a term used to describe the positive transformation and personal growth that can happen following trauma. Growth that can include a newfound appreciation for life, changes in relationships, new interests and passions, a desire for service, new possibilities and spiritual change.

Though generally positive, these changes also need time - and ideally, professional therapeutic support - to settle and integrate because for some, they can be just as life-changing and shape-shifting as the changes brought about by trauma.

Too much change and rapid expansion can be dangerous and in some cases can lead to psychosis, or at the very least a destabilised sense of self.

I know because I had a Kundalini awakening following my 200hr training.

And while it was profoundly beautiful and full of wisdom, it was also deeply unsettling and scary. My nervous system just wasn’t prepped for that much expansion and being thrust into the outer layers of the cosmos wasn’t what I needed at that time.

Because it was ineffable, I had no way of putting it into words or explaining the vast new perspective I had without sounding like I’d lost my mind. No one had warned me of the possibility of it so I didn’t even know it was a thing. It was extremely isolating and lonely, and I suffered badly for it.

It took seeing a handful of different therapists to integrate the knowledge of that time, as well as the comfort and support from small pockets of people and research groups who’d been through similar ego-cracking experiences. One thing I know for sure is that while the journey it took me on was out of this world -  4th dimension stuff that blew my mind - I wish I’d had support integrating it safely.

I’ve often said that I think yoga mats should carry warning labels - and have been grateful when other practitioners have agreed because it’s made me feel less alone. It’s true what they say about a spiritual awakening both enlivening your life and ruining it.

When it comes to teaching yoga, it’s absolutely vital that a trauma-informed approach is used, otherwise it carries a high risk of re-traumatisation or unmanageable expansion.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Understand what your role is and therefore what you are and are not qualified for
2. Know how to mitigate against experiences that re-traumatise or expand people’s consciousness too quickly
3. Learn how to settle, soothe or refer students on to someone who can support the integration process
4. Understand that yoga isn’t for everyone and that healing comes in all shapes and sizes

What’s needed in every space that yoga is offered is an approach to teaching that takes steady, safe care of people whose nervous systems have been shot to bits by trauma, and is grounded, science-based and earthy.

Bit by bit the more airy, ethereal and mystical elements of yoga might be introduced - but only by titration and in a gentle manner, if pertinent to the individual.

It’s simply not safe otherwise.
All trees must be rooted in order to grow tall.

I’m so curious to know if you’ve been through something similar or have thoughts you want to share on this? I feel so strongly that more conversation needs to be had on the risks and dangers that come with yoga if we’re not mindful and educated.

If you're ready to step on the path to being a confident trauma-informed yoga teacher who gets paid to do work you love, I'd love to invite you to apply.

Here's what past mentees have had to say about The Trauma Informed Yoga, Social Change & Mindful Business Mentorship.

5 spaces are available next month. 

👉Apply here👈

Much love,
Ellie X

What are the risks of NOT being trauma informed as a yoga teacher?

I want to highlight what we risk if we're not trauma-aware and trauma-educated.

These are risks that affect both you and your students, so keep reading.

When you don't have a grounding in trauma-informed yoga...

🥺 You don’t know what you’re doing when it comes to working with people impacted by trauma - and your students can sense it

🥺 You risk re-traumatising students by offering practices that create more inbalance in their nervous system

🥺 You risk handling the space, pace and boundaries poorly

🥺 You open the door to relationships with students that are hard to manage, inappropriate or which put you at risk of vicarious trauma

🥺 You’re unable to explain the purpose of certain practices

🥺 You’re unable to create a container for healing

🥺 You run the risk of thinking all bodies and minds respond the same way to the practice

🥺 You overlook the extra value you can bring by being informed

🥺 You miss out on serving people more carefully, mindfully and safely

🥺 You make errors that are the difference between facilitating safety and healing and causing further hurt

🥺 You inadvertently make people feel singled out, unseen, unsupported, alienated, unwelcome, isolated, less than, misunderstood

🥺 You touch or instruct people’s bodies and private space inappropriately

🥺 You limit the range of options that make the practice accessible

🥺  You misunderstand relational and power dynamics which can lead to abuses of power, misconstrued expectations about your role and weak boundaries

🥺 You're unaware of vicarious trauma and how to protect yourself against it

🥺 You miss out on opportunities to take a deeper understanding of the subject (and more proficient teaching) to places where yoga is really needed

Now that you've seen some of the risks you're bringing to your teaching when you're not trauma-educated, we can work together to change that.

If you're ready to become a proficient, safe and confident teacher of trauma-informed yoga and learn how to grow your business,  fill out this short form to apply for the Trauma Informed Yoga, Social Change & Mindful Business Mentorship. If it feels like a good fit, I'll invite you to hop on a call with me to explore working together further.

In the words of past mentees...

"I couldn't recommend it more, it's a great big 10/10 from me!"

and

"THE best continuing education program of my career"

What are the benefits of being a trauma informed yoga teacher?

What are the benefits of being a trauma informed yoga teacher?

- You know how to identify what’s going on for people by reading body language, eye contact and physical cues

- You know how to offer practices that will create equilibrium in a dysregulated nervous system and promote safe healing

- You have confidence in what you teach and how you set up the space for people impacted by trauma

- You know how to limit the risk of retraumatisation

- You understand the different ways trauma can manifest in the mind and body

- You can explain why you’re offering certain practices and what they’re doing for people neurophysiologically

- You open the door to working more deeply with people

- You understand your role as a teacher — and what your limitations are

- You know how to set boundaries that protect you and your students

- You know how to work with a diverse group of people

- You know how to identify places where your work is needed

- You open opportunities for working in a broad and impactful variety of spaces

- You understand how safety is an essential precursor to connection and healing

If you're ready to step on the path to being a confident trauma-informed yoga teacher who gets paid to do work you love, I'd love to invite you to apply.

Here's what past mentees have had to say about The Trauma Informed Yoga, Social Change & Mindful Business Mentorship.

5 spaces are available next month. 

👉Apply here👈

Much love,
Ellie X

Overcoming yoga teacher imposter syndrome

I know that you want to help students more meaningfully.

To create something of real worth.

And to combine doing something you love with doing good in the world.

Yet how often do you hear yourself say that you don't know enough or that you're not as good as other teachers?

How often do you catch yourself thinking you don't actually value the work you do?

Be honest.

Brutal, isn't it?

On the one hand, yoga has been a life saver and game-changer for you.

Yet on the other, you don't know how to convey its value to other people or believe in yourself to make a success of it.

It's holding you back and you don't know how to get past it. 

Well here's the thing:

All of us who create our own work need support as we take steps on the journey.

All of us benefit from guidance and accountability from people a few steps ahead of us.

All of us grow when we have a loving community of people to back us.

There's no way I could have got to where I am now without it.

And that's exactly why I provide the training, tools, resources, mindset support and community within my mentorship to get you to where you want to be too. 

It's THE pathway to becoming a confident teacher of trauma-informed yoga + getting paid for it. 

No need to wing it.

No imposter syndrome. 

What's not to love?!

If you're ready to step on the path to being a confident trauma-informed yoga teacher who gets paid to do work you love, I'd love to invite you to apply.

Here's what past mentees have had to say about The Trauma Informed Yoga, Social Change & Mindful Business Mentorship.

5 spaces are available next month. 

👉Apply here👈

Much love,
Ellie X

What is trauma informed yoga?

Understanding trauma means understanding how it impacts the brain, the body and our sense of safety, connection and trust in life.

The word trauma comes from the Greek word 'wound'. It really refers to our response to an experience and the effects of an event, rather than the event itself.

There are several therapeutic definitions of trauma but the best way of understanding it is through the lens of disruption, disconnection and disarray.

When human beings are traumatised, we're effectively stunned into a state of deep shock.

The human brain - which developed over millennia to support our survival - goes into disarray, the connection between mind and body is severed and the brain no longer receives essential 'biofeedback' from the body (signals like hunger, cold, discomfort and butterflies in the tummy).

When unresolved, trauma will continue to send signals around the body that a threat is imminent, meaning a traumatised person continues to live in a state of ongoing crisis.

In most cases we'll become disassociated from our bodies as a way of coping with unbearable pain, helping us to understand why maladaptive coping mechanisms such as drink, drugs and self harm are common numbing techniques.

Typically, trauma-impacted people will lack an organised sense of purpose, will commonly react out of context, have inflated responses to threats, and do not feel safe in their own bodies - or may not even be aware of them.

At the heart of Trauma-Informed Yoga is an evidence-based approach that helps people regulate their nervous systems so they can move from a state of hyper- or hypo-arousal to one of regulation, balance and safety.

Critically what trauma informed yoga does is reconnect the pathways between the brain and the body to establish a sense of safety within one's self.

When we work in a Trauma-Informed way, we're guiding people to reconnect with their bodies in a way that feels safe, trustworthy and mindful.

Placing emphasis on personal choice and agency, we give people the tools to tolerate and even befriend their full experience, no matter what it holds.

Over time, students viscerally override the trauma signals, learn to recover what's been lost and potentially experience 'post-traumatic growth' so that their lives can become meaningful and enriching far beyond what they've suffered.

THE TRAUMA INFORMED YOGA, SOCIAL CHANGE & MINDFUL BUSINESS MENTORSHIP

I offer a 4-month online mentorship for yoga teachers to deepen your understanding of trauma, the mind-body connection and the evidence basis for yoga. As well as building confidence and learning how to make a greater impact teaching yoga, you’ll do a deep-dive overhaul of your relationship with money, learn how to grow your work and develop a socially-motivated pilot yoga program of your own.

This program is informed by over a decade in the field of yoga research and experience working with a wide variety of traumatised populations.

Find out if this training is for you https://ellie-grace.com/teacher-trainings/2020/4/28/online-coaching-group-becoming-a-trauma-informed-yoga-teacher

How Does Trauma Informed Yoga Support Healing?

How does trauma impact us?

Trauma is an embodied experience – which is to say that in order to work with trauma, the body must be involved in treatment.

To understand how trauma impacts the mind-body relationship we must look at how the body responds to stimuli:

When the body perceives a threat to its safety, the sympathetic portion of the nervous system releases adrenaline, cortisol, epinephrine, norepinephrine and noradrenaline. This reaction, known as fight-or-flight, activates the body into escaping by increasing the heart rate, speeding up the breath and sending blood to the muscles so they can run. All the systems of the body co-operate in order to flee danger.

Once the perceived threat has passed, the parasympathetic portion of the nervous system releases serotonin, dopamine and endorphins, the hormones responsible for soothing the nervous system and bringing the body back into rest-and-digest.

In both systems the hormones are activated by neurotransmitters which work (in a healthy person) in companionship with all the other systems of the body: cardiovascular, respiratory, immune, endocrine, and digestive. However, homeostasis – the body's natural ability to return to a state of equilibrium – is disrupted in the traumatised mind-body as the nervous system often finds itself on constant high alert, scanning for danger.

Traumatic experiences – which range from verbal/sexual/physical/emotional abuse to war, natural disasters, illness, loss and accidents – can leave a person in a state of persistent arousal, most especially if the trauma is repeated or unresolved (i.e. has not been worked through the mind-body system with therapeutic modalities).

A state of constant arousal – where the amygdala and prefrontal cortex (responsible for activating fear and making decisions, respectively) – will, eventually, result in an over-exertion of the sympathetic reaction and the release of adrenaline, which can lead to adrenal fatigue.

Equally, the body is liable to process and store complex emotions surrounding the traumatic event(s) which can lead to physical manifestations of the mental/psychological pains. This is often where disease ('dis-ease') arises. And when the body becomes a storehouse of unresolved trauma, and physically painful, the mind will do what it can to dissociate from the body – a feature of trauma well-known to those who use diversion tactics to render their bodies insensible; whether that's through drink, drugs, sex or self-harm.

The brain and the body are connected by the vagus nerve which manages and communicates responses between the two via the nervous system.

When a person undergoes traumatic experiences that are not tempered by the body's natural ability to reset itself to rest-and-digest, the pathways of communication become blocked and the mind begins to dissociate from the messages it receives from the body.

This degree of dissociation can lead to severe energetic blocks in the body (which manifest in disease and disruption to the immune system in particular) as well as an over-emphasis on the identification with the mind. This mind-as-self perspective is typified by persistent negative thoughts, depression, anxiety, panic, fear and endless replays of traumatic experience. The mind, effectively, gets caught in a self-destructive loop.

How can trauma informed yoga help?

Specific emotions induce changes in our breathing patterns, and voluntary changes in our breathing will induce specific emotions. Trauma informed Yoga works to bring the body back into presence through mindful breath and movement in such a way as to free the mind from 'top-down' activation so as to awaken the natural wisdom of the body.

A conscious, slow and full exhalation will activate the parasympathetic nervous system and alter the activity of the vagus nerve to open connection between mind and body. An inhalation will energise and innervate the organs, the lungs, the glands, the heart and the brain.

When we combine conscious breath-work with mindful movement we create the opportunity to witness how our body responds to the challenge – both mentally and physically – and to use our observation to take a new direction.

When we meet resistance, boredom or frustration we can use our attention on the breath to soften the mental reaction, slow the mind and calm the physical systems of the body. In this way, when there may not have appeared to have been a choice about where we find ourselves – both in life and in practice – we create a choice for ourselves as to how we react. We come to see that the voluntary change in breath corresponds to a voluntary change in outlook and that the simple act of breathing is available to us at all times and in all situations.

Let’s dive deeper

The positive feedback system works like this: the body holds a posture, say Warrior 2, for longer than it might like to. The muscles work hard to keep the spine straight, the front leg bent, both arms extended and straight. After a few seconds, the mind chips in and asks to stop, complains about the pain and the tension in the lower back, gets bored and wants to do something else. This is totally normal. This is where the breath comes in and why it is so crucially important to our trauma informed yoga practice: without it, we are simply not practicing yoga, but gymnastics. In order to quiet the mind and train the brain we draw on the breath, inhaling deeply and exhaling fully. We stay with the movement of the breath at all times, in every posture.

And in a nutshell, this is why: the sympathetic portion of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) flares up in response to the stress of holding a pose, sending messages to the brain that puts us into 'fight or flight' mode. By breathing deeply and steadily, we activate the parasympathetic or 'rest and digest' response in the ANS that counteracts this stress signal, leading to a soothed state of being. The more we practice, the stronger the feedback between the two responses becomes, meaning that when we're faced with stressors and aggravations from daily life, our neural memory knows how to maintain our arousal at a comfortable and safe level.

In short, we become calmer and more easily able to handle life's ups and downs with greater ease. This is why trauma informed yoga has shown to be especially effective for war veterans and PTSD sufferers - in fact, any population used to running on 'high alert' in such a way as to exhaust the adrenal system.

Through breathing mindfully we provide a portal to interoceptive awareness and notice our ability to self-soothe, to trust in the safety of our own bodies, to increase social engagement and to nurture a healthy and reciprocal co-regulation of the physiological and psychological states. As a result we find ourselves better able to regulate our emotions, limit defensive reactions, cooperate, connect and love in a way that is deeply healing to the traumatised mind-body organism.

Now we know what happens in the body and brain of an individual suffering trauma, we can use evidence-based, trauma informed yoga practices as part of a broader program of therapeutic treatments to help patients feel safe in their bodies again.

Once students learn the basics of posture and breath, they not only reduce the need for medication, but are empowered to self-regulate and find their own pathway to peace. And while trauma informed yoga alone can't heal the effects of trauma or change past events, it can act as a crucial ally in bringing us home to ourselves, and embracing the present moment for whatever it holds. As Thich Nhat Hanh writes, 'There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.'

For more information on how to create social change by becoming a trauma-informed yoga teacher and mindful business owner, enrolment for our next training is now open.

Yoga for Medics - This is Going to Hurt

We need to address the pain medics are in. So much more needs to - and can - be done. 

The chronic, unrelenting pressure placed on junior doctors that we see being played out in This is Going to Hurt (now airing on BBC1) is a shocking reminder of how lives are sacrificed to the NHS by aspiring medics hoping to make a difference. 

I felt a deep affinity with Junior Doctor Shruti (played with impeccable finesse by Ambika Mod) because she’s so strikingly similar to the hundreds of medical undergraduates I work with every year. 

Similar in age, cultural background, race, faith and education. Similar too, in that her inability to speak out about the intolerable pressure she works under owing both to the broken system and the fact of her parents’ suffocating pride in her. 

What worries me profoundly is that there are hundreds of thousands more Shrutis. I’ve met over 500 of them in my work alone. 

The work I do with medical undergraduates is to teach them the fundamentals of yoga practice, history, philosophy and tradition - and to connect the dots between self care, presence, somatics, neuroscience, mental health, compassion and self awareness. 

Because if they can’t relate to and take care of themselves, how are they expected to do the same with future patients?

If you’re unfamiliar with yoga, you’re probably thinking “Pah, what’s yoga got to do with all that?” 

And if you know, well, you know. 

Yoga is a mind-body discipline that reconnects disjointed, anxious, overwhelmed minds with out-of-touch, dissociated, traumatised bodies and heals, elevates and mobilises the human spirit. In the process, it fosters self love, self understanding and personal development on a massive scale. 

I see it as the life force all humans need in order to thrive. 

When I read my students’ essays - they submit one reflective piece, tracing the journey they’ve undertaken in 2 weeks of yoga study, and one academic paper on the effects of yoga on a medical issue of their interest - I see a whole generation of medics learning how to cultivate the skills necessary to enter their profession. 

Skills like patience, calm, intuition, intellectual clarity, resilience, determination, humanness, compassion and fortitude. 

I’m not exaggerating when I say the overwhelming majority of these kids hadn’t known silence before coming to this course. 

They are the Internet Generation and they’ve been raised on a vicious cocktail of constant digital stimulation and unsteadying, unsustainable expectations about how high they have to climb in order to succeed in Medicine. Trust me, a medical degree is INTENSE. 

Most of them write of major sleep problems, digestive issues, eczema, headaches, chronic anxiety, depressive bouts, self doubt and a constant, ineluctable experience of doom, fear and exhaustion that trails them wherever they go. 

When I read their essays, I honestly often think of these overworked and overwhelmed kids like stressed out lab rats, unable to find the off button. 

And yet.

What is overwhelmingly clear is that yoga works for them. 

2 weeks in which all other studies are paused and we get to the core of what yoga is, where it comes from, what it’s not (hello, Lululemon and all that BS), how it works, why it works, how to bring it sustainably to your life and the lives of your future patients, and really, how there IS another way to live, free from the haunting notion that life is an anxious hamster wheel, spinning relentlessly out from your grasp. 

Want to know the results?

Most of all, my medics find agency. In their thoughts, their feelings, their voice, their confidence and their lives. 

They come to understand they are not the sum of their looping thoughts - and that they can create space and silence between them. 

They get that the body holds onto their experiences - and as such, they must use it to relieve themselves of psychic, mental and emotional pain. 

And they are given an outlet, a set of tools and a feeling of deep relief, knowing that what at times has felt unmanageable is, in fact, less threatening than their nervous system has told them it is. 

I love doing this work because the impact is enormous. 

Having developed the program out of a similar one I offered in the US in 2017, the numbers of students wanting to take it each cohort just grows and grows. We’ve gone from hosting 25 students per cohort to 70 and to date, over 500 students have taken part. 

I now want to expand it into other universities, training yoga teachers to deliver it nationwide to a host of medicine, psychology, neuroscience and liberal arts students. 

If you’re interested in becoming one of those teachers or making introductions to heads of departments, deans and course administrators round the UK, please do get in touch.

When did you last invest in your business?

Of COURSE it’s scary to invest in your business!!

We all feel that, no matter the price tag.

When did you last invest in yours? How did it make you feel? Drop it in the comments.

Let’s normalise this perfectly human experience and honour both the terror AND the excitement of having to invest if we want to grow what we do.

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For more free tips and training on how to grow your yoga business, join my Facebook Group, Be The Change

Fear of success? What's that all about?!

We all want success but what often gets in the way of achieving it is a whole load of limiting beliefs. Things like “I don’t deserve it”, “I’m not good / clever / pretty enough” or “Who am I to be big and loud?”

Don’t worry, ALL of us humans have them.
Tune in to uncover what lurks beneath so you can clear the Negative Nancys and create a business and life that you’re deserving of.

For more free tips and training on how to grow your yoga business, join my Facebook Group, Be The Change

What do you want to FEEL MORE OF in your yoga business?

I see a lot of my clients wanting more clients of their own and more dependable income. 

And they think that if they just sign another private, fill another workshop or gain an extra 1k followers, then they’ll be happy.

But these aren’t the metrics to go by.

I’m not denying that money in the bank is a joyful thing. Or that welcoming a new 1:1 client into your space doesn’t make you sing. Of course, it does!

👉 But the key to growing a successful (ie happy-making) yoga business is to make decisions based on what you want to feel more of rather than just ‘having’ more.

👉 Because the money in the bank is meaningless if it doesn’t bring you pleasure to work with the people who paid you.

👉 And the Instagram likes mean zilch if they’re not converting to meaningful conversations and clients who light you up.

In the same way that you choose who to socialise with, who to date or who to marry, you also get to choose who your clients are based on how it feels to work with them.

So, what do you want to FEEL by working with certain people?

Maybe it’s

• A deep emotional connection

• Intellectual stimulation

• Joy, laughter and levity

• Informality and openness

• The feeling of being friends with your clients

• The sense that none of this feels like hard work any more

Whatever you desire in life, it’s because you want to fulfil a specific emotional need.

I like to use the example that when I wanted to buy a car, it wasn’t a 1-ton hunk of metal, 4 wheels, and a steering wheel that I was after. What I wanted was the FEELING of freedom, independence, and maturity that, in my mind, came with having one.

And in my search for a life partner, I don’t just want any old body. I want to feel seen, valued, and held. I want to feel that our values are aligned and to feel emotionally safe with this person.

👉 When you make decisions based on what you want to feel, you prioritise the desired emotional outcome over just having the thing. 

So, if you're craving more joy in your business but you're not experiencing it yet, ask yourself:

✅ Am I clear about what I want to feel in my work?

✅ What are the 5 feelings I want more of?

✅ Have I been saying yes to things and people that drain my energy, or which add to my energy bank?

✅ How can I tune in and listen to my needs so I can make empowered choices?

✅ Am I being honest about what I really want from my business?

These are the questions you need to ask yourself.

Your business is a reflection of your priorities.

👉 Does this resonate with you? Drop a comment below!

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For more free tips and training on how to grow your yoga business, join my Facebook Group, Be The Change