Pathways to Embodied Healing
your recovery,
your choice
Trauma-Informed Trauma-Sensitive Yoga
In the field of trauma recovery, it is increasingly recognised how trauma affects much more than an individual’s psychological well-being.This includes measurable impacts on one’s body, brain, endocrine system and cellular biology. Over time this can alter an individual’s sense of themselves and their place and purpose in the world and may result in chronic health conditions.
In recognition of these outcomes embodied treatment options are becoming an important part of a holistic approach to addressing post-traumatic stress. Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) is one of these modalities, a body-based therapy that has been shown to reduce the symptoms of complex trauma and PTSD.
Pathways to Embodied Healing offers Trauma Sensitive Yoga through a trauma-informed framework, supporting individuals and groups to reconnect with their bodies in a safe and supported environment.
Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY)
TCTSY is an empirically validated adjunctive treatment for complex trauma and chronic treatment-resistant PTSD (traumasensitiveyoga.com/research). It draws on Trauma and Attachment Theory, Neuroscience, and Hatha Yoga to support participants in cultivating a felt sense of agency that is often compromised as a result of experiencing trauma.
This holistic emphasis on body-based yoga forms and breathing practices supports individuals and groups to gently reconnect with their bodies in a safe and supported environment.
Offering the opportunity to:
• Practice being present
• Practice making choices
• Experience taking effective action
• Sense the environment
• Connect with one's body and breath
TCTSY is available to all bodies and identities with options to practice from a chair, the ground, on a yoga mat, or a combination of both.
This approach was founded by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, an internationally recognised leader in the field of psychological trauma. The certification program is supervised by David Emerson, the Director of Yoga Services at Justice Resource Institute’s Trauma Center in Brookline, Massachusetts.
About
My name is Helen, I work in allied mental health and am a Trauma-Sensitive and Hatha
Yoga facilitator. I’ve been practising Yoga since 2013. During this time, I’ve completed a 300-hour Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga Facilitator training, 200-hour Yoga
Alliance Teacher Training and a Three-Year Hatha Yoga Teaching Apprenticeship.
I believe that reconnecting with one’s body through Hatha Yoga can be an extremely
empowering tool for people who have experienced trauma.
My background in Clinical Psychology also informs my approach to facilitating. I’m a
deferred post-graduate student with the Victoria University Clinical Psychology programme and am passionate about remaining current with evidence-based approaches to psychology and embodied healing.I also maintain regular supervision with clinical psychologist Linda Gow and continued education and supervision through the Justice Resource Institute. This supports me to reflect on my mahi and continue to learn and grow as a facilitator.
Together these disciplines guide my ongoing explorations of the benefits of embodied healing for mental wellness, rehabilitation, and personal development. In doing so, I hope to contribute to individual and collective healing by empowering
others to experience agency in their recovery.
Services
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Trauma-Informed Trauma-Sensitive Yoga Groups with Veronica George Available privately and via ACC Sensitive claims
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Individual Sessions Available privately and via ACC Sensitive claims
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Trauma-Informed Trauma-Sensitive Community Services and Workshops
I enjoy working therapeutically with individuals and groups and collaborating with mental health providers to incorporate embodied healing into client well-being plans.
My approach is guided by the unique needs of each individual and group I’m partnering with and a deep respect for their journey.
Fees
Cost operates on a sliding scale of contribution (I recognise that access to resources is not equitably distributed and never want finance to be prohibitive).
Student Discounts and Community Services Card discounts are available and enquiries for upcoming free community events are always welcome.
Honoring Our Roots
WHENUA
I acknowledge my inherent and unearned privilege as a pākehā female and the ways in which I’ve directly and indirectly benefitted from the displacement and dispossession of Indigenous peoples. This includes but is not limited to differential access to health care, housing, education and employment.
As an uninvited guest of these lands, I pledge at least 1% of my income to help fund Indigenous organisations and those fighting for social and climate justice (onepercentcollective.org/charities). It is a privilege to call Aotearoa home and live amongst and walk alongside our tangata whenua. This is Māori Land.
YOGA
Hatha Yoga is a sacred and ancient practice that originated in India thousands of years ago. While some yogis shared their knowledge and transformative practices widely, it’s also important to acknowledge how the extractive nature of Western Yoga mirrors colonisation. In some parts of India, England’s colonisation included the intentional eradication of traditional health and wellness practices, to the point that lineages were broken and thousand-year-old traditions lost. Yoga in the West is now a multi-billion dollar industry.
As a pākehā female offering a Hatha-based yoga practice, I acknowledge my contribution to the ongoing harm caused by colonisation and the cultural appropriation of Yoga in the West. I’m committed to respectfully navigating this cross-cultural transmission and continuing to learn from traditional Hatha Yoga teachers (rohiyoga.com), as well as diversifying my understanding and behaviours to align with the needs of participants and our society (traumasensitiveyoga.com/ethics).
Yoga is complex in its philosophy, science and practice. Equally complex, is its history and present. Fundamentally, however, it requires starting where you are with compassion and authenticity. This the hope and the guiding orientation of my mahi.
Kind is the new cool. One Percent Collective has partnered with trusted charities across Aotearoa. Members can give regularly to as many organisations as they like. There's no mandatory fee so the charities get 100% of the proceeds. Learn more at onepercentcollective.org