Participant Testimonials
The Trauma Aware and Mental Health yoga teacher training with Hali Love is an amazing course for anyone!
As a yoga teacher, I love having more tools to offer my students and more wisdom to share in classes. The daily activities and the weekly check-ins with your peer group are valuable and make the course approachable and the insights we share with each other make the lessons even deeper and more multi-faceted. I love the large spectrum of activities including reading, writing, listening, studying, moving, chanting, and journaling. Because of this course, I have realized how often I was operating in fight/flight and my life has changed for the better knowing that my body will heal itself if I allow it to be calm and regulated.
There were so many introductions to things I have never experienced or studied, including Traditional Chinese Medicine and binaural beats. Something that Hali teaches is that tools are not one size fits all. We are given options to try, and when one doesn’t work for us, that doesn’t mean it’s broken, it just means we can save that one for another time and try something else. There’s so much focus on positive thinking and ways to stay grounded.
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November, 2024 Andrea Ellis Yoga Instructor Samara Costa Rica
Testimonial - TMH program Trauma Aware and Mental Health Yoga Program
The practice of yoga encourages an opening and a coming together of body mind and spirit. It is therefore not uncommon in yoga classes for some folks to experience deep emotional releases. Images, memories and sensations from one's past can emerge seemingly out of nowhere that can be overwhelming and scary. As a yoga teacher I believe the least we can do is be trauma aware/informed and understand the potential impacts of language and our approaches on other's mental health and their processing of trauma experiences. Being trauma aware also means having a keen and sensitive awareness of when people need a bit more support and knowing how to offer it in a way that is safe and conducive to increasing capacity for self-regulation and calming of the nervous system. Yoga teachers do not assume a Mental Health role but can do a lot to help support the experience of others, increase safety and hold space that does not cause further distress or harm.
I came to this program as both a practicing counselor/social worker and as a 500hr yoga teacher. I learned so many ways to incorporate trauma sensitive approaches in both fields. The TMH program has given me a new way to teach yoga and an array of resources and methods that I can apply within my social work practice while honoring my clinical scope of practice. The people I work with are often in crisis or have come from places of trauma and are coping through life in maladaptive ways. Through the TMH program, I have gained a range of valuable clinical offerings that go beyond talk-based, cognitive modalities. I can choose one or several based on client needs that help to deepen and expand embodied healing.
On a personal level, the TMH program was beautifully introspective and contributed deeply to my continued personal development in a very holistic way. The language, approaches, and practices that the TMH program offers deeply resonated with me and have become a valuable clinical repertoire to draw from in both teaching yoga and practicing social work and counseling.
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December, 2024 Diva Vinciguerra, Social Worker & Registered Counsellor BC Canada