Trauma Sensitive Yoga

What is Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TSY)?

In Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TSY), classical components of Hatha Yoga (the origin yoga style that all other yoga styles are derived from) are modified to enchance safety and empowerment. Unlike my Jivamukti Yoga classes and many other yoga classes available, TSY does not use hands-on assists, music, incense or any other sensory input that may distract the practitioner from a felt sense of their body. Although TSY includes some classical Hatha Yoga movements, the emphasis is on safety and choice, predictability and developing trust in self and other.

Classes are taught with  inclusive, invitational lanuage and opposed to any focus on the appearance or ascetic of the movement; you can lay in shavasana for the entire class if that is what you want. This shift in orientation, from the approval and conformity with a group, to an attunement with our own preferences and needs,…