Sedona Yoga Festival 20-Hour TIYTT

The practice of yoga touches on our deepest layers of being and brings to the surface all of our vulnerabilities. In the right hands, we have an incredible opportunity in practice to heal our wounds, stresses, and traumas. Without the right skills, we risk retraumatization to ourselves or others.

Trauma is in every room. Whether you work in a yoga studio, online from home, or in any environment with other people, you benefit from these teachings.

Join yoga teacher trainer and somatic coach, Lara Land, author of The Essential Guide to Trauma Sensitive Yoga, for a weekend of exploration and empowerment as you redefine yoga and its purposes and learn how to create safer spaces for both yourself and others. Lara will share her experience teaching yoga in Rwanda to genocide survivors and how that experience has influenced her teaching style and mission since before Trauma Sensitivity was part of our collective awareness in the yoga community. Dive into the inner workings of your brain and nervous system Look more closely at the kinds of traumas experienced in different cultures and increase your awareness and cultural sensitivity.

Included in your training is the opportunity to observe Three and a Half Acres Yoga Trauma Sensitive Yoga Classes either in person or online and to co-teach or trial teach another two experiences. Lots of opportunities here! Those who complete their observations and co-teaching have the chance to be invited to teach for Three and a Half Acres Yoga at their preferred site supporting survivors and continuing mentorship and advancement to become senior teachers and teacher trainers for the nonprofit.

A digital manual will be provided for all registrants.

When we know better, we do better

70% of the US population has survived some form of trauma which means, trauma is in every room. Whether you work in a yoga studio, online from home, or in a shelter, food bank, or recovery center, you are interacting, probably without even knowing it, with someone who has survived trauma. Our duty as yoga teachers is to do no harm and yet even with best intentions without knowledge of the ways trauma shows up, our actions may be unskillful. Three and a Half Acres trauma informed yoga teacher training will ensure you have the guidance and practices you need to reduce harm and create safer spaces.

Why Get Trained?

When we know better, we do better

Our Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher Training Program teaches yoga instructors how to work with members of vulnerable and under-resourced communities that have experienced trauma. This includes trauma survivors in the following five categories: domestic abuse, LGBTQ+, recovery, housing/food insecurity, and justice.

Opening talk

Everyone has been through at least one traumatic life event. In this talk, we explore how our assumptions and presumed limitations are molded by past experiences in our lives and family histories and what we can do to start shifting that. We discuss the ways stress shows up uniquely in each person and how we can support moving it and enjoying more peace in our practice and in our lives. Lara shares her work bringing yoga to genocide survivors in Rwanda and to shelters and harm reduction spaces throughout the USA.

Workshop

Dive into the inner workings of your brain and nervous system in part 1 of Trauma Sensitive Training. You will learn what happens when we are stressed and how yoga, practiced intentionally with these insights can regulate your entire system. Look more closely at the kinds of traumas experienced in different cultures and increase your awareness and cultural sensitivity. We will detail everything from room setup to the use of language and detail how small changes can shift a practitioner’s experience. Discover how to look more closely at the messages coming from your own body and what to do with the information you are receiving. This training will include movement and details on how to teach or practice from a chair and still break a sweat!

Sunday Workshop

In this second half of your training, you will begin to practice working with trauma sensitivity by teaching each other in small groups and have the opportunity to lead the class through various exercises geared toward addressing the trauma response. We will discuss the important role of mindfulness and compassion in your work as a teacher and practitioner and close with a trauma-sensitive body scan.