Christchurch 1-Day Retreat: Friday 24 October 2025

Nelson 1-Day Retreat: Saturday 1 November, 2025

Find Your Flow day retreat offers participants the opportunity to reconnect with their bodies and minds, fostering a sense of safety and promoting regulation and balance.

Trauma can be dysregulating and disconnecting, leading to a loss of rhythm in our bodies, minds, relationships, and daily lives. This one-day workshop integrates several evidence-based modalities, including Trauma-Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TC-TSY) and trauma-sensitive mindfulness, to equip participants with practical tools for well-being and daily regulation.

What to Expect:

This program is thoughtfully designed as an integrative approach to recovery, enhancing understanding of the physiological and psychological impact of PTSD by exploring the mind-body connection. The primary goal is to empower participants to honour their inner experience, notice feelings and sensations, and ultimately find their unique inner rhythm or flow.

The day will include:

• Brief and user-friendly psychoeducation on the nervous system, polyvagal theory, and the neurobiology of stress, highlighting how chronic stress and trauma can disrupt bodily rhythms and regulation.

• Trauma-sensitive yoga and mindfulness practices to cultivate presence. The yoga forms and breathing exercises are carefully crafted to support the healing process and optimize nervous system balance.

• Guidance on gently recognizing initial signs of stress, anxiety, and hyperarousal in the body, learning to relax without collapsing, energizing the body from states of collapse or freeze without further adrenal fatigue, and safely grounding to move out of dissociative states.

• Practice of trauma resiliency techniques and resources to aid in the discovery of participant’s intuitive felt sense, helping to process stuck or trauma-related experiences and find inner flow. 

• Trauma-sensitive breathing practices to foster connection with the body through breath, elicit the parasympathetic response, and manage states of hyperarousal, stress, and anxiety.

A structured, supportive, and compassionate environment will be provided, emphasizing choice and empowerment for all participants.

Evidence-Based Approaches:

The workshop incorporates two highly effective, evidence-based approaches:

Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY): This is an empirically validated clinical intervention for complex trauma and chronic, treatment-resistant PTSD, supported by extensive peer-reviewed research ([traumasensitiveyoga.com/research](https://traumasensitiveyoga.com/research)). TCTSY draws on Trauma and Attachment Theory, Neuroscience, and Hatha Yoga to help participants cultivate a felt sense of agency, which is often compromised by trauma. The holistic emphasis on body-based yoga forms and breathing practices supports individuals and groups in gently reconnecting with their bodies in a safe environment. This approach was founded by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a globally recognized leader in psychological trauma, with the certification program supervised by David Emerson.

Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT): Developed by Zindel Segal, Mark Williams, and John Teasdale, MBCT combines cognitive therapy with mindfulness-based meditative practices. Originally created to reduce relapse and recurrence in individuals experiencing recurrent episodes of depression and chronic unhappiness, randomized controlled clinical trials have demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing relapse likelihood by approximately 40-50% for those with three or more prior depressive episodes. The UK's National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) has recommended MBCT for this population. Recent studies also suggest MBCT reduces residual depressive symptoms regardless of previous episodes. Furthermore, studies indicate that MBCT can help reduce anxiety, low mood, and dysfunctional attitudes during stressful periods, with sustained positive effects.

Group Facilitators:

Lea Godfrey (Psychotherapist and SCS Provider)

Jen Holmes-Beamer (Psychotherapist and SCS Provider)

Our intention is to create a space where participants feel supported to become an active participant in improving their health and well-being, providing them with tools to aid their own agency in restoring balance and regulation in daily life.