Embodied Healing

Reconnecting with your body after sexual trauma

 

The next group series begins 29 July 2026 in Nelson.


Embodied Healing is an eight-week Trauma Sensitive Yoga group program supporting connection with the body and a felt sense of self.


Living in survival mode can leave us feeling vigilant, overwhelmed, or disconnected from our bodies. Reconnecting in ways that are sensitive to the impacts of trauma can become an important part of healing.

This program can be especially supportive for those who wish to show up exactly as they are, without needing to explain or find words for their experience.

Because trauma and abuse can impact our sense of power and agency, choice and non-coercion are at the heart of TCTSY. Participants are always invited — never instructed — to explore movement and embodied awareness in ways that feel right for them.

The group offers a gentle experiential space where the power remains with the participant, not the facilitator.

Co-facilitated by psychotherapist Jen Holmes Beamer and art therapist Aurélie Chambers.

Together we bring Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY), art therapy, and relational practice into a supportive group environment where choice, agency, and embodied awareness are prioritised.

“I feel more awake and stopped numbing”
— Embodied Healing participant

For Clinicians

Many people who have experienced trauma describe feeling disconnected from their bodies, emotions, needs, preferences, or sense of choice.

This short video introduces agency, interoception, and embodiment, and explores how body-based approaches can complement ongoing therapy.

Embodied Healing can be particularly supportive for those experiencing dissociation, trauma-related pain, emotional overwhelm, or feeling disconnected from their bodies, emotions, needs, or sense of self. The program is designed to complement ongoing therapy and provide opportunities to develop greater awareness of internal experience through a safe, choice-based approach.


Across 8 weeks, each session includes:

  • Trauma Centre Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY): A choice-based movement practice supporting participants to reconnect with bodily sensations, develop interoceptive awareness, and build trust in their internal cues — without pressure, performance, or correction.

  • Art Therapy Integration: Guided art therapy and reflective practices linked to themes of safety, support, connection, rhythm, agency, and befriending the body.

  • Pre-group intake session
    An opportunity to ask questions, explore suitability, and feel informed and prepared before the program begins.

Participants are welcomed into a respectful and inclusive therapeutic environment where pacing, choice, and internal experience are prioritised.

You’re welcome to contact me via jen.holmes-beamer@nelsonclinic.nz to learn more or register for an upcoming program.

Register Interest
 

Why is it useful to feel my body?

Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) was developed at the Trauma Center at JRI in Brookline, Massachusetts, as a clinical intervention specifically for survivors of complex trauma and chronic, treatment-resistant PTSD.

TCTSY draws on trauma theory, attachment theory, neuroscience, and hatha yoga, and is the first yoga-based intervention recognised as an evidence-based treatment for complex trauma.

Research by Bessel van der Kolk and colleagues (2014) found that this approach to yoga can significantly reduce PTSD symptoms over an 8-week period. Participants also showed improvements in emotional awareness, distress tolerance, and the ability to notice and stay with physical and sensory experience.

When we experience trauma, disconnecting from the body can be a powerful and intelligent survival response. In the short term, this can help us cope. Over time, however, disconnection from bodily experience may affect emotional regulation, physical wellbeing, relationships, and overall quality of life.

Body-based approaches like TCTSY offer opportunities to gently rebuild connection with internal experience in a way that prioritises safety, agency, and choice.

Within our Nelson-based groups, we observe encouraging shifts in interoceptive awareness, attention regulation, and embodied sense of safety. These changes often complement and support the work being done in individual therapy by strengthening trust in internal experience and increasing capacity to remain present with what is felt.

For more information and resources about TCTSY click here.

Participant Feedback

  • “I never imagined I would find such comfort in feeling my body, being in my body, and loving the sensation of strength, control, and movement. Realising that I can move my own body and enjoy it has been profound.

    Learning to inhabit my body with safety, curiosity, and compassion has been life-changing. I’ve gone from feeling disconnected to feeling present, empowered, and at home in myself.

    Your teaching helped me build trust with my own body, piece by piece, breath by breath. That is a gift I will carry for the rest of my life.”

  • “I really appreciate how there are always options given depending on what is right for you and your body, you can choose what feels right for you. Jen’s language that she uses is extremely empowering and enables me choice and autonomy about movement that is right for me. As someone that struggles to identify what is happening for me in my body due to dissociation, being able to connect to my body in a way that feels safe, and empowering has been so healing!”

  • “The reminders that everything was optional and the gentle, supportive nature of the facilitation put me back in control”.

  • “I can’t express enough how healing these classes have been for me and have enabled me to have a sense of empowerment about my healing and my body”.

  • “The environment that is created because of expertise, skill and level of caring. It’s a safe spot for me to be vulnerable. I also like to connect with others who are on a healing journey. I feel validated and very much cared about”.

  • A place to learn how to relax my brain and body. I am now able to control my breathing a lot easier. The tutors are amazing.

  • I’m so grateful to have experienced this, the nurturing atmosphere and environment (& Jen’s beautiful, soft voice), it has been very healing. Thank you for helping me to reconnect with myself with understanding and sensitivity.

  • I like trauma sensitive yoga because it’s really gentle and low key and intuitive. It encourages you to go at your own pace and do what feels right for you. I always feel more at peace and calm. The fact that if you come to the class and all you feel able to do is lie down .. it makes coming to class low pressure. I really appreciate that!

  • I feeling more awake out of my numb state. Jen’s voice and energy is very calming, it’s slowly progressive but not too forceful.

  • This experience has totally changed how I feel about myself. More confident, more secure and safe at home with my daughters, more self worth. I feel calmer, and better sleep and stopped numbing, body scanning more. I feel inside my body.

  • Today I experienced a lightness. Filled with self love.

  • “I could see my body as mine and felt empowered to protect and find trust in my system”.

  • “Jen has such a calming and welcoming presence which is reflected in the way she runs the session. At times when I was nervous or in physical pain and unsure whether I would attend the class, I was able to put nerves at ease by listening to Jen and letting her guide the session. To my surprise and immense relief through engaging with the yoga I was actually able to shift pain”. ‍ ‍

  • The language of choice and acceptance to listen to my own body without judgement, helped mirror that within my own mind and emotions.

Details

When: Wednesdays, 9:30–11:30am
Duration: 8-week group (limited to 12 participants)
Where: Koru Studio, Trafalgar Street, Nelson

This is an in-person group program offering a range of participation options, including chair-based, floor-based, or a combination.

The group is suitable for people living with mild to moderate mental health challenges, including PTSD. Participants are typically engaged in ACC Sensitive Claims therapy and have an approved claim.

We are committed to creating inclusive, accessible, and trauma-informed spaces.

Register Interest


Clinician Referrals (ACC providers):

Embodied Healing is an ACC-funded Trauma-Sensitive Yoga group designed to support recovery from complex trauma, PTSD, and dissociation through embodied, choice-based practice.

The program supports:

  • Reduced dissociation and increased interoceptive awareness

  • Nervous system regulation and present-moment orientation

  • Embodied resourcing

  • Development of agency, self-efficacy, and choice

  • Increased tolerance of internal experience

  • Relational safety and co-regulation

  • Supportive integration alongside individual therapy


ACC referral details

Provider: The Nelson Clinic (VAH127)
Clinicians: Jen Holmes Beamer (PAQ875) & Aurélie Chambers (PAN892)

Codes:

  • SCSGT – 16 hours

  • SCSGTT – 1 hour (pre-group intake)


Term blocks (2026):

  • 29 July - 16 September 2026 (term 3)

  • 14 October - 2 December 2026 (term 4)

Additional details can be provided on request.

For ACC purchase orders, please include the above provider details and codes.

For clinical queries or suitability discussions, you are welcome to get in touch.

Refer a client