NELSON-based
yoga as healing Group Program for survivors of sexual violence
The next group series begins 28 July 2025 in Nelson.
Embodied Healing is an eight-week Trauma Sensitive Yoga group series to re-connect with your body and find your way home to yourself.
Living in survival mode leaves us vigilant and disconnected from our bodies, and so connecting to our bodies in a way that’s sensitive to the impacts of trauma is a worthwhile process. This program is an evidence-based approach that provides conditions for safety when engaging in body-based trauma treatment. It's ideal for those who wish to show up, exactly as they are, without needing to find language to explain or articulate what is happening. Because abuse is about power, supporting choice (agency) and non-coercion is at the heart of TCTSY, making it a key complementary treatment for complex trauma. Embodied Healing is a safe, experiential group, where the power resides with the participant, not the facilitator.
“I feel more awake and stopped numbing”
In the field of trauma healing, body-oriented treatment options are becoming a valuable part of treatment. Key trauma theorists including Bessel van der Kolk, Peter Levine and Judith Herman have explored how we can use somatic or felt experiences - including trauma sensitive yoga - as part of our healing process.
My Trauma Sensitive Embodied Healing programs are a body-oriented approach integrating Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TSY) and Yoga Therapy specifically developed to support healing from symptoms of complex trauma, developmental trauma, PTSD and mental health challenges. I’ll guide you through a series of gentle breath and movement practices to provide opportunities to notice sensations in your body and make choices based on how you feel. The focus is not on achieving physical forms but of noticing and re-connecting with inner sensations as part of your personal journey towards healing.
In this safe, experiential group, together, we will…
Practice a trauma sensitive, evidence-based approach to befriend the body & explore inner experience.
Cultivate interoception, or the felt sense of the body.
By be-friending inner body sensations, be-friend yourself.
By noticing how your body, breath and nervous system communicates, nurture neural connections of choice, empowerment and healing.
Integrate experience through visual art media, journaling and art making to help process emotions and experiences in a non-verbal way.
Come out of isolation and connect with others on a healing journey, if you choose.
This program is thoughtfully curated over 8 weeks to provide a titrated or gradual introduction to the practices. Weekly themes are offered including cultivating safety within, taking support, re-connecting in presence, be-friending yourself, honouring your unique rhythm and resting within. A pre-group intake session is offered to answer any questions you may have and a workbook / journal is provided for further integration.
These classes are not therapy, nor a replacement for therapy you might currently be receiving.
You’re welcome to contact me via jen.holmes-beamer@nelsonclinic.nz to learn more or to register.
Sample Class.
“mindfulness can enhance present-moment awareness, increase self-compassion, and strengthen a person’s ability to self-regulate - all important skills that support trauma recovery” ~ David Treleaven.
Why is it useful to feel my body?
Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TC-TSY) has been developed by the Justice Resource Institite’s Trauma Center in Brookline, Massachusetts specifically for survivors of complex trauma or chronic, treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). TC-TSY draws on trauma theory, attachment theory, neuroscience and hatha yoga.
Research studies by Bessel A. van der Kolk and colleagues have shown that this particular approach to yoga (TC-TSY) significantly reduced PTSD symptoms in 8-weeks for many participants. This approach to yoga was also found to improve functioning by increasing tolerances to physical and sensory experiences and to increase emotional awareness and affect tolerance (Bessel van der Kolk et al, 2014).
In the face of traumatic experiences, disconnecting from and not feeling the body can be a useful strategy for survival. However, in the long term, not being able to feel or tolerate feeling the body can impact physical, social and psychological well being, quality of life and relationship self and others.
Trauma Sensitive Yoga helps to reconnect with your body and to regulate your nervous system in a way that’s tolerable.
Possible effects of the practice might include:
To reconnect with and befriend your body
To develop emotional awareness
To tune into your body and tolerate sensations in a safe way
To improve functioning
Any other purpose unique to you
You’re welcome to come along and experience how yoga might support your journey.
For more information and resources about TC-TSY click here.
Participant Feedback
Details
When: Weekly on Wednesdays 9:15 – 10:15 OR 10:15 – 12:15. Limited to 10 participants.
Where: In-person in Nelson at Koru Studio (Trafalgar Street).
Who: The practices are available to all, with options to practice from a chair, the ground, on a yoga mat, or a combination of both. This group is suitable for individuals with mild to moderate mental health issues including PTSD with an approved ACC SCS claim and are currently engaged in SCS therapy.