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SETTLE INTO REST program
The next group series begins 26 July 2025.
Settle Into Rest is an eight-week Trauma Sensitive Yoga group series designed for those who experience PTSD related sleep disturbance and insomnia.
PTSD can result in a sustained neurobiological response, with physiological hyperarousal, increased adrenalin and cortisol, higher levels of alertness and flashbacks or nightmares. Settle into Rest is a therapeutic yoga therapy program combining trauma sensitive facilitation (TCTSY) & yoga therapy forms + practices to re-train and re-balance the nervous system, elicit the parasympathetic response & develop self-efficacy & empowerment in the body.
Settle into Rest includes gentle, functional and regulating yoga forms, breathing and trauma-informed guided relaxation to manage the flow of thoughts, help unwind and prepare for rest. Throughout the program, you will cultivate an inner resource of safety, practice bilateral tapping, grounding, progressive muscle relaxation and body scan in order to re-train the nervous system towards rest & resource.
“After a lifetime of extremely poor sleeping I finally see some steady improvement.”
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.
Settle into Rest specifically targets PTSD related sleep disturbance and insomnia. Each session includes 45 minutes of floor based yoga therapy forms specifically designed to elicit the parasympathetic response and wind down the nervous system, in addition to 15 minutes of trauma-informed mindfulness & breathing to restore inner rest and balance.
Over 8 weeks, participants will practice cultivating an inner resource of safety (safe / calm place) along with learning how to read the nervous system for cues of safety essential for rest. As such, deepening a felt sense of safety (ventral vagal response) and ability to shift nervous system states. Each session of the series will offer a gradual building of interoceptive awareness through a consistent & predictable sequence of yoga forms and practices essential to re-training the nervous system. A video or audio recording of the session will be available for home practice.
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.
Sample Settle Into Rest class. Each session of the series gradually builds inner safety through interoceptive awareness. No mat required. Just a soft place to land.
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 Mondays 6:15 - 7:15 PM.
Where: Online.
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.