Yoga for All? Opportunities and Obstacles

a conversation about what yoga can offer as well as what the barriers might be for those who have experienced trauma

When: Sunday, 8:00 AM (1.5 hrs (90 min))

Room: COM: Other

Description

NOTE: This workshop will now take place in Cap’s Bistro. All registered attendees are being notified via email 02.15.2020 - 4:50 pm

The workshop will be a space for an engaging conversation, small group discussions, as well as some embodied yoga practice . We will be drawing on our experience working for the past 4 years on the Reaching Out with Yoga project, a project that has implemented trauma-informed yoga in transition houses (women’s shelters) and children’s counselling programs which are housed in anti-violence organizations.

Throughout the project, we have gained much insight into how
yoga can be transformational, healing, and beneficial for many while at the
same time has worsened PTSD symptoms, been exclusive and far from beneficial
for others. We plan to have an open conversation about why this variety of
experiences might exist, and why these mixed experiences are likely not just limited to
those of the project participants, but might be felt more widely and are
likely impacting who is accessing yoga in general.

Some questions we will be discussing are:

- How can what we have learned through the
project inform our practices as yoga students and/or as yoga teachers?

- How can the concept of intersectionality play a role in yoga spaces?

- How do the yoga sutras overlap with antiviolence principles (e.g. Ahimsa/non-harming) and where are they limited?

- How could some popular and well-meaning yoga/inspirational messaging be interpreted differently by people with different experiences?

- How does language impact how our message is received?

Participants Need

yoga mat, something to be able to sit comfortably, notebook, pen

Single Session Fee $35.00

This session is available with a single-session pass.

Presented by:

Presenter

Renee Turner

Renee is the Research Manager for the Reaching Out with Yoga project (ROWY). Renee is passionate about creating positive social change through community-based research. Her background is in public health and she has worked on a number of projects in the areas of Prison Health and Rural Maternal Health, and now in the anti-violence sector. As a yoga teacher and researcher, Renee loves working on the ROWY project, as it merges two of her passions: yoga and research. She has loved learning ways to make her yoga teaching and her research more trauma-informed through working on the ROWY project.

Presenter

Sarah Holmes de Castro

Sarah Holmes de Castro, MA, C-IAYT, YACEP, TCTSY-F, has been offering yoga to people with a history of trauma in clinical settings since 2004. She is Director of Programs at Yoga Outreach, a Canadian non profit organization that partners with healthcare, social service and prison staff and volunteer yoga teachers to create programming for adults, youth and children facing multiple barriers, where she oversees programs and training. She is an adjunctive faculty member at the Trauma Center in Brookline, MA offering sessions and trainings for clinicians and yoga teachers in TCTSY. She's also a mama, a survivor, a lover of nature and a lifelong learner.