How to Teach Trauma-Conscious Yoga?

Approaching trauma in kids and teens isn’t a task you can do without proper preparation and training. If you want to teach children and teens how to manage and cope with trauma through yoga, here are a few steps to keep in mind. Kids and teens who learn how to deal with trauma are less likely to develop a mental disorder, like depression, or resort to drug addiction, alcohol addiction, and other negative ways of trying to handle the experience. 

What is Trauma-Conscious Yoga? 

Trauma-conscious yoga is a yoga class that creates healing spaces for these kids. The goal of the sessions is to provide the children with a healing space where they can ask questions or express their emotions without fear of shame, reprisal, or contempt. Some struggle to connect with their body again, especially rape or child abuse victims. Yoga helps them reclaim what they lost. The sessions can help them own back their bodies. Children or teens who experience abuse often feel like they no longer own their bodies. Yoga is invaluable in establishing that connection so they can feel human again. 

What to Expect from Yoga Training? 

Attending trauma yoga training is a requirement before you can teach these classes. Handling kids and teens with trauma means you’ll need to know how to approach them. It’s an exercise in empathy, as you’ll need to understand how it feels. Part of teaching the course is allowing your students to heal without judgment and scorn. Yoga training can help you work through or eliminate biases you never even knew you had. Many go into this training, certain about what they think the classes do. But that’s the first thing to go. Once you understand the work involved in trauma-conscious yoga, you learn there is no room in those classes for ego or biases. Some methods work for some kids or teens. But they won’t work on all of them. Only when you surrender what you think you know and believe, that’s the only time you’ll see any progress in your students, in yourself, and in your growth as a teacher. 

What Do You Need to Know? 

Before you teach the classes, here are some tips on what you should do: 

Avoid command language. Instead of saying, “Lift your leg,” say, “we are lifting our leg.” Too many of these kids had been in positions where they had no choice but to obey. Command language can trigger some unpleasant memories in some of your students, too. Being careful will prevent any triggers. Use the no-hands assist. You can hold the space around your students without touching them. That’s not being overly careful. Many of the students in your classes may have a problem getting touched. It’s a common result of child abuse. Abused kids or teens have trouble with touch. Showing them how you can help them without touching them tells them you respect their space and body. That can aid their recovery, too. Practice non-judgment. Teach kids to hold the poses without any judgment, not just for others but for themselves. Traumatized kids and teens are often harsh on themselves. Your yoga classes can be a powerful reminder to them to look kindly on themselves.

0