Meet our facilitators
Becoming trauma-aware is essential for yoga teachers dedicated to providing safe, healing spaces to the diverse bodies and minds we serve. A trauma-informed lens also opens the door for our own deep healing and ability to connect and grow with others.
This 15-hour course will unfold over three days during which we’ll engage in experiential learning, skills development, and self-discovery. Course content includes the neuroscience of trauma, how asana and pranayama can both regulate and agitate a compromised nervous system, and the way yoga philosophy overlaps with contemporary approaches to healing trauma. We’ll also explore and practice how to tailor a trauma informed class that works for your personal teaching style.
Christine Alevizakis
Facilitator, Registered Clinical Counselor and Yoga Teacher
Course details
Duration and effort
- 15 hours in total
- 3 days
Mentorship
- Mentorship not included
Material
- Lectures
- Reading Material
Certification
- 15 Hour Continuing Education Credits with Yoga Alliance
Recommended for
- Yoga Teachers and practitioners with a personal interest in trauma-informed yoga who want to deepen their practice and understanding to offer or practice trauma-sensitive yoga
- Counselors, therapists, and psychologists who want to integrate trauma-informed yoga techniques into their therapeutic practices
- School teachers, special education instructors, and educators seeking strategies to support students who have experienced trauma
- Non-profit organization leaders, community advocates, and outreach workers looking to offer trauma-informed yoga as part of their support services
What does it mean to be trauma informed?
Why would you want to be trauma informed yoga teacher?
When taught with awareness, the practice of yoga is a natural support for nervous system regulation as well as building physical and emotional resilience. By becoming a trauma-informed yoga teacher, we can become increasingly aware of how our classes can play an integral part in the healing path of our students.
A trauma-informed yoga teacher holds an awareness and compassionate understanding of what our students may be bringing with them onto the yoga mat.
Christine Alevizakis
Based in Victoria, BC, Christine is a Registered Clinical Counselor and yoga teacher who has been studying and teaching nationally and internationally for more than 20 years.
Her teaching style is compassionate, inclusive and informative and reflects her belief that we have an innate capacity to heal but learn best in a supportive community. In both her clinical practice and on the mat, Christine uses mindful yoga practices and psychotherapy to help her clients meet discomfort with clarity, compassion and courage.
A strong believer of nature’s ability to help regulate our nervous system, Christine also uses eco-therapy to encourage connection and deepen self-awareness in the lives of her clients.
“Christine Alevizakis is one of my favourite teachers, and has been for over ten years. Her organic synthesis of years of teaching and practicing yoga, sense of humour and innate spirituality make her exceptional.” -J.C.
“What I appreciate about Christine is her way of humanizing yoga. She is real, funny and does not try to be perfect. This leads the way for her students to practice being our more authentic selves.” EP
Continuing Education
You will receive 15 Hour Continuing Education Credits from the Yoga Alliance through the YACEP program. A certificate of completion will be issued to those who have attended and successfully completed all sessions.
Awakened Spirit
Yoga
Awakened Spirit Yoga is a non-profit yoga educational organization, which offers transformative yoga and mindfulness programs all over the globe. Your participation not only enhances your career but also contributes to reforestation projects in California and community initiatives in Guatemala.
Awakened Spirit Yoga is a Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga School (RYS 200) and one of the few Registered Prenatal Yoga Schools (RPYS). We offer an 85-hour prenatal training as well as a combined prenatal yoga training and doula course. Intimate classes allow our dedicated team of teachers to provide personal attention, expert guidance and personal feedback throughout our trainings.
Curriculum
Module 1
Learn
- The neuroscience and neurobiology of trauma and how it affects the mind and body
- How trauma is defined and the different types of trauma
- How to recognize how unconscious cultural, sexual or racial biases contribute to trauma
- Our ‘Window of Tolerance,’ where information and sensation can most easily be integrated
- How yoga can play an important part of a therapeutic approach to healing trauma
- How to help your students reclaim a connection and sense of safety in their bodies
- How to increase your students’ abilities to meet discomfort with awareness and compassion
- How yoga practices can help recalibrate the nervous system
Module 2
Receive
- A combination of theory and practice of trauma-informed principles
- Built-in opportunities for questions and discussion
- A foundational understanding of how yoga asana, pranayama and mindfulness practices can be effective tools for working with trauma
- Be part of a supportive and compassionate learning community that will optimize your learning and build your confidence as a trauma-informed instructor.
Module 3
Explore
- How mindfulness can be used to compliment trauma-sensitivity principles
- How and when to apply hands-on adjustments in a trauma-sensitive context
- Practices that help emotionally regulate and then strengthen the resilience of our students
- Teaching trauma-informed practices to your peers in real time and receive supportive feedback from your teacher and peers
- How to create trauma-informed cues, language and sequences that will benefit all your students
- How to tailor a class that is trauma-informed and empowering for both you and your students
- How to infuse trauma-awareness into supportive and empowering classes
- How yoga’s ability to recalibrate the nervous system can be optimized in a safe and progressive manner
What’s unique about this course?
This course offers a unique combination of theory and practice that will provide yoga teachers with the knowledge and practical skills to be leaders in the trauma informed yoga movement.
This is a live course so there will be a strong participatory component aimed at engaging and deepening our understanding of the material within a supportive community framework. An emphasis on compassion, reflection, empathy, and intuitive teaching make this course a deeply personal learning experience.
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