Trauma-Informed Teaching: Foundations & Practical Application | In-person $40 & Zoom $40
What makes a yoga class trauma-informed beyond saying “everything is optional”? How do your language, pacing, demonstrations, and responses support the choices you offer?
This three-hour teaching lab explores the foundations of trauma-informed yoga teaching and puts them into practice. We’ll examine how everyday teaching decisions can support student agency (the ability to make choices about one’s own participation) without asking students to disclose their histories or explain their needs.
Through guided movement, a practical planning checklist, realistic classroom scenarios, and short teaching exercises, you’ll explore not only what to offer, but how to offer it. You’ll practice giving clear direction while leaving room for different bodies, preferences, and ways of participating.
We’ll explore:
Foundational trauma-informed principles and how to translate them into observable teaching actions.
How to make choice usable through clear options, time to decide, and consistent responses.
Language, demonstrations, and prop options that avoid ranking one version as better or more complete.
Ways to teach beyond your own body’s experience without assuming what a student should feel.
How pacing, transitions, breathing invitations, and class structure can support predictability and participation.
How to examine a teaching scenario, explain your reasoning, and revise both your words and your actions.
The boundaries of a yoga teacher’s role, including supporting participation without diagnosing a student or requesting personal disclosure.
You’ll move beyond identifying a helpful cue to practicing a coherent teaching approach. Leave with a planning checklist, a workshop reference sheet, and concrete revisions you can bring into your next class.
Earn 3 Continuing Education hours toward your Yoga Alliance requirements through full live attendance.
This is a practical teaching lab, not trauma treatment or a trauma specialist certification. Personal disclosure is not required.