Trauma-informed Yoga & Self-Expression TO
Awaken Your Inner Healer
Learn how with registered yoga teacher Jamie Stanish
(We’re in this together)
Trauma-Informed Offerings
“Every human being has a true genuine authentic self. Trauma is the disconnection from it, and healing is the reconnection to it.” – Dr. Gabor Maté
About Trauma-Informed Yoga
Do you struggle to stay present in your life because of the impacts of trauma? Maybe you experience symptoms like anxiety, depression, overwhelm, dissociation, or addiction but can’t pinpoint a major trauma? Healing is possible.
Trauma-informed yoga is an adjunct modality to support recovery alongside trauma treatment therapy. A typical session is about an hour long, beginning with an orienting opportunity, optional breath work or gentle neuro-somatic exercises, followed by a movement practice, possible journaling, and a brief rest.
Together, we’ll have the opportunity to co-create a safe container where you can bring all parts of yourself. There is space to explore building neuroplasticity and emotional flexibility, creating a sense of safety and resilience. The experience can cultivate autonomy and introspection–the ability to witness ourselves and our behavior.
Through trauma-informed group or individual yoga practice (in-person, locally in St. Augustine Florida, or virtually), you might find that you’ll learn to connect with something inside of you that is alive and true.
Trauma-Informed Yoga Offerings
Trauma Informed 6-Week Workshop for Healing at Good Karma Yoga Studio
Taught by Jamie Stanish (RYT 200) at Good Karma Yoga Studio in St. Augustine, FL on select Sundays from March–May 2024, this workshop incorporate self-expression and yoga to help trauma survivors, (and people experiencing anxiety or depression) access healing from within. Limited to 12 participants, we’ll co-create a safe container and a shared authentic experience to invite post-traumatic growth.
12 Hours Total
Trauma-Informed Individual Private Sessions in Home or at Good Karma Yoga Studio
Together, we will customize a yoga and self-expression program that cultivates connection to body and mind, helping you to reclaim your autonomy, create embodied healing, and navigate the disruptions in your daily life after experiencing symptoms of depressions, anxiety or Complex PTSD, whether you’ve survived disorienting childhood experiences, years of abuse or neglect, complex or single event trauma.
Single Sessions or Packages Available
Trauma-Informed Gentle Flow Group Class at Good Karma Yoga Studio
Taught by trauma-informed yoga guide, Jamie Stanish, the weekly all-levels Gentle Flow class at Good Karma Yoga Studio is an accessible way to explore a practice customized towards folks struggling to be present in their lives because of the impacts of trauma. Whether you are just starting out on your yoga journey, or are experienced, deepening or maintaining your practice, I’d love to practice together weekly!
Weekly 60 min. Class Wednesdays at 10 a.m.
Choice-Making
Trauma often involves the theft of choice. We seek to return agency to the participant by allowing them to make choices that are non-coerced and authentic.
Invitational Language
Language is intentional. It is non-hierarchical, maintaining an equal distribution of power between facilitator and participant.
Interoception
The internal sensory feedback received from one’s body. Trauma often causes survivors to disconnect from this internal feedback. Trauma-informed yoga seeks to help heal these connections.
Non-Coercion
Individual choice is prioritized so that each person can decide for themselves what feels most useful and accessible to their own bodies.
Shared Authentic Experience
Trauma and therefore healing, happens within relationship. In this practice, everyone is involved and no one person’s experience is any more valid or worthy than another’s.
Who It’s For
- Anyone who has experienced trauma and the resulting nervous system dysregulation or physical symptoms
- Individuals living with and healing from collective societal trauma and oppression
- People struggling with or in recovery from addiction
- Families and friends of loved ones struggling with or in recovery from addiction
- People experiencing or recovering from codependency
- Individuals in the midst of or healing from grief or major life change
- Survivors of sexual assault or domestic violence
- Folks struggling with anxiety, depression, ADHD, PTSD, Complex Trauma, or feelings of disconnection or dissociation
- Anyone looking for growth, self-acceptance, and freedom
- People looking to meet themselves more deeply on a self-discovery journey
“Curiosity helps to create emotional distance in which people are able to ‘just notice’ their internal states, without taking immediate action to try to shift these states.” – David Emerson
Choices
All the choices you make for YOUR body are welcome in the context of the safe container we will co-create.
- Feel free to wear anything that feels comfortable to move your body in.
- You choose how you move, or whether to move at all.
- It’s up to you whether you close or open your eyes at any time.
- You decide where to position your mat in the space.
- If you’d like to leave at any point, you are welcome to.
What It’s Not
This is not psychotherapy. Practitioners are not doctors, clinicians or medical or mental health professionals. You are not required to share your trauma story in order to participate in, or benefit from trauma-informed yoga.
I cannot heal you. Your therapist cannot heal you. A coach or guru cannot heal you. The good news is that you’re not stuck (even though it really might feel like you are). With the right support, YOU can heal you.
Where Cognitive Meets Somatic
Explore a practice that empowers you to develop agency and a reconnection to yourself.
Break through anxiety, burnout, and chronic symptoms of trauma to live a more embodied and empowered life by connecting to your inner healer to access nervous system regulation, understanding and self-compassion, for true healing at the root level.
Compared to traditional yoga sessions, no physical adjustments will be provided. Our practitioners will only use their voice to provide options and suggestions for movement. Strong emotions may arise during our sessions, and if they do, we will offer grounding techniques to help with relaxation or re-orienting.
We start every class with an opportunity for orienting.
I’l invite you to begin to bring your awareness to our space, noticing that your body is right here, on your mat, in this now, welcoming your mind to join you here.
Bring Trauma-Informed Yoga to Your Location
If you run or are involved with an organization where trauma is being treated, please reach out about how Neuro-Embodied Self can provide trauma-informed individual or group sessions to survivors. We are interested in developing yoga programs with:
- Veterans Groups
- Domestic Violence Shelters
- Rape Crisis Centers
- Schools, Colleges, Universities or Adolescent Facilities
- Foster Families (kids or parents)
- Shelters for the Unhoused Population
- Substance Abuse Rehabilitation or Addiction Treatment Centers (inpatient or outpatient),
- Mental Health or Trauma Recovery Centers (inpatient or outpatient).
Hi! I’m Jamie (She/Her).
Jamie Stanish
As a registered yoga teacher, I specialize in trauma-informed yoga and self-expression at Good Karma Yoga Studio in St. Augustine, Florida. After “hitting a wall” in talk therapy while navigating the ending of a harmful relationship and coming to terms with sexual and relational trauma, I found a window into healing I was looking for within the supportive space of my yoga mat. With a passion to help others find the kind of inner transformation I experienced, I received my 200 RYT certification from Yoga Den in Jacksonville.
I have completed 20 hours of training in Trauma Center-Trauma Sensitive Yoga with the Center for Trauma and Embodiment Yoga Program, providing me with the framework to integrate a trauma informed lens into a yoga class. I am currently enrolled in their comprehensive 300-Hour Teacher Training Program and on-track to graduate in 2025 as a TCTSY Practitioner.
I have completed 34 hours of training in Y12SR (Yoga of 12-Step Recovery). As a certified Y12SR Peer Support Guide, I’ve learned the foundational tools to apply to group or individual yoga sessions. This foundation works in tandem with traditional treatment to address the physical, mental, and spiritual disease of addiction.
I continue to deepen my knowledge and practice through a trauma-informed lens, completing certifications, and continuing education in trauma treatment modalities and yoga. I am also a graphic designer, partner, parent, visual artist and poet.
My Trainings/Certifications
- Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance – Yoga Den – 200 Hours
- Foundational and Practical Training in TCTSY (Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga) – 31 Hours Training
- Y12SR (Yoga of 12-Step Recovery) – 34 Hours Training
- Polyvagal Theory: Neural Exercises for Safety and Connection – Dr. Stephen Porges – 8 Hours Training
- Transcending Sexual Trauma Through Yoga – Zabie Yamasaki – 25 Hours Training
- Yin Yoga Certified – Bodsphere – 60 hours Training
- Applied Polyvagal Theory in Therapeutic Yoga for Trauma Recovery – Arielle Schwartz, Deb Dana, Stephen Porges – 30 Hours
Let’s Practice Together!
Address
St. Augustine, FL 32086
Phone
(904) 451-9400