Trauma Informed Yoga | IN STUDIO
Ellie Grace | 22 & 23 November 2025 | Price: £450 | 20 hours
Support your students in moving beyond stress, grief, trauma and burnout with teaching skills rooted in mindful, trauma informed principles – from how you hold space and use language through to embodied awareness and evidence-based practices.
A weekend-long, in-person training aimed primarily at yoga teachers wishing to deepen their understanding of trauma, the evidence basis for using yoga and how to teach with trauma-impacted students.
This training offers more than simply being ‘trauma aware’ and instead, offers you a comprehensive approach to teaching and vital, up to date knowledge for 21st century yoga practice that ensures you know how to make all bodies feel safe, welcomed, respected and supported on their healing journey.
This course can be taken as a stand-alone course or as an elective module on our 300-hour yoga teacher training programme.
This training is for you if…
- You’re increasingly aware of the use of the word ‘trauma’ but are unsure how to work with it
- You are working with people who present with troubling emotions or histories and while you know yoga will help them, you are not sure which practices will best support their healing
- You want to know more about the mind-body relationship, deepen your understanding of the evidence basis for yoga and gain the language to support you to support others
- You want to use your knowledge to help people feel safe in their minds and bodies
- You want to up-level your skills with cutting edge neuroscience and somatic studies that are relevant to a broad range of user groups and communities
- You want to build confidence and feel secure in what you’re teaching and why
- You want to be mentored by an experienced teacher who has worked across a diversity of communities


Who is Trauma Informed Yoga Training For
This training is open primarily to 200-hour trained yoga teachers who wish to learn the science of trauma, the evidence basis for using yoga and teaching methodologies to safely and effectively teach students impacted by trauma.
This course is also suitable for Psychotherapists, Psychologists, Social Workers and Counsellors who are trained in yoga and who wish to integrate talking therapies with yoga practices. If you do not have a 200-hour teacher training qualification you are welcome to join the course though you would not be formally qualified to teach yoga without a 200-hour training.
What is Trauma &
Why be Trauma-Informed as a Yoga Teacher
Register your interest in this course to be kept updated and to receive a FREE 30 minute video with Ellie Grace exploring what trauma is and why it is so important to have an understanding of trauma as a yoga teacher.


Trauma Informed Yoga Content
Module 1 - What is Trauma
- The science of trauma and how it affects the brain, the body, identity and behaviour
Understanding the mind-body connection, the nervous system, the HPA axis and Polyvagal Theory
Module 2 - Polyvagal Theory & Trauma in Everyday Life
- Emotional and psychological symptoms: the effects of trauma on voice, health, identity, emotions and relationships
- The architecture of the brain and how trauma restructures the brain
- The evolution of human brain development
- How to recognise trauma and the range of traumatic responses in your students
- The importance of social connection and safety in creating the conditions for healing
- Recognising how intergenerational trauma, epigenetics and psychoneuroimmunology play a part in human development
Module 3 - Why Yoga for Trauma?
- East-West approaches to the body
- Aims of recovery from trauma
- How yoga supports students in creating regulation, resourcefulness and resilience
- Understanding proprioception, exteroception and interoception in the development of inner knowing and safety
- Prioritising self awareness and compassion over physical form
- Cultivating presence, tolerance and resilience
- The effects of yoga on the brain
- The evidence basis for how and why yoga supports the healing of trauma
- Post-traumatic growth
Module 4 - What to Teach?
- The purpose of trauma informed yoga
- Knowing the difference between which practices and styles to teach – and which not to
- Knowing the difference between a regular yoga class and a therapeutic, trauma-informed one
- The importance of creating purpose and intention in your classes
- How to respond effectively to different trauma responses
- Understanding the importance of choice and agency for your students
- Approaches to breath-work
- How to provide support and accountability to students
Module 5 - How to Teach
- Understanding layout, lighting and demonstrations
- Setting expectations for your students
- Theming your classes
- Creating a therapeutic presence by understanding voice, tone, sound, pacing, transitions, cues, touch, consent, eye contact and your own movement
- Postures to avoid
- How to adapt your teaching for 1:1 clients and groups
Module 6 - Self Care & Boundaries
- Understanding your role – and its limitations
- How to set boundaries that protect you and your students
- Identifying how trauma can create attachment wounds that inform how you lead and show up in the space
- Recognising archetypes in the student-teacher relationship
- Knowing how to self-regulate and minimise burnout and vicarious trauma
- Balancing productivity and rest
- Self care recommendations
- Valuing yourself and the work
- Knowing how to present yourself and manage the space in higher risk settings
What Else is Included
- PDF Course manual
- Recommended further reading list
- A study buddy to practice teaching with
- A supportive group of like-minded yogis to practice your teaching with
Are you interested in this Course?
Teacher Ellie Grace
Ellie is a yoga teacher trainer and educator with over a decade’s experience in teaching and lecturing on yoga. She holds an MA in Yoga Studies from LMU, California where her research focussed on the effects of grief and trauma on the mind and body and the ways yoga, meditation, nature and writing can support healing and create social change.
Previously, Ellie developed and taught a course for undergraduates at Loyola Marymount University, California on mind-body studies through yoga and she has lectured on LMU’s Science & Theology course.
Ellie has worked with war veterans overcoming PTSD, health clinics, private clients, community groups, NHS doctors, medical students, undergraduates and socially-minded organisations seeking to create a sustainable, human-centred culture inspired by yoga ethics.
She is also a meditation teacher on Insight Timer.

Are you interested in this Course?
testimonials
Course Dates
The course has the following modules scheduled:
-
Saturday 22 November IN STUDIO
10-6pm
-
Sunday 23 November IN STUDIO
10-6pm
Pricing
- The cost is £450
- A non-refundable deposit of £150 is required on booking.
- To reserve your place, please >>click the BOOK button below >> sign in or input your details and choose payment method
- If you do not pay in full, please ensure that you save your credit card details so we can process the final payment £245 . This will happen 21 days before the start of the course and a receipt will be sent to you when the payment has been taken.
- In order for the balance to be processed, please ensure that you save your card details and opt for the direct debit option. If you prefer to pay by the credit card option then this incurs a 2.4% charge. Receipts will be sent to you when the payments are taken.
Express Interest
Please register your interest in this course so we can keep you updated
Terms & Conditions
- Trainings at the Shala School of Yoga are independently run by the teachers, and all payments for training services are processed by the Shala School of Yoga on behalf of the individual teachers hosting the course.