Stretching Trauma-informed Strategies: Yoga and Mindfulness for Children and Adolescents

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Children experience all kinds of situations that impact their assumptions of safety in the world (and in their bodies): bullying, parental divorce, separation, an accident, or loss of a loved one. Any of these situations can become traumatic, producing anxiety, stress, and trouble functioning in everyday life—some of the top reasons why referrals for therapeutic support are made. And yet, children who experience traumatic stress are expected to perform, learn, and focus but often don’t have the tools they need to do so.

Yoga and mindfulness practices have been gaining momentum everywhere because they address this issue and fill the gap in what is missing in many schools, therapeutic practices, and parenting methods: a bottom-up approach to treatment and understanding of the child. Most approaches used today resort to talking and processing of information on a level of functioning that is not accessible when experiencing traumatic stress. Instead of starting with cognitively processing important emotions (such as grief, shame), yoga and mindfulness offer ways to address the body and sensations happening within (identifying sensations, triggers, feeling the internal self).

Description of Workshop Content:

This unique workshop integrates hands on and ready-to-use techniques with cutting-edge research about traumatic stress, the brain-body connection, and how yoga and mindfulness practices help to actually rewire the brain for healthier and more resilient functioning and reconnection.

You will walk away with the know-how to help children who experience anxiety, depression, profound stress and self-regulation difficulties to identify triggers, grow more self-aware, soothe their central nervous system, and feel greater overall safety and joy.

This workshop is equally accessible to practitioners with either many or no prior yoga and mindfulness experience. You’ll be equipped with the why and the how of implementing new skills into your work and interactions with children.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will learn to:

Describe trauma from a developmental, physiological, and psychological perspective.

Recognize the signs, behaviors, and symptoms associated with traumatic stress in children.

Know the effects of trauma on the brain-body connection, and how yoga and mindfulness helps to rewire the brain for healing, resilience, and growth.

Implement trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness techniques and practices to support safety, awareness, and connection to self and others.

Support children and adolescents in identifying triggers, soothing their nervous system, and awakening their capacity to make good choices.

Identify how to respond to resistance when sharing yoga and mindfulness with children.

Integrate skills into daily life and support parents in making the most of their bond together.