Black woman performing yoga pose; Black person doing tree yoga pose

Yoga Group Therapy for Survivors

It’s not all in your head! Trauma lives within in our bodies. Healing through your body can help decrease trauma symptoms. Yoga is a proven method to reduce trauma symptoms, regulate emotions, reduce stress and anxiety, and increase body awareness.

This group will NOT be the type of white-washed, often inaccessible power yoga that may come to mind when you think of yoga. We won’t be twisting our bodies into a pretzel, doing handstands, or going into the splits. This group will be a gentle practice that uses yoga poses (asanas) breath (pranayama), guided meditations, and reflection exercises. No prior yoga experience is needed. No special flexibility and balance or needed. All bodies and genders are celebrated and welcomed in this space.

Here is what you will need:

Comfortable clothes that you can move in
A Yoga Mat
Yoga blocks OR some thick textbooks/books/dictionaries
A Yoga bolster OR several comfortable, large pillows (i.e not decoration pillows)
A soft blanket OR towel
A commitment to yourself and your healing process

We will meet one on one before the first group session so that I can learn more about your hopes as well as your triggers. The group will begin March 3rd and meet weekly for 10 weeks.

How is this different than a regular yoga class?

Trauma sensitive and informed yoga takes into consideration people’s individual needs, uses different and more inviting language, and encourages practitioners to do what feels right for their bodies rather than follow a strict pattern. For example, if Downward dog is not working for your body at this moment, you are invited to go into any number of poses that do feel right for your body. This also looks like offering numerous modifications for yoga poses (asanas), drawing attention and awareness to parts of your body that you may not be as connected to, never touching people to align them into where the pose is “supposed” to look like, and more.

Beyond just being trauma sensitive, this group is designed to explore and heal, increase body awareness and connection, release emotions, and reflect on your healing process. We will spend some of the time going through a yoga flow, some of the time doing meditations and breathwork, and some of the time journaling. But don’t worry! You never have to share your thoughts aloud with anyone in the group unless you want to.

What Does This Group Cost?

This group costs $50 per session; however, I am using 3 prices for this group with some sliding scale places reserved.

The Pay It Forward Price allows more people to access this group and goes to future free and low cost trauma sensitive yoga classes.
The Full Price is the cost of the group and is for those who can meet their basic needs and pay this price without a significant hardship.
The Sliding Scale price is for those who the price of the group would constitute a financial hardship or prohibit them from joining.

DC is an expensive city, and it can be difficult to estimate what category you might fall in. Take a look at the below chart to help you out.

*For the purpose of this chart, Basic Needs means housing, food, transportation, childcare, and health insurance.

**For the purpose of this chart, “Expendable Income” means buying coffee, dinner and drinks, movies, new items, etc.

This chart is adapted from the Green Bottle Sliding Scale model developed by Alexis J. Cunningfolk and the sliding scale chart used by the Transgender Training Institute.

Click here to contact me about signing up.

Pay It Forward

$75 per session

Consider Paying this rate if some or all of the statements apply to you.

I am able to meet all of my basic needs each month easily.

I have no debt, or the debt I have does not stop me from meeting my basic needs.

I have money in savings and or retirement and/or investments.

I own a home OR I rent a higher end property.

I lease or own a car that is less than 5 years old. I can always afford rideshare apps when I need them.

I am employed or do not need to work to meet my basic needs.

I have expendable income for nights out, dinners out, new clothes, and other entertainment.

I can afford to take vacations more than once a year OR take time off more than once a year without this being a financial burden.

Full Price

$50 per session

Consider Paying this rate if some or all of the statements apply to you.

I may stress sometimes about meeting my basic needs, but generally am able to pay my bills.

I have some debt, but it does not stop me from meeting my basic needs.

I have money in savings and/or retirement and/or access to credit.

I own my home OR my rent is affordable to me OR I have reliable help to make rent affordable, such as a parent.

I lease or own a reliable car or have reliable access to transportation. If I need to use rideshare apps occasionally, I can afford to do so.

I am consistently employed with regular paychecks OR I am a student but have reliable, regular financial support from a spouse, partner, parents, stipend, work sponsorship, or scholarship.

I have some expendable income for occasional nights out and new items.

I can afford to take time off from work and meet my basic needs.

Sliding Scale

$25 per session

Consider Paying this rate if some or all of the statements apply to you.

I frequently stress about meeting my basic needs, sometimes have to pay a bill late.

I have debt that prevents me from having much expendable income.

I have very little money in savings or retirement, such that an unexpected financial expense would impact my ability to afford basic needs or put me into significant debt.

I do not have access to credit or only have credit with a high interest rate.

I rely on public transportation and generally can’t afford rideshare apps.

My rent or mortgage is more than half my income, and I do not have access to reliable help to pay my rent or mortgage.

I am unemployed or underemployed without regular paychecks OR I am a full time student without financial support from spouse, partner, stipend, or scholarship.

I can not afford to take time off from work without this becoming a financial burden.

Trauma Therapy

A traumatic experience can be anything that happened unexpectedly, was overwhelming, and felt threatening. Common examples include car accidents, sexual assault, physical abuse, and surviving a natural disaster. Trauma can also be over a period of time rather than a single event, such as being in an emotionally abusive relationship, being bullied as a child, growing up in a war zone, or having a mentally ill parent. Because we are social and communal beings, people can also be affected by hearing about traumatic incidents, witnessing something happening to another person, or having something happen to a person they are close to. For example, many of us experience an increase in fear, stress, sadness, anger, and other strong emotions every time we hear of another Black person being killed by the police. Other examples include a close family member becoming a victim of violence or being a witness to community violence.

Some people who experience events that are considered traumatic do not develop symptoms, and others do. However this absolutely does not mean that some people are stronger than others or that something is inherently wrong with you if you are affected by a traumatic experience. These symptoms are a natural response to a life threatening and stressful events. If you are someone who is experiencing some of these symptoms, have compassion for yourself! These symptoms are simply your brain and body’s way of trying to keep you safe and prevent another trauma from happening to you. Trauma focused therapy can help people teach their brain and body to feel safe again.

Click here for resources to learn more about trauma.

Anxiety Therapy

Anxiety is a normal emotional everyone feels in certain situations. It can even be useful, motivating us to meet a deadline, providing increased adrenaline right before a race, or warning us to be extra alert while alone walking at night. Anxiety becomes a problem, however, when it starts to interfere with your ability to be at peace, appears in situations that typically don’t need to be stressful, or goes overboard and causes people to panic or avoid stressful activities.

Struggling with anxiety affects people’s minds and bodies. In our minds, it might look like overthinking situations, procrastinating when it comes to difficult or unpleasant tasks, avoiding stressful situations, having difficulty making decision, replaying things in your mind, trouble concentrating, stressful dreams, and feeling a deep sense of dread. In our bodies it can appear as a pounding heart, sweaty palms, shallow breathing, digestive issues, headaches and stomach-aches, tensed muscles, fidgeting, picking at your skin, and difficulty falling and staying awake.

Therapy for anxiety can help you learn new ways to be at peace in your mind, body, and spirit. With me, anxiety therapy looks like discovering root causes and triggers, addressing your inner critic, challenging thoughts that make you feel anxious, and working to calm your stressed out nervous system.

See here for helpful resources on managing anxiety.

Depression Therapy

Living with depression is incredibly difficult, but therapy for depression can help you learn to manage your symptoms, become the best version of yourself, and no longer walk around with a cloud hanging over your head. Many people go years without getting help. In fact, the vast majority of people who are depressed never seek out therapy. However, depression is a highly treatable condition. You don’t have to live the rest of your life depressed and working with a therapist can help you move through a depressive episode much faster than if you were to handle this on your own.

Like anxiety, depression affects your mind and your body. Depression can affect the mind by causing you to view things through a dark, cloud, seeing the world as a more negative place, focusing more on the worst parts of your day, and filtering out the good things you have going for you. It can also lead to (and be caused in part by) overthinking; ruminating, which is replaying stressful or painful things about your day over and over; increased irritability; anger, especially in children and teens; and thoughts of suicide or harming yourself. In your body, depression can look like feeling disconnected, being tired most or all of the time, having low motivation, sleeping more than usual, changes in appetite, headaches, stomach problems, body aches, tense muscles, and weight changes.

With me, therapy for depression will meet you where you are. We will figure out together what is causing your depression if you don’t already know, make an action plan to help you climb your way of out of depression, work to unlearn negative thought patterns, and find ways to increase the joy in your life. With depression, we may target aspects of your past that are creeping into your present. I will help you find ways to let go, forgive, and move forward if this is a goal for you!

Click here for some helpful resources on depression.