What is TCTSY?

Wellness Collective is excited to offer virtual Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) classes to the Moab community. These Trauma Sensitive Yoga offerings will be facilitated by Breann and Nicole, who are both certified Trauma Sensitive Yoga Facilitators through the Trauma Center. These classes will start on July 10th at 6:00 pm, lasting 30 minutes and will continue every Monday. Classes will be free for participants on Zoom. Participants can sign up on our website here. Once participants sign up for the class, they will be emailed a zoom link to access the class. 

Here is a bit of information about this offering:

Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) is an evidence-based treatment protocol for PTSD and other treatment resistant trauma like Complex or Developmental Trauma developed by leading researchers in the fields of trauma and psychology. It is based on clinical trials performed at  the Trauma Center in Brookline, Massachusetts by psychiatrist and leading trauma researcher Dr. Bessel Van der Kolk and yoga teacher David Emerson. TCTSY is the only kind of trauma sensitive yoga listed on the National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP) for trauma treatment in the United States by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Trauma Sensitive Yoga focuses on the use of yoga movements as an opportunity to practice making choices with our bodies and to possibly notice what we feel in our bodies. No experience is necessary. We strive to make the classes accessible to everybody regardless of physical ability.

Trauma Sensitive Yoga is a way for us to safely experiment with having a body. Through yoga we can explore breathing, moving, strengthening, stretching, and resting.

Our classes are set up so that participants are in control over what they are doing with their body at all times and the facilitator is there to provide safe, professional guidance helping students focus on particular dynamics (what muscles they are using, what it feels like to have their feet on the ground, what it feels like to breathe, etc.). Participants are welcome to leave their cameras off and will not have to talk to other participants, making this class more comfortable for those individuals who find it difficult to be in groups. Participants are invited to possibly move their bodies in ways which are useful for their experience in any particular shape or moment.

TCTSY is the first somatic modality to be scientifically proven as an effective adjunctive treatment for psychological trauma. As we practice feeling and breathing with awareness, the neural networks in our brain that may be damaged by trauma have an opportunity to reconnect. The way we can reconnect our neural pathways using TCTSY is through interoception--the practice of identifying with our body. For more information on how and why Trauma Sensitive Yoga works, read this article.

We look forward to any feedback, questions, and suggestions.