"Trauma is a fact of life, it does not, however, have to be a life sentence. "
Peter A. Levine
Trauma Healing Yoga TCTSY is the original yoga for trauma and the only scientifically-validated trauma sensitive yoga model.
TCTSY is short for Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga, and is a somatic therapy, meaning it is a body first treatment, supported by 20+ years of evidence-based clinical research for complex trauma (C-PTSD) and PTSD. This embodied transformative approach was developed by David Emerson and Bessel van der Kolk in the Trauma Center in Massachusetts, which is now known as The Center for Trauma and Embodiment a global leader in body-first care for complex trauma ad PTSD.
An official diagnosis is not necessary to participate, your experience is valid. TCTSY offers a welcoming space for all individuals no matter their history, ability, age, gender, or sexual orientation. It’s for anyone seeking to integrate their bodies into cognitive + verbal psychotherapeutic approaches, as well as for those who are seeking a supportive environment to befriend their body through the practice of Yoga, in the presence of a trained facilitator who knows just what it’s like to navigate living with trauma symptoms, which are really just implicit (unconscious) traumatic memories held by the body, subcortical brain, and autonomic nervous system.
In TCTSY, the journey isn’t about reaching a specific endpoint; instead, it’s an opportunity for a curious self-discovery, nurturing self autonomy + agency, cultivating somatic + nervous system capacity, and fostering self-compassion while gaining insight into the relationship we have with our instinctual wise responses to survival stress. In other words, depathologizing how our body has adapted and learned to protectively respond as a result of the traumatic events in the past.
Rooted in the understanding that our bodies aren’t broken but protecting us because they’re still retaining the memory of survival long after traumatic events have passed, TCTSY gently beckons the body to join us on our healing path when the time feels right.
After enduring repeated traumas, our nervous system may remain in a state of self-protection, tirelessly working to keep us safe, even when the danger has passed. Through mindful movement and embodied presence to our sensations, we begin to unravel the patterns of overwhelming feelings and sensations that tend disrupt the relationship we have with ourself, as well as the people and world around us, paving the way for untangling trauma stored in our body, mind, and nervous system.
Even though the treatment of trauma has been historically focused on the mind and behavior alone, it is now widely accepted in the trauma literature that remembering the body amd how trauma impacts all of our being is significantly beneficial (Ogden, Van der Kolk, Levine, Rothschild, Emerson, Haines).
TCTSY is not psychotherapy nor does it replace it. It’s a somatic therapy that compliments a holistic approach offering a profound pathway for embodied healing and trauma resolution.
TCTSY is not like the yoga you may have experienced in other yoga studios. The focus is not on perfecting yoga shapes or reaching any goals. The practice is centred around empowerment of the individual through invitation, choice, supporting autonomy, interoception and the emphasis of their relationship to their own body and not on a specific form or shape.
TCTSY provides a safe enough environment to start to understand what could be occurring inside your body, how you might invite your body into the process of healing through feeling, and using empowered choice and voice to move from surviving and protecting, towards thriving, agency, and liberation.
Trauma Healing Yoga TCTSY is informed by: trauma theory, attachment theory, neurophysiology , and hatha yoga philosophy
"With yoga, I reclaimed my body. That is a gift because I so hated my body. Or I claimed it, not reclaimed, because I was so young. I claimed it. It was a long process to consider myself not an outline. ... I think yoga helped define me. Just inhabiting my own skin is a major step forward."
trauma healing yoga TCTSY study participant
Yoga, Trauma, and the Body
Experiencing trauma can have profound effects on both the brain and the body, influencing them in diverse ways. Extensive new science reveals that a traumatic event(s) and the survival stress it creates can overwhelm our brain and autonomic nervous system, leading to significant changes in development of the brain, our ability to respond to stress aka nervous sytem dysreguation, emotional regulation, impacting our mental and physical health and well-being (check-out the ACEs study here), the relationship we have with ourselves, other people, the world around us, and in how we process and recall memories. And although traditional forms of cognitive and talk therapy have demonstrated their value, they may not always fully support a person in their healing journey after complex trauma.
The hippocampus of the brain is responsible for catching emotionally packed memories and giving them a timestamp and placing them in the right file cabinet, however, in situations where the level of survival stress and nervous system activation becomes overwhelming, the memory becomes fragmented, meaning we may remember certain details like a sound, smell, image, feeling, emotion, but without a date stamp- this is how implicit body memories are formed (with the help of the amygdala). And just so we are clear, this doesn’t mean you are broken, your body is STILL protecting you because perhaps it thinks the event is still happening.
Attachment science tells us that our earliest preverbal memories are neither verbal nor stored as images, but that they exist as motor patterns and visceral sensations and affect (emotions) in our body. These implicit “body memories” are the blueprints of our earliest relationships, expressed as neurobiological arousal and emotion (survival stress aka trauma in the body) – Schore2008.
Interoception, fancy pants language for our ability to sense ourselves from the inside out (like hunger, this, temperature, soothed, stressed, happy, scared etc), is a survival skill we are born with. It guides us towards what we feel and need, and developing our sense of self separate from the world. If we experience good enough parenting through attuned and responsive caregivers, we feel safe and secure in life. If however our caregivers are unable to meet our needs enough, our little nervous system will become overwhelmed, the world and relationships will feel unsafe, and we will start to disconnect, dissociate, shut down, and become immobilised because the what we feel in the body becomes too much.
It would make sense then that if trauma causes us to disconnect from ourselves and our bodies, that establishing connection and starting to speak the language of our body (interception) could be a pathway towards healing and resolution. And because these implicit body memories do tend to come up during practice, it could be beneficial to have a trusted someone (friend, counsellor, therapist etc), with who to speak to after, as during the practice of TCTSY we will not be speaking about these experiences, only experiencing them together.
So we can often not remember or have words for what happened, but like Bessel van der Kolk “the body keeps the score” and our past shows up in our life in the present moment in our reactions. This is good news because we cannot change the past, but we can impact how we FEEL in the present moment. This also highlights why concentrating on behavior and talking alone often isn’t possible or enough to bring resolution from the emotional pain or haunting fragments of memories of complex trauma.
It’s essential to recognize that trauma extends beyond the conscious mind; it also deeply affects the unconscious subcortical parts of the brain, autonomic nervous sytem, and the rest of our physical body. Trauma can cause an individual to continuously perceive the world as a place of danger and threat – this makes perfect sense – and at the same time this doesn’t have to be a life sentence, we can start to feel safer in our body right here, right now, in the present moment.
Incorporating an embodied and integrative approach, Trauma Healing Yoga TCTSY offers a unique opportunity to restore connection to one Self, to inhabit your body, and regain a sense of empowerment and agency. This approach promotes a more positive and healing relationship with one’s body while addressing the enduring physical consequences of stored survival stress implicit body memories in a non-judgemental curious and compassionate way. Through intentional and mindful movement and breathing, TCTSY supports individuals on their healing journey, acknowledging the holistic impact of trauma on the mind, body, and nervous system (and spirit if you believe in one).
"For real change to take place, the body needs to learn that the danger has passed and to live in the reality of the present." Bessel Van Der Kolk - The Body Keeps the Score
Try this 8 minute practice:
15 minutowa praktyka :
"It is possible for you to start feeling safer in your own body, through kindness and compassion, and without forcing or pressuring yourself."
What happens during a TCTSY offering?
- Opportunities to be in your body, to notice your breath, and/or pause in stillness in the present moment.
- There are no physical adjustments or assists.
- I won’t be looking at you. I will be sitting in my chair or on my mat practicing along with you.
- Invitational Language -I will never tell you what to do with your body. You are in charge and the expert of how you decide to move or not move your body. Chasing not to do something is just as important as choosing to do it.
- Choice Making- Opportunities to make choices based on what you’re noticing or feeling(or not) in your body. I will offer different accessible options and you are welcome to choose and explore whatever works for you.
- Interoception – Opportunities to notice and experience your felt sense, meaning awareness of what you feel inside your body, as you are still, moving, and/or transition between shapes.
- Opportunities to explore the survival stress (trauma responses) that may still be alive within your body, in a safe enough environment. This may provide insight to what you might be experiencing in your body, how you you might engage your body in the process of healing, and making empowered choices that move beyond surviving towards thriving.
- We will not be talking about your past or making meaning of emotions, or sensations. This might be a nice change if you feel talk therapy hasn’t been bringing you the relief you are looking for.
TCTSY offers personalized sessions tailored for individuals grappling with complex or chronic developmental trauma, often referred to as C-PTSD, as well as PTSD. The term complex trauma encapsulates the experience of enduring a series of traumatic events, such as persistent domestic abuse, neglect, exploitation, childhood maltreatment, bullying, exposure combat situations like war, or systemic oppression (racism, homophobia, misogyny, transphobia, ableism, colonialism etc.)
We are all different and these experiences are often on a spectrum, varying from extreme to subtle, and at the same time no matter their size they ALL have the power to impact, shape ,and imprint on the body, mind, nervous system, and spirit (if you believe in one).
You do not need a formal diagnosis or any prior yoga experience to participate. The practice is always tailor fit to your physical abilities and current well-being. This is YOUR yoga.
"no intervention that takes power away from a survivor can possibly foster recovery, no matter how much it appears to be in their immediate interest"
Judith Herman Trauma and Recovery (1992)
"You don't have to keep digging in your past if you feel it isn't serving you. You can start to feel safer in your body right here in the present moment."
the newest evidence-based research
In 2021, a study provided further evidence that Trauma Sensitive Yoga is as an effective treatment for individuals affected by complex trauma and PTSD as CPT(cognitive processing therapy) . The study involved women veterans who have experienced military sexual trauma-related PTSD.
When compared to CPT, which is considered the gold standard in therapeutic treatments, Trauma Sensitive Yoga showed some remarkable advantages.
Participants in the TCTSY group experienced faster relief from symptoms, almost twice as many completed the protocol (42.6% higher than CPT), and maintained their progress equally well over time.
Watch the video below to hear the study’s researchers discuss their findings from this latest comprehensive 5-year randomized controlled trial.
TCTSY is part of a recent movement within the mental health field to ENGAGE THE BODY in healing from psychological trauma and PTSD, especially the most severe trauma, where talk-based therapies can be less effective.
TCTSY is in a state of continuous evolving and research and has been effectively supporting trauma survivors for many years. The fact that trauma leaves its mark on the body (nervous system) and not just on the mind is now widely recognised as is the connection between the body and the mind, which is why many modern trauma treatments include body-based interventions.
Every certified TCTSY facilitator undergoes supervision and is asked to renew their certification every year under the guidance of David Emerson, the method’s creator. This ensures not only competence but also supports further growth and development through mentorship.
As TCTSY facilitators we uphold and follow The Ways of Being:Ethical Guidelines that state: We acknowledge that the experience of trauma takes many forms including prejudice and discrimination based on a person’s age, race, ethnicity, gender, sex, sexuality, socio-economic class, religion, spirituality, immigration status, physical embodiment, neurodiversity, cognitive & physical abilities, and use of mental health services.
We understand that to minimize or silence the voice of a trauma survivor is itself an act of trauma.
Therefore, in all programs we engage with, we commit to advocating for the centrality of the survivor’s lived experience.
"Sometimes when I felt triggered, it was like somebody else used this body and it doesn't feel good, and I will never feel good. And now I can stretch and feel good. That can be really helpful. If I feel like I am dissociating to be like, okay these are my hands, this is my body, and even that there are things that my body can do. Instead of feeling like my mind and body are aliens to each other, being like, well look, I can stretch and touch my toes now. Who would have thought that possible? I feel like I have more ownership of my body and feel more of a part of it."
trauma healing yoga TCTSY participant
request a consultation
A free initial consultation via Zoom/Googgle Meet or phone is required before you purchase your session. This is where we will get to know each other, talk about your expectations and ask any questions you may have, so that you can decide if this feels right for you.
Hi, I’m Olga your certified facilitator!
check out my facilitator profile here.
What do I need to practice TCTSY online?
You don’t need anything special, but if you like you could bring a yoga mat,a chair, blanket, or yoga blocks/books. You are welcome to wear anything that you like.
TCTSY in an online format is more and more commonly used and the benefits are the same as when practicing in person. The added bonus is that you can practice fret the safety and comfort of your own space and You don’t have to turn your camera on.
“Your body does not give a damn whether a practice is ancient or modern, secular or religious, proven or unproven. It just wants to experience safety and security.”
— Resmaa Menakem, My Grandmother’s Hands
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