Most of us are impacted by trauma in some way or another and yet we all have an innate capacity to heal and be transformed by difficult experiences. Yoga, meditation, and other mindfulness practices help people cope with and heal trauma symptoms, as well as grow and build resilience. Trauma-Informed Yoga (TIY) is taught with an understanding of how we are all affected by trauma and chronic stress. It offers sensitive approaches to supporting the healing process.

Anxiety, depression, behavioral issues, relationship stress, and health issues are often the result of unresolved trauma and chronic stress. The goal of a trauma-informed yoga practice is to build resiliency and establish greater self-regulation. It is about feeling safe and at-home in our bodies so that we can feel stable, have good self-esteem and healthy relationships.

Collective Resilience Trainings offer a physiological framework of trauma and how it manifests in the body and mind. Along with addressing the personal and interpersonal, these trainings also explore how systemic patterns of trauma, at the heart of social justice issues like poverty and racism, impact individuals and entire communities of people. Ingrained in all of the TIY trainings is the understanding that injustice, as well as historical trauma, must be addressed in order to cultivate healing.

These trainings are for yoga teachers who would like to work with individuals or communities with trauma. They are also for clinicians, therapists, social workers, educators, medical personnel, first responders, non-profit employees or volunteers, or anyone else who would like to integrate basic yoga tools into their work or lives to support greater health and well-being.

Ingrained in all Collective Resilience trainings is the understanding that systemic patterns of trauma, privilege, marginalization and oppression (such as poverty, racism, ableism, and homophobia among others) must be addressed in order to cultivate healing for all individuals. This philosophy is unpacked in-depth in Trauma & Embodied Social Justice.

Daily attendance and live participation are mandatory for these trainings as they ultimately lead to certification and to also keep them comparable with the same in-person trainings. Only 2hrs absence are allowed per training. If more time than that is missed, you can still take the training but wouldn’t be able to apply it towards Foundational Certification or as a fulfilled pre-req for additional training modules with Collective Resilience.

Parts, but not all, of the training are typically recorded for students to review. The facilitators ask that you let them know in advance what parts of the training, if any, you will miss live. Recordings will be available for 7 days after the training ends.

Trauma-Informed Yoga Basics
March 25-28, 2021 on 8 Limbs Livestream
co-facilitated by Hala Khouri & Kyra Haglund

Trauma & Embodied Social Justice
April 29-May 2, 2021 on 8 Limbs Livestream
co-facilitated by Hala Khouri & RW Alves

Completion of both Foundations courses + the Foundations Mentorship Group results in a Foundational Certification in Trauma-Informed Yoga; additional courses for Collective Resilience’s Intermediate & Advanced Certifications are available in May and June. A full rundown of the pathways to certification can be viewed at: http://collectiveresilienceyoga.com/certification“

To receive Intermediate Certification in Trauma-Informed Yoga Facilitation through Collective Resilience, all four modules (2 Foundational and 2 Intermediate) must be completed + both the Foundations and Facilitation Mentorships Groups.

Intermediate 1: Polyvagal Facilitation for Inclusion, Compassion, and Social Justice
May 20-23, 2021 through Collective Resilience

Intermediate 2: Trauma-Informed Sequencing, Languaging, and Facilitation
June 10-13, 2021 through Collective Resilience

Learn more about Intermediate Certification here.

Questions? Please email teachertraining@8limbsyoga.com!

About the instructors: Hala Khouri, Kyra Haglund, and RW Alves

Hala Khouri, M.A., SEP, E-RYT, has been teaching yoga and the movement arts for over 20 years. She earned her B.A. in Psychology from Columbia University and her M.A. in Counseling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is trained in Somatic Experiencing, a body-based psychotherapy that addresses trauma and its symptoms.

Hala is a co-founder of Off the Mat, Into the World, a training organization that bridges yoga and activism within a social justice framework. She leads trauma informed yoga trainings nationally and her own 200hr Yoga Teacher Training in Los Angeles. She has been in private practice for 10 years working with individuals and couples. Hala lives in Venice, CA with her husband and two sons where she also teaches public yoga classes weekly.

Kyra Haglund, LCSW, SEP, E-RYT500, is a yoga teacher, clinical social worker, Somatic Experiencing practitioner, and activist. She lived and studied holistic arts & cultural anthropology extensively in India and Nepal and completed her graduate studies in social work from the University of Southern California, focusing on mental health, military social work, family systems, and public policy. She is also certified in Somatic Experiencing, a mind-body modality that works directly with the nervous system to relieve and resolve symptoms of trauma.
Believing that yoga creates a positive ripple effect of healing and growth, she has been integral in developing trauma-informed yoga programs and trainings throughout Los Angeles. She has worked with combat veterans, LAUSD, recovery centers, survivors of human trafficking, and the homeless veteran community in Skid Row and also co-created the Santa Monica Yoga teacher training program.
Kyra is a compassionate, knowledgeable, and energetic teacher who takes an integrative approach to therapy and social justice work, blending traditional psychotherapy, holistic arts, and somatic tools to support greater self-regulation and well-being. She currently practices individual and group therapy, teaches yoga, and lives in LA.

RW Alves (she/they) is a yoga teacher trainer, certified yoga therapist, social justice educator, and Somatic Experiencing practitioner who works at the intersections of social justice and trauma-informed yoga. Her teaching focuses on justice in yoga, inclusive languaging and teaching, trauma-informed yoga, nervous system resilience, accessible asana, body positivity, social justice, equity, privilege, and spiritual practice.
She is Faculty with Off the Mat, Into the World and the Yoga Service Conference, teaches Trauma-Informed Yoga with a social justice lens through Collective Resilience (collectiveresilienceyoga.com) and is a founding member of and trainer for Bending Towards Justice (bendingtowardsjustice.org), which provides anti-oppression, inclusion, equity, and social justice trainings for yoga teachers and practitioners around the country. She is a contributor to the forthcoming book Best Practices in Yoga for Addiction and Recovery.
RW is passionate about exploring and unearthing the connections and interweavings between social injustice and trauma, and social justice and resilience, and believes deeply in the power of practice to ground, sustain, and inspire us in our important and world-changing work. She is honored to hold space for people to explore deeply how to show up for justice and equity in their practice and teaching. Learn more at rwalves.com.