Group Yoga in Therapeutic Services

Group Yoga in Therapeutic Services

I am committed to contributing to services that respond with genuine care to individuals with complex or traumatic histories. I have over a decade of experience working across schools, youth and family services, and refugee support programmes. I aim to complement existing therapeutic intervention by offering accessible, body-based practices to help participants safely reconnect with their bodies. When offered in an emotionally predictable environment yogic practice can provide significant benefits for those facing uncertainty and persistent stress. Outcomes often include increased self-efficacy in trauma recovery, contributing meaningfully to overarching therapeutic aims.

Please feel free to contact me if there are any opportunities for group yoga sessions within your client services.

Approach to Group Yoga

Sessions follow a consistent structure allowing participants to build familiarity and integrate practices beyond the sessions. Adjustments are made in response to the needs and capacity of the group with an emphasis on reducing stress and restoring a sense of agency.

Key Principles

  • Clear, continuous verbal guidance with limited prolonged silence.

  • Trauma-sensitive language, avoiding potentially triggering imagery to create safety and trust.

  • No expectation to push the body, encouraging a practice of self-compassionate attention.

  • All practices offered as invitations, with full respect for autonomy and boundaries.

Squatting Woman II, drawing by Georgia Keeling

Practices & Mind-Body Benefits

  • Breath-work: Simple techniques to retrain stress-based breathing patterns, strengthen respiratory muscles, and increase nitric oxide levels in the body for vagal toning.

  • Meditative Awareness: Directed attention to present-moment physical and somatic sensations for interoceptive awareness (a fine-tuned felt sense of the body).

  • Movement: Grounding, balancing asana for proprioception (awareness of the body in space) and to explore comfort and safety in movement.

  • Chanting / Mantra: Creates subtle somatic vibration soothing the body’s systems and expanding awareness by synchronising brainwave activity across areas of the brain.

  • Self-Massage / Tapping / Gentle Stretching: Techniques to ease tension in muscles and fascia, stimulate lymphatic flow and intentionally attend to the body with care.

  • Restorative Practices: Adapted relaxation using cushions, blankets and ambient music to enable deep rest and a psychophysical experience of connection and support.

Practical Information

  • Group size: Up to 8 participants.

  • Space: Quiet, spacious room with optional dimmed lighting.

  • Fee: I offer flexible pricing to align with funding and budgets.

Line drawing of a person with a muscular build, raising one arm upward, and other arm hanging down, wearing loose pants, with a tattoo on the shoulder and looking upward.

© Art by Georgia Keeling