Have you ever wondered how the nervous system can inform your practice or teaching of yoga? With our series of episodes on stress and our nervous system, I’m sure you’ve learned a bunch already, but today we’re narrowing our focus down and talking about how to use all of this nervous system knowledge to teach while staying aware of people’s potential traumas, honoring the benefits of a more therapeutic approach.

My guest to discuss all of this is Joann Lutz. Joann is a Licensed Psychotherapist and Certified Yoga Therapist and Instructor. She is a pioneer in integrating Raja Yoga with Polyvagal Theory and other neuroscience breakthroughs. She’s the author of the book Trauma Healing in the Yoga Zone, and she’s the perfect person to discuss nervous system-informed trauma sensitive yoga.

Tune in this week as I sit down with Joann Lutz to discuss the profound effect yoga had on her personally in her early life, the differences between therapeutic yoga as opposed to yoga for spiritual or physical development, and how to use the nervous system and trauma sensitivity in your yoga teaching or practice.

What You’ll Discover:

• How Joann found yoga and how it helped her through a difficult period in her life.
• Why Joann found yoga to be such a useful tool in the more conventional trauma healing work she has dedicated her life to.
• The difference between yoga for spiritual development and therapeutic yoga.
• Why not accounting for people’s trauma when leading them through a yogic practice could seriously impact their nervous system.
• How Joann developed her understanding so she can help others using yoga as a therapeutic practice.
• Where Joann looks for imbalances in the parasympathetic nervous system, and how she promotes nervous system regulation through her yoga.
• How you can account for trauma and nervous system energizing and rebalancing in your own teaching or practice.

Listen to the Full Episode:

Resources for You:

• Arrange a Coaching Call with Me
• Joann Lutz: Website | LinkedIn | Facebook
• Trauma Healing in the Yoga Zone by Joann Lutz
• Episode #117: Understanding Your Stress
• Episode #121: Nervous System 101
• Episode #128: Tools to Regulate Your Nervous System
• Shirley Telles