Offer Solace.
Support Resilience.
Empower Growth.

Holding Trauma-Supportive Yoga Spaces
Continuing Education Course in Traverse City, MI
Register by January 5 for our 2024 Cohort

Ready to deepen the impact of your yoga spaces on the lives of those you teach?
Grow your competence, enrich your teaching, and bring new depth to your classes
with this transformative six-month course.
This immersive and experiential learning journey is designed to foster competence and maturity
in your teaching, building proficiency in trauma-informed practices
and empowering teachers to hold safe spaces for recovery.

What to Expect

Ground In Skillful Space Holding

Developed and led by a licensed psychotherapist and experienced yoga teacher, this training is lovingly designed to support you in the self-inquiry and experiential growth at the foundation of competent, compassionate space holding. We won’t stop at trauma-informed - we’ll also practice integrating that knowledge so that you can tend artful, healing-supportive spaces.

Dive Deeper with Process-Based Teaching

Go beyond asana as you explore teaching frameworks founded on yoga’s traditional healing processes. You’ll explore trauma theories from both yoga’s philosophical traditions and Western psychology, and foster competence in applying those theories to your teaching. Throughout the course, you’ll develop and evolve your personal theory of change - an embodied philosophy of how yoga works and how you can harness those processes in your teaching.

Build Confidence with Hands-On Learning

Engage with rich self-inquiry and embodied skill-building through guided personal reflections, group discussions, and experiential learning exercises. By understanding your own responses to trauma, you’ll cultivate greater empathy and authenticity in holding space for others. Throughout the course, you’ll also engage in practice-teaching sessions, receiving constructive feedback from instructors and peers, empowering you to integrate trauma-supportive principles into your yoga classes.

Yoga teaching and trauma recovery are both deeply relational - this course provides the opportunity to experience the power of relational learning first hand. Spend six months growing and learning with a cohort, building deep relationships and engaging in experiential growth. You’ll leave a part of a community of like-minded individuals dedicated to trauma-informed practices, encouraging your growth and providing ongoing resources even after the course ends.

Grow in Community

Meet Our Experienced Facilitators

Jessie Horness has been practicing yoga since 2010. She began a serious practice of Ashtanga yoga with her first trip to Mysore, India in 2012, and has practiced continuously since 2014. She is a student of R. Saraswati Jois in Mysore, India, making five trips to study and later assist in her shala between 2012-2015. While in India, she also studied chanting and philosophy under Dr. MA Jayashree and Prof. MA Narasimhan, and was initiated into the practice of meditation by the latter in 2014. Jessie has also been a student of Angela Jamison in Ann Arbor, MI since 2015, deepening her personal practice and receiving mentoring and accountability for her teaching practice through regular, ongoing online and in-person connections.

Jessie also holds a Master’s Degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Western Michigan University. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor, and has been practicing individual and group psychotherapy in agency and private practice settings since January 2020. She currently sees clients in private practice in Traverse City, MI.

Jessie Horness, MA, LPC, CAADC, E-RYT-200
Facilitator/Instructor

Brittany Wildfong, LMT, CYT, SEP-in-training
Adjunct Instructor/Somatics Facilitator

Britt has been practicing yoga since 2004, when she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and sought yoga as a healing modality. She taught regularly for many years, after completing a two-year mentorship with Libby Robold, MA, E-RYT 500, in 2011. In addition to yoga, Britt has studied and practiced bodywork since 2008, when she graduated from the Scherer Institute of Natural Healing in Santa Fe, NM. Since then she has deepened her studies in craniosacral therapy and myofascial work. Rounding out the mind-body-spirit trinity, Britt also studied meditation and spiritual practice through a two-year residency and lay-ordination at SokukoJi Buddhist Temple Monastery, in Battle Creek, MI.

Through all of these practices Britt found the importance of working with the nervous system to support lasting and effective change. Currently, she is in her advanced year of practitioner training with Somatic Experiencing International, founded on the work of Dr. Peter Levine. Britt has a full time practice in Traverse City, and is slowly shifting her focus to Somatic Therapy. With close to 20 years of experience in healing modalities, Britt offers practiced presence, a broad skill set, and the knowledge that healing happens through meeting people (including ourselves) where they are, in authentic relationship and compassionate embodiment. To learn more, please visit her website.

The Details

  • The course is taught in six workshops over the course of six months. In between, you’ll engage in guided research and reflection to integrate what you’ve learned. Community discussion takes place in a dedicated Slack space to support you on your journey between in-person meetings.

  • Our in persons sessions will take place from 9am-3pm on the following Saturdays:

    January 20, 2024
    February 17, 2024
    March 16, 2024
    April 20, 2024
    May 25, 2024
    June 15, 2024

  • We employ an economic justice pricing structure to support accessibility for everyone, regardless of their financial situation. With our unique pricing approach, you have the flexibility to choose a payment option that aligns with your current circumstances. We trust you to select a rate within the recommended range that feels right for you. This way, we can maintain the quality of the course while ensuring that anyone who wishes to participate can do so without hesitation.

    Recommended investment for this six month course is $900-1800, payable in monthly installments of $150-300.

    Individuals needing further financial support to access this training are encouraged to reach out. We especially invite members of the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities to reach out and inquire about our available financial support options

  • In person meetings will take place at New Moon Yoga Collaborative in Traverse City, MI.

  • This course is facilitated by an E-RYT 200 and Yoga Alliance Certified Education Provider. Those who complete this course will be eligible for 30 in-person Yoga Alliance CEUs.

Take the Next Vinyasa In Your Teaching Practice

Interested? Questions?
Reach Out!
holding.yoga.spaces@gmail.com

Ready to Dive Deep?
Register Today!