It’s a journey, isn’t it?

I began teaching yoga 19 years ago in 2005. I started grad school to become a psychotherapist six years later in 2011, and though I began integrating yoga into my psychotherapy work immediately, as was always my intention, I can tell you that as a new psychotherapist I wasn’t practicing in a very embodied way.

When I first started, I used to practice the way I learned in graduate school. In sessions, I positioned myself as the expert and the client as “patient.” I would go into sessions with a deeply imprinted sense of imposter syndrome because What did I know? I was fresh out of grad school and with no real training in any specific modalities. I still had so much of my own inner work to do.

Fortunately, my professional and personal paths have been ever-evolving. Doing so much of my own healing and embodiment work, attending to and nurturing my wounded parts, plus learning and integrating somatic and psycho-spiritual modalities, the way I work with clients is totally different now, and it’s this heart-centered, freeing way of being with clients that is the foundation of The Trauma-Conscious Yoga MethodⓇ.

So let me share with you friend,

🌺 🌿✨ Four things I no longer do in session as an Embodied, Somatic Psychotherapist and what I do instead:

Nowadays:

🌺 I DON’T play expert. Instead, I DO honor that the wisdom required to heal is already within the body and heart of each person I support in session.

🌿 I DON’T pathologize my clients. Instead, I DO, recognize that all the client needs to heal is already within them.

🌺 I DON’T prescribe treatments. Instead, I DO, let the client’s body and inner system lead the way.

🌿 I DON’T talk and talk and offer my biased advice. Instead, I DO, listen from the heart and self-regulate my own system throughout session.

So what do you think? Do you align? Do you do any of my don’t’s or practice some of my do’s as well?

First off, let me say, “No judgment!” There is no one way to practice. I just know that when I began to practice in this way I actually started seeing breakthroughs in my clients and I loved going into session. Following sessions I would be refreshed and hyped and I started feeling really good about the work I was doing in the world.

This is also the common theme amongst our TCYM Practitioners. They way they work has transformed and it’s so much more enjoyable, sustainable and alchemical, and not just for their clients. For them too!

I hope that you feel this way in your work, and if you’re not, then you’re where so many folx are prior to coming to TCYM.

We are all on this journey together. Myself and our community are here to support you when and if it feels right to you.

All the love and peace to you,

Nityda 💕