Why Trauma Informed Yoga

First things first: what even is Trauma-Informed Yoga (TIY)?

I've been teaching yoga for about 15 years, and about five years into that journey I was introduced to trauma-informed teaching principles. Once I understood them, I couldn't teach any other way.

Here's the deal: in a lot of mainstream yoga spaces—especially gyms and fitness studios—the teacher is placed on a pedestal (sometimes literally 🙄). They're expected to walk around the room giving commands, correcting students, and often touching people's bodies to put them into the "right" alignment without first asking for consent. That's what many of us are taught to do in conventional yoga teacher trainings.

Woof.

Trauma-Informed Yoga asks us to reconsider those practices and the power dynamics they reinforce. Instead of assuming authority over students' bodies, we work to create conditions where practitioners experience more agency and choice. This can be incredibly restorative for folks who've experienced traumatic events, and actually for many of us it can feel good and be a useful practice.

That can look like:

• using invitational rather than commanding language

• reminding people they always have options

• never offering physical touch without explicit consent (if at all)

• demonstrating postures from our own mats instead of moving people's bodies

• trusting that every person's body is different, and there isn't one "correct" way for everyone to move

If you're looking for a more formal description of Trauma-Informed Yoga, I like this short article.

But here's the thing: Trauma-Informed Yoga isn't something we're adding to Electric Cottage Collective—it's part of why Electric Cottage Collective exists. ECC was created as an experiment in practicing wellness, creativity, work, and community differently. After years working in social work and teaching yoga, I became increasingly aware that many of the spaces intended to support our well-being were reproducing the very conditions that leave us exhausted, isolated, and disconnected. Wellness often became just another thing to optimize, consume, or perform. I wanted to imagine something else.

Electric Cottage Collective is built on the belief that wellness is something we practice together, not something we achieve alone. Rather than centering hustle culture, self-improvement, or productivity, we try to create conditions where people can reconnect with themselves, their creativity, and one another through rest, movement, art, conversation, and shared experience. Trauma-Informed Yoga naturally belongs in that ecosystem.

At its heart, yoga is a practice of relationship: relationship with ourselves, relationship with others, and relationship with the communities and world we inhabit. Our classes aren't about becoming more flexible or mastering impressive poses. They're about practicing choice in a culture that often teaches us to override ourselves. They're about slowing down in a world that rewards constant productivity. They're about learning to notice our bodies with curiosity instead of judgment, and remembering that care is something we cultivate together rather than alone.

The same values that shape Electric Cottage Collective shape these classes: accessibility, autonomy, creativity, community care, and the belief that healing isn't separate from justice.

Trauma does not occur in a vacuum. Our nervous systems are shaped not only by personal experiences but also by our relationships, identities, communities, and the systems we live within. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, colonialism, poverty, and other forms of oppression all influence our sense of safety and belonging.

For us, being trauma-informed also means being culturally responsive. It means recognizing that no space can feel equally safe for everyone while remaining committed to continual learning, listening, and creating an environment where people with diverse identities and lived experiences feel respected, supported, and empowered to make the choices that best meet their needs.

Ironically, even the phrase Trauma-Informed Yoga has its limitations. It's useful shorthand, but it doesn't fully capture the complexity of the work—or the cultural conversations surrounding it. If you're a fellow nerd, there are some thoughtful critiques and discussions worth reading.

In many ways, this class is simply another expression of what Electric Cottage Collective is trying to become: a place where people don't have to perform wellness or productivity to belong. A place where we can work, create, rest, move, and care for one another as whole humans.