Online Introduction to Trauma Informed Teaching
A virtual 3-Hour Trauma-Informed Teaching Workshop for those who teach or coach: yoga, dance, barre, Pilates, fitness, somatics - all movement teachers are welcome!
upcoming training dates:
January 23 or February 13, 2027
Trauma-informed teaching isn’t about getting every cue “right.” It’s about giving people more choice. Every teacher, coach, and trainer holds power. We shape the conditions for safety, autonomy, consent, and connection. We decide what happens in the room, how we talk about bodies, what participation looks like, when someone gets corrected, and sometimes whether someone gets physically touched. We rarely know what our students are carrying with them, and we don’t need to know to guide with care.
This practical, participatory workshop is for teachers, coaches, and other movement leaders who want to create spaces where people can participate without having to surrender their autonomy. We’ll build a shared understanding of trauma, including how cultural and collective trauma, identity, and systems of power shape our relationships with our bodies, movement, and authority. We’ll explore how racism, colonialism, diet culture, ableism, and other dominant cultural norms influence who feels welcome in movement spaces and what we consider “healthy,” “fit,” or “good” at moving. Then we’ll get into the practical stuff: How do we offer choices without becoming vague? How do we challenge students without coercing them? How do we offer feedback without shaming? How do we use our authority without asking people to give up their agency?
Cost: $50 | $175 | $250 -- tiered pricing. Please use this tool to choose which tier is right for you.
Together, we’ll practice tools for:
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offering meaningful choices and variations
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using invitational, information-based language
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navigating consent, touch, and physical corrections
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recognizing when teaching language creates shame, hierarchy, or compliance
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creating more inclusive physical and social environments
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examining our own teaching through the AGENCY Audit
You’ll leave with practical tools you can use immediately, a new lens for understanding your teaching, and one concrete experiment to bring into your next class. Trauma-informed teaching doesn’t mean less challenge, it means less coercion. More choice. More agency. Most of all it offers space for everyone, even you, to exist just as they are.
Mutual Aid: 25% of the class fee will be given to the Maine Solidarity Fund: a “... statewide fund [that] is …designed to provide rapid, direct, and equitable support to community members facing increased detention, targeted harassment, policy rollbacks, and systemic discrimination under the new Trump administration”.
facilitated by anne & liz
Anne Esguerra (she/siya/niya): My yoga journey began in 2009 with heated power vinyasa and deepened into yoga therapy through Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy (PRYT) in 2011. trained through Phoenix Rising School of Yoga Therapy and in 2013, I founded Integrative Life Therapy-a space for care, connection, and embodied learning.
As a first-generation Filipino American, I root my work in Kapwa - the belief that I am because you are. I’ve never resonated with the individualism often found in wellness spaces. Instead, I focus on how healing happens in relationship - with ourselves, one another, and the systems we move through. This led me to train with Yoga Behind Bars then offering yoga and mentoring to incarcerated youth from 2016–2020. Movement and music have always guided me - from early years in dance and theater to over a decade studying Guinean West African Dance and performing with New Moon Ensemble. Collaborations through the years with Sea Change Yoga, Prison Yoga Project, Maine Inside Out, Journey Onederland and Arcana continue to remind me that healing isn’t linear or solitary - it’s collective, embodied, and deeply human.
Liz Kovarsky (she/her): I am an artist, a yoga, barre, dance and art teacher, a licensed clinical social worker, and founder of Electric Cottage Collective in Brunswick, Maine. I began teaching yoga in 2011 and have since explored trauma-informed yoga, restorative practices, and movement as tools for individual and collective care. My work brings together years of experience in education, facilitation, social work, and community building, with a focus on how power, identity, and access shape our experiences in movement spaces. I am interested in moving beyond compliance and perfection in the classroom toward teaching practices that support autonomy, meaningful choice, and collective well-being. I look forward to meeting you and digging into this important work, together!
training faq's
🤔Who is this training for?
This workshop is for teachers, studio owners or those training to become teachers of any movement modality, for example this is for you if you teach, coach, or are training to teach: barre, yoga, PIlates, somatic practitioners, dance, fitness, weightlifting, bodybuilding, any type of movement coaching or teaching!
🗓️What is the schedule?
The training takes place virtually over Zoom, and is a total of 3 hours.
🤔What happens after training?
We will offer an optional teacher mentorship program after the training for those who feel that they'd like ongoing support with teaching their movement modality with a trauma informed lens.
🦋Will you offer this training in person?
Maybe! If you think this training would be a good fit for your community, reach out! We might be able to come and do this training in person for your group. Contact: Liz@ElectricCottageCollective.com