UK "Community Model": Trauma Sensitive Yoga & Women

In September 2024, a new body of research was published in the UK which discussed the possibility of trauma-informed yoga becoming an agent for women to heal from systematic oppression. The study discussed how traditional yoga settings were prominent within a specific socio-economic class, which made the practice of yoga inaccessible for some due to financial and social reasons. In turn, the UK promoted the “Community Yoga Organization” which aims to carry yoga into demographics that have been traditionally discarded from its practice. 

The women in the study recognized that they oftentimes felt yoga was a western ideal, and done predominantly by slim, white women.

After the trauma-informed yoga sessions were completed, the participants found that they reclaimed a sense of health and well-being over their physical bodies. Ethnically marginalized communities further discussed how the impact of this yoga helped to establish a sense of community which was especially important due to the loss and isolation that many of these participants felt during the COVID-19 pandemic. Complex trauma participants further noted that after the sessions they felt they had “increased self control over traumatic systems,” using breath work and grounding techniques to calm their nervous system. All of the participants noted the importance of sharing a yoga class with other women, and how the classes, which promoted an air of fun and laughter, really enhanced their connection, leaving them eager to not only improve the well-being of their own lives, but that of their community. 

Much like the UK’s Community Yoga Organization, Yoga Village feels passionately about sharing the gift of yoga to demographics that are underrepresented in traditional yoga settings. Studies such as this one allow us to continue understanding the importance of what we do, as well as how it contributes to the world around us.

At the core of its practice, yoga really is for EVERY BODY. That connection with one's mind and spirit transcends many other avenues, and connects you to who you are at your core, meeting you exactly where you are and exactly as you are. It is an unfortunate reality that it can be positioned in an exclusive manner, one that disallows certain races, genders, and cultures the full opportunity of experiencing something so precious and sacred. We hope that initiatives like the Community UK Model, and what we have been able to do within Yoga Village, breaches that gap, and provides accessible practice to those who wish to move into the space of mindful movement.