Anxiety & Trauma Yoga Program

Our Residential Clinical Therapist, Kacy Long, LAC, is a Trauma-Informed Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200) and is currently completing her 500-RYT. She teaches at a local yoga studio focusing on beginner, restorative, and adaptive yoga for the community.  

Kacy started her yoga teacher certification so that she could implement more body-based trauma work to complement her therapy practice and better serve her clients. Kacy integrates traditional yoga practices with modern research on trauma resolution, emotion regulation, meditation, mindfulness, and fostering a mind-body connection. Kacy’s real passion with yoga is to make it accessible both for all bodies regardless of size, gender, race, mobility, socioeconomic status.  

The criteria for admission into the group is an anxiety and/or trauma diagnosis and approval from the treatment team. It should be noted that Yoga as taught through this program is presented in a neutral nonreligious format. All yogic principles that are discussed are done so through the context of the individual’s experience and the scientific evidence supporting yoga as an intervention for anxiety and trauma. It is the goal of the group to help the individual live a balanced, safe, and fulfilled life supported by the skills and information learned in group. Throughout the group clients are invited to participate in a mindful and breath-focused physical yoga practice, as well as discuss the following topics in an open discussion and self-reflection-based application format: 

• Identifying Stress in the body and contextual contributing factors
• Trauma & the Nervous System
• Meditation & Mindfulness
• Breathing Practices to Calm the Nervous System
• Body Awareness 
• Personal Reflection
• Emotion Recognition and Regulation
• Self-Compassion & Understanding of Safe Body Positioning in Yoga
• Exposure to ways to make yoga fit the individual’s body to promote safety, comfort, and confidence. 
• Yoga Principles and how they can be related to daily life and support mental health 
  
  

Kacy also utilizes yoga in individual therapy sessions to support the emotion identification and regulation, trauma resolution, and mindfulness-based work.