134: Reckoning With Abuse Of Power In Our Lineage With Trauma Expert Jenn Turner
How to teach yoga in a trauma sensitive way is a conversation that floods mainstream yoga spaces these days. And with good reason; almost everyperson in the world has had some experience of trauma, so our yoga classes are filled with people who have had exposure to trauma.
It is very easy for yoga and asana to be taught in ways that are not trauma sensitive. Being aware of teacher-student power dynamics and how they impact students with trauma is paramount to skillful teaching.
That is why I am so happy to introduce you to Jenn Turner (she/her). She is a trauma-informed therapist and yoga teacher, and has been at the forefront of combining those two modalities since the early 2000s.
She has also been involved in two different spiritual and healing communities that experienced abuse of power by the leader, as so many of us have. She has advice and a way forward for communities that have experienced this kind of harm.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
what has changed the most in the landscape of trauma sensitive yoga since 2008
what is most important for yoga teachers to know about when it comes to trauma informed practice
how power, self reflection and holding containers are all things we need to be thinking about as yoga teachers
what communities and individuals can do when they recover from abuse inside places that are supposed to be healing spaces
Learn More From Jenn:
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Is yoga exclusively connected to Hinduism? What is the caste system and why would a western yoga teacher need to understand it? How much of yoga’s complex history do modern yoga practitioners and teachers really understand?
In this powerful and thought-provoking conversation, I welcome back Anjali Rao — yoga educator, activist, and author — to unpack the intertwined histories of yoga, caste, patriarchy, and colonization. Drawing from her new book Yoga as Embodied Resistance, Anjali challenges us to explore how caste hierarchies and colonial legacies still shape modern yoga spaces, language, and access to practice today.