Yoga & Somatics for Healing & Recovery
This 100-hr course has been designed as an explorative journey for yoga teachers, yoga therapists and others to delve into how a compassionate and subtly attentive relationship with their bodies, practice and teaching can help address these commonly seen dis-ease states. This may be as a route to unravelling their own states and/or supporting those in students. There will be inclusion of Somatics practices – from the work of Thomas Hanna that emphasises internal physical perception and experience – and sits well within yoga to support modern body needs. It is also informed by Formative Embodiment, a body psychotherapy laid out by Stanley Keleman, as taught by Jim Feill.
The course comprises:
- online portion 65 hrs with pre-recorded material for self-study and live sessions
- a final written assessment (about 11 hrs) with class plan and reflections
- four one-day in-person workshops that make up the remaining 24 hours
- possibilities for in-person workshops alternatives coming soon....
The course will be held in ways that ensure safe and intimate group dynamics, with needs of the individuals attended to. Other movement teachers and wellness practitioners are welcome to apply if they have at least a year’s yoga practice.
A large part of this exploration will be modern stress and trauma, and what this means for our bodies, minds, yoga teaching and practice; on and off the mat. Charlotte Watts gathers together strands of her courses on Teaching Yoga for Stress and Burnout, and for ME/Chronic Fatigue - including Long-COVID (for Yogacampus) and her recent books Yoga and Somatics for Immune and Respiratory Health (Singing Dragon 2022), Yoga Therapy for Digestive Health (Singing Dragon 2018) and The De-Stress Effect (Hay House 2015), for an experiential dive into how we can view symptoms of 21st century living through the lens of the Yoga Model of Wellness.
There are also four live workshops, purchased separately. More info here.
This 100-hr training is a part of the full 170-hr certification - the companion course Somatics for Yoga Teachers makes up the other 70-hrs. More info about becoming certified can be found here.
HAVE QUESTIONS?
It can be helpful to speak to Charlotte in person about anything related to the courses, and you are welcome to book a 15-minute consultation anytime:
- If you are interested in taking a course and would like to discuss any aspect with Charlotte – this can include simply meeting and getting a feel for her approach, clarity on course content, what might suit you most at this time and helping to plan out a time scale for different elements.
- If you are already a student on a course and need support, guidance, insight or anything else!
Click below to go to a page where you can choose a time and then receive a Zoom link automatically.
BOOK A 15 MIN CHAT HEREPRICING OPTIONS
You may choose to either pay in instalments or for less in full.
There are also two options to include the four, in-person workshops - a pay in full option or eight month payment plan.
Please get in touch with Charlotte directly at [email protected] if you are low income or a concession to arrange further discount.
Click the box below to sign up for your date and pricing preference.
UPCOMING COURSE DATES – online live discussions
Here are dates for the next available course intakes. The ten live discussion sessions for each theme (60 mins) will be during these time slots.
Scroll down the page for more information about the content with the course themes and each of the corresponding live sessions here.
NOVEMBER 2024 INTAKE
(NB: this course was due to start in September but personal circumstances have meant it has had to be moved forward)
Tuesdays 2-3pm UK time (2024-25):
- Nov 5th - Arriving
- Nov 19th - Context of the Modern World
- Dec 3rd - Vagal Connection
- Dec 17th - Belly Connection
- Jan 7th - The Fascial Web
- Jan 21st - Posture & Self
- Feb 4th - Body Psychotherapy
- Feb 25th - Mindful Language
- Mar 11th - Health as Whole
- Mar 25th - Bringing it all Together
MARCH 2025 INTAKE
Wednesdays 7.30-8.30pm UK time (2025):
- Mar 5th - Arriving
- Mar 19th - Context of the Modern World
- Apr 2nd - Vagal Connection
- Apr 23rd - Belly Connection
- May 7th - The Fascial Web
- May 21st - Posture & Self
- Jun 4th - Body Psychotherapy
- Jun 18th - Mindful Language
- July 2nd - Health as Whole
- July 16th - Bringing it all Together
November 2024
(Previously September 2024)
March 2025
COURSE CONTENT
Includes 10 themes, explored in the format shared below.
1. Arriving – Setting our community healing space. Where we find ourselves in modern life and what it means to be a ‘modern yogi’ in a world of goal orientation, high expectation and physical ideals. How these considerations can be supported by the yoga model of healing and recovery, as distinct from the reductionist model of disease.
2: Context of the Modern World – The stress response and what it means for the modern yogi – the effects of modern life and psychosocial stress on the nervous system, noticing polarities, somatic practices, survival over growth. Bringing in the yamas and the gunas as guides for practice and life.
3: Vagal Connection – Trauma & polyvagal theory – the freeze response, grounding, orientation and what this means within practice on and off the mat. The importance of the vagus nerve and old/new vagal tones.
4: Belly Connection – The enteric nervous system aka ‘second brain’ and listening to ‘what is true right now’, as well as sense of safety, intuitively responding and embodied awareness. Observing separation of head and body in reductionist culture; coming back to ‘head, heart and hara’ as whole.
5: The Fascial Web – Fascia as a sensory organ and how everything is connected to everything else. Communication via the psoas and fascia for kinaesthesia; interoception and proprioception, and how tightness, lesions and distortions in this matrix can ripple through the nervous system and affect how we move and feel.
6: Posture & Self – Modern postural habits from stress, sitting on chairs and trauma patterns. Including exploration of the primary and secondary spinal curves, the ventral and dorsal aspects (front and back body) and expressions of these via breath tones, and the Deep Front Line (Anatomy Trains) and sense of self.
7: Body Psychotherapy – Modern chakra theory & developmental trauma models for body psychotherapy – relationships with survival, trust, attunement, attachment and autonomy and how they affect our expressions through responses, gestures and movement.
8: Mindful Language – Stress, trauma & hypervigilance language – the modern habits of goal-oriented and self-critical language; how this affects yoga practice and teaching. The language of modern mindfulness as a helpful guide; inviting movement rather than imposing our will and the support of sound during physical practice.
9: Health as Whole – The yoga model of wellness (as opposed to the medical model of disease) and approaching health as coming back to whole, the root of the word ‘healing’. Discussing the kleshas (hindrances) as obstacles to wellness and sources of dis-ease within yoga philosophy. Identification with illness as a state and finding our essence nature.
10: Bringing it all together – Bringing it all together – gathering together the threads of the course to review aspects of whole health covered – in the context of moving beyond stress, trauma, burnout, anxiety, fatigue and post-illness through embodied awareness.
Take a tour of the course and a sneak peek of what's inside
Breakdown of the 76* hours course CPD hours
Each of the 10 themes:
2 presentations – c.1.5 hours
Practice – 1 hour
Live discussion – 1 hour (dates available below)
Reading – 1.5 hours
Home exploration – 1.5 hours
= 6.5 hours per theme
+ 11 hours assessment
*100 hours course CPD hours if you also complete the 4 Additional Live Workshops (see further down this page).
If you can’t make one of those dates in your chosen group,
you can always attend that theme within a future intake to ensure you have covered the required hours for the course.
You can sign up to the online course any time before these dates. You will have access to part 1 one week before the live course begins, to start the foundational somatic practice and laying out the ethos for the journey.
UPCOMING COURSE DATES – online live discussions
Here are dates for the next available course intakes. The ten live discussion sessions for each theme (60 mins) will be during these time slots.
NOVEMBER 2024 INTAKE
(NB: this course was due to start in September but personal circumstances have meant it has had to be moved forward)
Tuesdays 2-3pm UK time (2024-25):
- Nov 5th - Arriving
- Nov 19th - Context of the Modern World
- Dec 3rd - Vagal Connection
- Dec 17th - Belly Connection
- Jan 7th - The Fascial Web
- Jan 21st - Posture & Self
- Feb 4th - Body Psychotherapy
- Feb 25th - Mindful Language
- Mar 11th - Health as Whole
- Mar 25th - Bringing it all Together
FEBRUARY 2025 INTAKE
Fridays 6-7pm (2025):
- Feb 28th - Arriving
- Mar 14th - Context of the Modern World
- March 28th - Vagal Connection
- Apr 25th - Belly Connection
- May 9th - The Fascial Web
- May 23rd - Posture & Self
- Jun 13th - Body Psychotherapy
- Jun 27th - Mindful Language
- July 11th - Health as Whole
- July 18th - Bringing it all Together
Hi, I'm Charlotte Watts.
Charlotte attended her first yoga class in 1996 and immediately knew that it would be a large part of the route to overcoming her stress-related, digestive, mood and energy issues. She trained at the Vajrasati Yoga School in Brighton (500 hour Yoga Alliance training) founded by Jim Tarran who is influenced by Buddhism and brought a natural mindfulness aspect to practising yoga. This was the beginning of a relationship with yoga focusing on taking time and finding space to feel subtleties of the experience, energetics and responses within the practice and create full body awareness within postures.
Charlotte then went on to train in teaching yoga for people with ME and Chronic Fatigue with Fiona Agombar and teaching for chronic pain with Heather Mason, continuing her interest in yoga as therapy for anxiety, depression and stress states. She deepened her mindfulness practice as a result of a specific mindfulness course for yoga teachers with Cathy-Mae Karelse. She continues to study with teachers Tias Little and Joanne Avison as they combine her love of mindful, somatic practice, yoga as meditation, the contemporary anatomy of biotensegrity and an explorative and compassionate attitude – alongside attention to alignment with respect to the individual needs of students.
Charlotte is an author with many published books, including Yoga and Somatics for Immune and Respiratory Health (Singing Dragon 2022), Yoga Therapy for Digestive Health (Singing Dragon 2018), Good Mood Food (Nourish 2018) and The De-Stress Effect (2015). She is also an award-winning nutritionist, practising since 2000 and specialising in stress-related and fatigue conditions and burnout, and digestive issues.
Charlotte teaches classes in Brighton and London, workshops, UK yoga weekends and retreats abroad. She also runs courses and retreats specifically for yoga teachers to attend to their own self-care so they have the resources to support others.
