Thirty years working in clinical health — ICU, high dependency, mental health, AOD (alcohol, & other drugs) counselling and community nursing — adds a layer of understanding that shapes everything about how yoga and mindfulness are taught at Yoga NRG.
WHAT CLINICAL EXPERIENCE OFFERS
Working in those environments means sitting with people in their most vulnerable moments.
Watching what chronic stress does to a body over time.
Seeing what trauma looks like when it is not being discussed, acknowledged or understood — when it is living in someone’s posture, their breathing, their relationship with their own body and how they may perceive the world around them.
Learning to read a room or notice what is happening in community – not just for what is being said but for what is not.
That accumulates over decades of clinical practice and yoga and mindfulness practice.
HOW IT CHANGES THE TEACHING
When a student comes to class carrying something they have not named — grief, trauma, burnout, chronic pain — a clinically trained and trauma informed teacher notices certain signs and symptoms.
Not to fix it. Not to turn the class into a therapy session.
But to create an environment where that person can – over time begin to feel genuinely safe. Where the practice meets them where they are day to day. Making time and space to listen, to provide opportunities to be educated about integrating the body, mind, breathing, nervous system health and collective conscious response to all different forms of Trauma.
THE FOUNDATION AT YOGA NRG
Tammy Williams is a Registered Nurse registered with AHPRA and a Certified Clinical Trauma Health Professional — with three decades of clinical practice in health, mental health and trauma care.
She is also a Level 3 Senior Yoga and Mindfulness Teacher Trainer with well over 19,000+ teaching hours and a practice rooted in the depth and wisdom of yoga tradition.
Both serve an important purpose. The science explains why these practices work. The tradition holds what science is still catching up to.
At Yoga NRG the two sit alongside each other — evidence-based and grounded in tradition. Neither complete without the other.
WHY IT MATTERS FOR TEACHER TRAINING
If you are training to teach yoga or mindfulness — particularly if you want to work with people navigating stress, burnout, anxiety or trauma — the clinical support and depth of your training matters.
Not because you need to be a clinician yourself. Scope of practice is extremely important for both the clients / students wellbeing also your own.
But because you need a trainer who can teach you to recognise what you are looking at — and respond in a way that is both Trauma Aware and Trauma Informed can improve the outcome.
Thirty years in health combined with Level 3 Senior Yoga and Mindfulness Teacher Training enables solid foundations and support – learning to be both discerning and compassionate (especially when it comes to your own personal experiences) happens over time – the Yogis re-iterate this. This is one of the reasons why originally Yoga & Mindfulness was taught 1:1.
Working 1:1 weather it be at the bedside in ICU / Intensive Care or through Mentoring Teachers/Trainees or offering counselling during clinical nursing consultations – there is something that experience is hard to replace via pre recorded or large group training scenarios.
This does not mean they do not offer benefit and there is certainly a difference in ‘group energy’ that can be felt. However the nervous system needs both community connection and time to be understood as far as its history goes. We need time to check in with the body – to ask it and time to clarify without being distracted by others.
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