Yoga for Burn-Out and Fatigue Conditions: Trauma sensitive and subtle yogic approaches to support overwhelm and exhaustion

What is Burnout?

Burnout is a term used to describe the emotional and physical collapse that can occur after long-term or chronic stress. It describes a state of ‘constant alert’ having lost the ability to regulate and self-soothe. As teachers we need to be able to guide students into a sense of safety and stillness so that they can develop holding strategies and the ability to be with intense sensations with understanding and equanimity. With persistent of the pandemic and lockdown measures, many of now feeling these effects and are in great need of such support and resources within their lives.

The prevalence of fatigue as a chronic condition is hugely on the increase, especially Post Viral Fatigue (PVF) and its Syndrome – resulting from viral infections such as glandular fever and of course now Covid-19 and long Covid. An individual may also have a diagnosis of deeper Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS also known as ME) or fatigue that can commonly be related to post-illness or medication regimes (such as cancer, digestive and cardiovascular diseases), or autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. We bring these considerations back to relationship with the nervous system, stress and trauma, where the Yoga Model of Wellness seeks to restore equilibrium.

Yoga and meditation practices offer very real (and well-researched) methods to quieten over-activated and fatigued body systems and to support individuals with tools to self-soothe and regulate. The key aim of yoga is to ‘still the mind’ through body awareness and connection to the breath, thereby intercepting the chattering monkey mind (analytical left brain) so dominant in Western cultures and Western bodies.

What does the course include?

2 live online sessions (7 June and 22 June)

• What are Stress and Burnout? 
• Relaxation Response and the Breath 
• Inflammation and links to trauma, stress and effects
• Polyvagal theory and skull-sacrum polarity
• An overview of Fatigue and Associated Conditions – including ME/CFS 
• Self-Compassion
• Contributing characteristics for stress, burnout & fatigue – teaching considerations 

Plus...

Pre-recorded content (including pre-recorded practices), reading manual, and assessment.

What Will I Learn?

This course will explore the common symptoms of Burnout, PVFS, CFS, long-Covid and other fatigue states,  learning how energy is affected in terms of its creation and usage in those affected.

From there, we will explore many tools and consider how to best help students regain strength, find new ways of coping with these symptoms and live life in a way that supports recovery.

This course offers a well-rounded and in-depth experiential understanding of how it feels to move and live from a burnt-out, ‘tired but wired’ exhausted state. It will explore how to teach holding space for the habit patterns – samskaras– of pushing, doing, over-doing, striving etc to be seen clearly in a non-judgemental environment so that they become less and less binding. Crucially we will explore how to encourage students’ agency and development of their tuning inward, so they can begin to hear the body’s whispers of ‘enough’. Grounding, mindful and somatic work will be offered to help promote healing, conserve and restore energy and transform unhelpful habits of the body/mind system.
 

What can you use the course for?

The course content will help raise awareness of the ways in which burnout and fatigue play out in a modern-day human both physically and psychologically. For teachers, it will also provide tools to help students in your regular classes increase their own awareness and explore their practice in a more nourishing and supportive way.

Participants can use the teachings in this course to create specialist classes, especially for burnout and Fatigue conditions - including Long Covid - and there is some content on the best way to go about setting these types of classes up.

Who is this Workshop for?

This workshop is for yoga teachers, yoga therapists and trainee teachers. It is also suitable for health professionals who have an interest in these conditions, such as occupational therapists, doctors, physiotherapists and nurses.

Breakdown of CPD hours

7 themes pre-recorded content – 7 hours

7 video practices – 7 hours

Reading manual – 6 hours minimum expected

Live contact hours - 12 hours

*Assessment – 6 hours

Total = 38 hours

*There is an OPTIONAL final assessment to demonstrate knowledge of the course content that will be marked with teacher feedback. The assessment will include designing a class and reflecting on practice and teaching.

Meet the Teachers

Charlotte Watts 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 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.

Leah Barnett has been teaching yoga since qualifying with the Inner Yoga Trust in 2002. She then specialised in teaching children with special needs after taking the ‘Yoga for the Special Child’ training with Jo Manuel in 2007. She recently completed the KHYF (BWY) advanced yoga teaching qualification and now works mainly on a one to one basis with adults affected by chronic illness including ME/chronic fatigue. She has assisted Fiona Agombar on a number of retreats for those with energy related problems and has also taught a number of Fiona’s retreats for those with ME/chronic fatigue. Prior to qualifying as a yoga teacher, Leah was a human rights lawyer representing clients in the lower courts and delivering training for new recruits on relevant law and procedure.

Attendance requirement and recording of live sessions

Attendance Live (80% minimum) is part of the workshop requirement. The live sessions are not recorded as we don’t believe it is ethical to record others voices and send out. These sessions need to remain a space where people feel they can speak freely and openly without any censoring that can occur when they are being recorded; particularly with the often personal and sensitive nature of the course content and discussion.

The only time live sessions are only recorded is for practices within eg if a 10 minute meditation is lead within a session, only that time will be recorded and a link sent on to the recording after.

This also follows the basis that if you were taking the course in person, you would not be allowed to miss any percentage of teaching time, but we do recognise that those who come to this course may be experiencing health issues, so there is leeway for time away from the screen and the group where needed. However, you are free to turn off video and audio at any time to be able to hear content but not to engage or look at a screen.

80% minimum attendance is only a bare minimum, not a suggestion, so only use this if you really need and do let course leaders and assistants (where appropriate) know of this by email just before the course start. To keep up the integrity of course standards, attendance will be noted and any home study you may need to make up advised.
 

NB: recognising that many who attend the course have energy issues, there are many nourishing practices, breaks throughout the day, an hour for lunch and the space for you to sit back and look after yourself whenever you need, within the attendance time. The course tutors will lay out this framework of self-compassion when you meet.