Are you a yoga teacher or health professional wanting to feel confident and equipped to offer more specialised support for your students or clients, but are unsure exactly how to refine your skills to be most sensitive to working with complex and vulnerable situations and communities?

This 50-hour advanced teacher training is designed specifically for you.

✨ This training has regularly booked out since it began in 2018. It is recommended to book early to secure your spot. ✨

What is the training?

This 50-hour advanced training focuses on the specifics of working with Yoga for Trauma, Anxiety, Depression, and Body Image. All modules are integrated from a person-centred, ethics-oriented, social-justice perspective.

The course is designed to create deep shifts in the way you think about yoga, social justice, and mental and spiritual health, and support you to be a confident facilitator of safe and empowering spaces for yoga to be shared in the context of challenging personal and psychological experiences.

The training is registered for 50 hours advanced training with Yoga Australia and attracts both CPD and teacher training hours.

Modules and Topics Covered

Trauma Sensitive Yoga + Social Justice Principles for Yoga Teachers

• Yoga and Trauma: Understanding and applying the 4 primary principles of the Trauma Sensitive Yoga method
• Methods of working with the nervous system to create greater safety in individuals and groups
• Introduction to trauma informed practice as a wider social movement in the ‘helping professions’.
• How yoga can be adapted in specific contexts to support trauma sensitive principles
• A suite of simple teaching principles and practices that can be integrated into daily life, group yoga classes, and 1:1 yoga sessions
• Methods of teaching public yoga classes with a trauma-informed approach
• The scope of professional practice for yoga teachers in the field of mental health, trauma and body image.
• Bringing life experience to teaching: peer work and the appropriate use of self-disclosure and lived experience.
• Social Justice in Mental Health: The role of critical reflection in influencing how and what we teach
• Understanding power and privilege and intersectionality in yoga spaces
• Spiritual Bypassing – what is it, and how does it show up in the yoga world?
• Working with ‘shadow’ - our own and those of others
• Providing tools in the yoga space that encourage acceptance self-empowerment, connection, agency and change.

Yoga for Anxiety, Depression & Mental Health

• Mental Health through Multiple Lenses: yoga, western psychology and questioning pathology
• Narratives of mental health: Ways of thinking about anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues using social justice and narrative approaches
• How to adapt yoga for anxiety reduction
• How to adapt yoga to support depression
• The ecology of healing: The intersection of the koshas and ecological systems theory
• A bio-psycho-social framework for teaching yoga for mental health
• Working with the needs of the individual: avoiding a prescriptive approach
• When and why to avoid certain practices for specific mental health issues
• Specific practices and teaching methods that work with the nervous system to support relief from psychological and emotional experiences, including anxiety, depression, grief, anger, and burnout
• How to structure classes to cater to diverse mental health needs in one space

Yoga for Body Image

• Yoga and Body Image: How Yoga Harms, How Yoga Heals
• Unpacking the notion of the ‘Yoga Body’
• Identifying and responding to white privilege and the impact of racial injustice in yoga spaces
• Encouraging environments of body-positivity and body-acceptance in yoga classes, 1:1 sessions, and personal practice
• The Art of Facilitation: creating and sustaining a safe space
• Balancing acceptance and change in the yoga space
• Working with the damage wrought by the ‘transformation fantasy’ as it relates to the body and yoga in the west, while honouring the transcendent possibility of the practices
• Practical approaches to welcoming difference and diversity in yoga spaces

Trauma-Informed Facilitation Skills, Program Development, Personal Practice + Self-Care

• Codependence in yoga teaching: how to work with the distress of others without moving to save or fix
• Sustaining our own practice and passion for this work
• Designing your own trauma informed programs
• How to work 1:1 with experiences of distress
• The art of therapeutic presence: how to work with the distress of others without moving to save or fix
• Moving beyond imposter syndrome: readiness to teach and knowing when you're skilled enough to teach for specialised groups.
• Moving beyond "doing good" and unsustainable activism. Learning how to work collaboratively to bring about change.
• Personal practice considerations
• How to surround yourself with ongoing support in this work: Supervision and Sangha
• Cultivating active hope in the face of the difficulties of our students and communities

There is also plenty of time for discussion and questions, as well as ample opportunity to practice facilitating the methods and practices explored in the theoretical modules.

Who is it for?

• Yoga teachers (or those in training) wishing to refine their ability to teach with trauma, anxiety, depression, and body image awareness.
• Mental Health professionals with a dedicated yoga practice who want to integrate yoga into their existing clinical or community settings.
• Health practitioners from diverse backgrounds (massage, dietetics etc) with a personal yoga practice interested in applying these principles in their work.

What Graduates Are Saying...

"It is a must. Best training I have ever attended. The delivery was exceptional. Every yoga teacher will benefit from this training for self-enquiry, personal growth, and teaching. BEYOND BRILLIANT." Hayley Bennett - training graduate

"There is a reason that Sarah's offerings book out....this training is invaluable to yoga teachers who genuinely believe that 'yoga is for everybody'. Sarah will guide you to dive into these most important topics/issues. Best training I have every done. I cannot more highly recommend it." Kay Callaghan - training graduate.

"Sarah's training really highlighted for me the way that the current yoga climate can be harmful. I was nervous that I would be expected to wrap students in cotton wool and become overly politically correct, but Sarah showed that it's about safety, empowerment, and choice, rather than throwing out everything we love to teach. Sarah's depth of knowledge - and the way she referenced the work/research of others - reflects the commitment she has made to understand these topics thoroughly. It is deeply inspiring. Thank you Sarah for creating such a safe container for us to be vulnerable, share and learn from each other." Kirsty Wright - training graduate

"This course was awesome. Sarah created an incredibly safe space for learning. The information was delivered with authenticity and honesty. Plenty of rest breaks and options to opt-in or opt-out if things felt too much at any time. Sarah is a pioneer!" Lisa Brown - training graduate

"For anyone thinking about doing this training I say - DO IT! It was such a wonderful, deep, immersive 4-days. Sarah is an incredibly calm, generous and intuitive teacher - very inspiring to me as a teacher. I've learned so many things I can now share in my classes to come from a more inclusive and trauma-informed way towards everyone who attends." Kerri Pietsch - training graduate

“I have just spent four amazing days as part of Sarah’s yoga teacher training for ‘trauma, depression and anxiety and body image ‘ and would highly recommend this course to yoga teachers. Sarah is the most amazing facilitator and skillfully structured this course over four days to cover such big ideas. Her passion for weaving social justice into these ideas was clearly evident and Sarah’s passion buoyed the whole group of amazing women there. I’m looking forward to weaving Sarah’s knowledge and magic into yoga on and off the mat. This course will change your mindset about teaching yoga to EVERYONE and celebrates that yoga is for EVERYONE. Blessed for this experience and Sarah." Michelle Beck - training graduate

"OMG! What a truly incredible and amazing experience with inspiring content and an incredible group of dedicated yoga teachers whom I'm so privileged to learn with. You definitely won't be disappointed by this awesome opportunity to learn incredibly important content about the work we do as yoga teachers. Thank you Sarah. You bring such knowledge and compassion to the way you explain everything. The whole training was shared with such practical examples that were easy to understand and integrate. An unforgettable experience." Aimee - training graduate

"Sarah is very well read and has a wealth of yoga and mental health teaching experience. She has a kind and warm approach along with a passion for sharing knowledge on social justice and body image. She is a wealth of knowledge and a wonderful role model! She gives to the subject/training her heart and soul! I'm leaving the training feeling inspired to be even more committed to bring about change and awareness of mental health, trauma and body image through yoga. Amazing training!" Kai - training graduate

"DO IT!!! If you have a passion to incorporate yoga for trauma, mental health or body image into your teaching or practice, Sarah's training is for you. EXCEPTIONALLY facilitated. Sarah is incredibly open, honest and forthcoming in her wealth of knowledge, wisdom and experience." Carla - training graduate

"Sarah is a melody of embodied presence. You rarely come across a yoga who walks that much talk. It feels like I have been openly embraced by ideas that were so close to me I didn't see them, until this course gave me permission. These topics are close to my heart and were delivered like a feast that might last forever." Kendra Boone - training graduate

About Your Facilitator – Sarah Ball

Sarah Ball is a Senior Yoga Teacher with Yoga Australia, social worker, counsellor, and art therapist specialising in mental health, social justice, body image, eating disorders, and trauma recovery.

She has been teaching yoga since 2003, practicing since 1995, and regularly facilitates on Level 1 & 2 Yoga Teacher Trainings, as well as Yoga Therapy trainings. She has created the well-known Yoga for Anxiety & Depression 8-week course, Trauma Sensitive Yoga programs, and Body Love Yoga workshops.

Sarah’s work is informed by training across a wide variety of yoga lineages, with a trauma-sensitive, body-positive, and socially just approach.

For more information about Sarah Ball.

Training Details

📍 Venue: Harold Park Community Hall, Tramsheds, 1 Dalgal Way, Forest Lodge, Sydney (Gadigal and Wangal Country)
📅 Dates: Thursday 14 – Sunday 17 May, 2026
⏰ Times: 8:30am – 5:30pm daily
☕ Breaks: 30 min morning tea, 60 min lunch
💻 Additional Resources:

• Access to 5 online classes (available from Thursday 30 April)

Ticket Options

1. Early Bird Rate – Pay in Full 💲 $1,450 Available until 14th December 2025. Must be paid in full at time of booking (one transaction).
2. Full Price – Pay in Full 💲 $1,600 Available after early bird ends until registration closes, 12th May 2026.
3. Full Price – Payment Plan 💲 $1,600 total, split into 4 payments:

• Deposit: $550 upfront - non refundable 
• 3 x $350 monthly instalments (consecutive months)
  An admin fee will be charged for overdue payments.

**Bolster & mat hire will be available if students are unable to bring their own

Terms & Conditions

Deposits & Payments

• A non-refundable deposit of $550 is required to secure your place.
• The balance must be paid in full no later than 6 weeks prior to the retreat/training start date.
• Payment plans must be completed by the agreed due dates. Overdue payments may result in a fee or forfeiture of your place, with refund policies applying as below.

Cancellations & Refunds

• Cancellations 8+ weeks prior: balance refunded, deposit retained ($550)
• Cancellations between 8–4 weeks prior: 50% refund of total course fee (if paid in full).
• Cancellations within 4 weeks prior: no refund. You may transfer your place to another suitable participant (arranged by you, with organiser approval).
• No refunds once the retreat/training has commenced.
• Fees are not transferable to other courses or retreats.

Transfers

• If you cannot attend, you may transfer your place to another person suitable for the course content.
• The replacement participant must complete required forms and be approved by the organiser.

All payments are non-refundable but are transferable to another participant if you are unable to attend.

If the training is cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances, all payments will be refunded in full.

Certification

On successful completion, you will receive a certificate for 50 hours of advanced training (Registered for 50 hours of Advanced Yoga Training with Yoga Australia). Recognised for CPD hours within many modalities. 

Contact

For questions or support contact Lauren Morey at yogaspacelm@gmail.com.