Change makes harmony...

​Upon completion of the program, BYUV immediately began offering free classes at the studio to a local organization that houses runaways and kids who need safety and shelter.. We've made contact with our local prisons and will begin communications to get cleared to offer classes there!  Kim Tang 2015

Many, many thanks for your warmth, energy and sharing of such valuable information regarding your journey and the amazing work that you and your groups do with under-served populations. 

On Monday evening during one of our social skills groups for children, the Family Centre counsellor who attended your training, along with another staff member who attends yoga classes regularly spontaneously used yoga postures with the children and it went very, very well.  These two staff members will now meet to further develop this using your handbook as a guideline.  So, another thanks is needed here too. 

Kind Regards,
Dr. Sandy De Silva, Psy.D.
Clinical Psychologist, Registered in Bermuda
Director of Services

“It was my immense pleasure to attend the UpRising Yoga Trauma Informed Training. I am involved with URY and this training from the beginning. But being a student not a speaker gave me so much deeper understanding how daily trauma effects in our life. Jill’s story and her articulation gave everyone a way to think deeper in their heart. This training is for everyone’s personal growth , I recommend wholeheartedly.” 
Rajashree Choudhury, URY Board Member

---

​"I felt so fired up after the training and never felt so passionate in Yoga and helping communities with Yoga. It is such a great feeling to be part of it. I found myself have been practicing Yoga more and knowing I can use this skill to help youth and community has been just a great gift!!! I am so grateful! Thank you"  Rui Cang, Marriage & Family Therapist Intern

I just wanna take a minute and thank Jill WEISS Ippolito and UpRising Yoga for reigniting my passion for teaching yoga. I was really burnt out on the yoga world before I took Jill's training, and it helped me to remember that yoga is a useful skill for healing. What we do is not just an activity for "troubled" kids. We are offering trauma-informed yoga life skills to populations that have high rates of PTSD. As Jill says, "yoga is a gift - no one can take it from you". Laura Van Den Bergh, URY Teacher

"I highly recommend Jill, her workshop, trainings and her teaching manual. She provides a practical and useful set of skills to use when sharing yoga as well as providing an informed background to what trauma informed yoga is and why it is so appropriate and helpful as a tool for the disenfranchised in our community. Jill was very easy to work with. She communicated consistently with me over the planning period and was reliable and helpful. She is the type of facilitator that ignites a passion in all the participants to really do something with the skills they require."
​ Joan Davey, Director, Studio Owner of Adelaide Hills Bikram Yoga and The Australian Yoga Foundation.

I was fortunate enough to attend the first Trauma Informed Yoga Training.  At the time, I had a notion of offering bi-lingual yoga to the Lincoln Heights community near my home.  My husband was a teacher in Lincoln Heights and I worked on a documentary TV series about at risk youth.  I  knew I wanted to give something back.  As a long-time yoga practitioner, I not only knew the benefits of a yoga practice, I was acutely aware of how inaccessible yoga was to many communities.  What I found at the training with Jill, Nick and the other instructors was a community of people committed to providing healing, acceptance and grace to individuals who often find themselves invisible and at the edge of society.  I learned how to go consciously into communities impacted by trauma, the importance of letting going of preconceived ideas and the joy of simply being presence for individuals as well practical things like class sequencing for communities unfamiliar with the practice and the need for self-care.   As I always say, I’m not a yoga teacher, what I am is an organizer.  A few months after the training, I started Yoga@ a grassroots yoga program in Lincoln Heights with several yoga teachers.  We offer free bi-lingual yoga classes at a local Zumba studio.  We have also taught yoga to special needs teens, high school students and during the city’s summer program Summer Night Lights.  I also work as a teaching artist in  a re-entry program for ex-offenders and incorporate yoga into my lessons.  I can say without a doubt that the courage and grace to be authentically in community started when I attended the workshop, met Jill, Nick and the rest of these amazing group of yogis. 
​Marlene McCurtis, Producer