Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TSY-R®)
An evidence-based yoga method for addressing trauma through the body.
Learn how Trauma-Sensitive Yoga Rādika (TSY-R®) integrates yoga, compassion, and regulation through the vagal nerve to support trauma recovery.
Yoga teachers, yoga practitioners, therapists and individuals interested in personal growth.
Pre-recorded online course with optional live mentoring.
Available for 6 months after subscription.
FACILITATOR
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
- Understanding trauma: What trauma is, its different types, how it affects the body, the brain and the nervous system, and what makes recovery and growth possible.
- Safety, choice and interoception: The core principles of TSY-R®, which are creating a sense of safety, offering options, and helping people notice what is happening inside their bodies.
- Working with the nervous system: How to use breath, movement, meditation and relaxation to work within the window of tolerance.
- Empathy, compassion and dignity: Compassion as a healing element in its own right, for participants and facilitator alike, alongside the empathy and respect for dignity that sustain the practice.
- Facilitating Trauma-Sensitive Yoga: Where to offer it, how to build groups, and how it can work alongside therapy.
- Caring for yourself: Self-care practices for those who accompany people affected by trauma.
TRAINING INFORMATION
FORMAT
Pre-recorded online course with optional live mentoring.
The course will be available for 6 months from the date of enrollment.
RECOMMENDED FOR
Yoga teachers, yoga practitioners, therapists and individuals interested in personal growth.
ENROLLMENT AND PRICING
BASIC PROGRAM
385€
Basic Features:
- 36 recorded sessions (25 hours total)
- Supplementary study materials
- 6 months of access to complete the course
- Eligibility to appear on our facilitator map (pin color based on certificate earned)
Specific Features:
- «Attendance Certificate» included
MENTORED PROGRAM
385€ (Only until October 31)
Basic Features
- 36 recorded sessions (25 hours total)
- Supplementary study materials
- 6 months of access to complete the course
- Eligibility to appear on our facilitator map (pin color based on certificate earned)
Specific Features
- «Attendance and Practice Certificate» included
- 1:1 live Q&A session with your mentor
- Direct mentor support for questions throughout the course
- Practical online TSY-R session with personalized mentor feedback
- Assessments for each module
*Until October 31, you can join the Mentored Program (485€) for the same price as the Basic Program (385€), with personal guidance included at no extra cost.
SCHOLARSHIPS AND INSTALLMENT PAYMENTS
At Fundación Rādika, we offer scholarships and installment payment options to ensure access to our courses when circumstances allow and a positive impact can be made. Our commitment is to support those facing financial difficulties, while also ensuring the sustainability of our courses and honoring the professional work behind them.
If you believe this option could be helpful for you, we invite you to fill out the form at the following link. We kindly ask that you do so responsibly, so that this initiative can continue to benefit those who need it most.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Rādika Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (YST-R®) is an evidence-based approach designed to address trauma directly through the body.
When a difficult experience goes unprocessed, unresolved distress can remain held in the body indefinitely. Understanding trauma opens a crucial window into many related forms of suffering—such as anxiety, depression, addiction, and difficulty concentrating.
Developed by psychologists and psychiatrists, YST-R® offers specialized tools to support healing from trauma and its long-term effects.
COURSE CONTENT
Starting from care: self-care and the safe center
We begin with those who accompany others: caring for our own wellbeing and finding an inner place of safety from which to facilitate.
- Self-care for those who accompany trauma
- Safe center meditation: connecting with an inner sense of safety
Understanding trauma and building safety
An introduction to trauma from a body-based perspective, and to safety as the foundation of every Trauma-Sensitive Yoga practice.
- What is trauma, and why work with the body?
- The five elements of trauma and of TSY-R®
- Safety: a guided practice and the theory behind it
- The six symptoms of trauma and how to recognize them
Choice, types of trauma and resilience
Offering options as a way to restore a sense of choice and control, along with a closer look at the different types of trauma and our capacity to recover and grow.
- Options: practice and theory of offering choices within the class
- Types of trauma (parts 1 and 2)
- Resilience: the capacity to adapt and recover
- Post-traumatic growth: positive change after adversity
Interoception and the brain in trauma
Learning to notice what happens inside the body, and understanding how trauma affects the brain and the fear response.
- Interoception: meditation, practice and theory of noticing internal sensations
- Present-moment experience and triggers
- The brain in trauma
- Parts of the brain involved in trauma and in TSY-R®
- The neurophysiology of fear
Breath, the nervous system and the window of tolerance
How trauma shapes the nervous system, and how breath and movement can help us stay within a manageable level of activation.
- Breathing in Trauma-Sensitive Yoga: theory and practice
- How the body and nervous system respond to trauma
- The window of tolerance: the range in which we can feel without becoming overwhelmed or shutting down
- Activation: practice and theory of working safely with the nervous system’s arousal
Regulation, dignity and facilitation
Tools for calming and rest, and the relational and ethical foundations for bringing Trauma-Sensitive Yoga to groups and therapeutic settings.
- Practice for calming the nervous system
- Meditation and relaxation adapted to Trauma-Sensitive Yoga
- Trauma-Sensitive Yoga as a complement to therapy
- Where to facilitate and how to build groups
- The ten elements of dignity
- Empathy and compassion: theory and how to integrate them into TSY-R®
Introducing Trauma-Sensitive Yoga Rādika (TSY-R®)
Maria Macaya introduces the foundations of our evidence-based approach to trauma-sensitive yoga.
CERTIFICATES
Backed by Fundaciōn Rādika’s extensive expertise in trauma-informed care and mental health, these certificates endorse your specialized training and commitment to compassionate, evidence-based practices.
- Attendance Certificate: It implies the completion of the course.
- Attendance and Practice Certificate: It implies the completion of the course and offering a TSY-R® session to your mentor. At the end of this practice, constructive feedback will be given, but in no case will it be evaluated.
Fundación Radika is a recognized non-profit organization dedicated to promoting mental health, trauma education, and emotional well-being through specialized training, public awareness, and evidence-informed practices.
FACILITATOR
Maria Macaya
María Macaya is the founder and president of Rādika. She moved to Barcelona with her family in 2014 after living in the United States, Central America, and Europe for 30 years.
María founded Rādika in 2016 with the intention of giving mental and emotional health a voice and providing knowledge and tools for well-being.
Maria is specialized in trauma and Trauma Sensitive Toga. She is certified in Gabor Maté’s professional Compassionate Inquiry program, has the Brookline Massachusetts Center for Trauma and Embodiment’s 300-hour certification in the TCTSY methodology, and the San Francisco Center for Yoga and Trauma Recovery’s advanced program.
Maria has brought Trauma Sensitive Yoga to Spain – an evidence-based type of yoga for people with trauma.
María offers sessions and has already trained more than 500 professionals in this methodology.
She is also certified in addiction and recovery from Stanford University, and has studied neuroscience with Kings College and with Nazareth Castellanos, polyvagal theory with Stephen Porges and Ariele Schwartz, and trauma with Bessel van der Kolk, Mario Salvador, and Carmen Cuenca.
Maria is an 800 hour advanced yoga teacher from Jivamukti and trains teachers at this school.
She has a BA in Art History and International Relations from Tufts University, an MA in Art Criticism from Columbia University, and a BA in Creative Writing from Stanford University.
“Maria Macaya is one of those unique teachers whose vast knowledge is combined with curiosity and humility. Her joy and laughter can brighten up any room, while her attention to detail always provides a sense of security that makes everyone feel welcome.”
Jules Febre, Advanced Teacher, Jivamukti Yoga
