Prana House Wellness Festival - Celebrating 20 Years
As part of Prana House's 20 Year Wellness Festival, our practitioners are offering a diverse range of workshops designed to inspire, educate and support your wellbeing. Whether you are looking to deepen your understanding of a particular topic, learn practical tools to support your health, or experience a new modality in a welcoming group environment, these special workshops offer the perfect opportunity. Led by our experienced practitioners, each workshop provides a chance to connect with new ideas, gain valuable insights, and discover the practitioners and approaches that resonate with you and may become an ongoing part of your wellness journey.
A trauma-aware, neuroaffirming class centred on choice and curiosity
Thought yoga wasn't for you?
Maybe you've thought, "I’m not flexible enough," "my mind is too busy” or “I can’t sit still" or you've tried yoga before and never quite felt like you belonged.
This class is designed for the people who think yoga isn't for them or have ever felt like, “I must be doing it wrong”.
Over this two-hour workshop, you'll be invited to explore a gentle blend of slow-flow Hatha and Yin yoga in a way that prioritises choice and curiosity. Rather than focusing on getting it "right," you'll be supported to explore what feels supportive of your body, your nervous system and your unique way of being in any given moment.
We'll begin by settling into the space and introducing the principles of choice, curiosity and nervous system awareness, including Dan Siegel’s, ‘window of tolerance’ that will guide the workshop. From there, you'll be invited to explore gentle flowing movement, longer-held supported shapes, breathing practices and accessible meditation, with opportunities to pause, modify or rest whenever you choose. Throughout the session we'll weave together practical information about the nervous system with experiential practices, giving you the chance to notice what feels supportive for you.
We'll explore two styles of yoga:
Slow-flow Hatha uses gentle movements linked together at an unhurried pace, with frequent pauses to practice awareness and notice any feedback from your body or nervous system.
Yin yoga involves resting in supported shapes for several minutes at a time. You're always welcome to move, fidget, change position, come out of a pose or choose a completely different shape. Stillness is never expected.
Everything is an invitation rather than an expectation. You are the expert on your own body, and you'll be supported to choose what feels most helpful in each moment. Yoga, your way.
What you'll explore
During this workshop you'll gain a deeper understanding of:
How your nervous system and stress response influence your experience of movement, rest and yoga.
Why some yoga classes can feel regulating and supportive, while others simply don't feel "right" and why that's not a personal failing and can change from day to day.
How to use movement as a way of building awareness, rather than striving for flexibility or perfection based on preconceived notions and expectations, either our own or others’.
Different ways of working with the breath, including understanding when breathing techniques can feel supportive and when they may not.
Accessible approaches to meditation that don't require sitting still, sitting cross-legged or trying to "empty your mind."
Interoception (your awareness of what's happening inside your body) and proprioception (your awareness of where your body is in space), and how developing these can support confidence, self-awareness and regulation.
How choice, autonomy and curiosity can transform your experience of yoga into something that feels accessible and genuinely supportive.
You'll leave with...
Practical tools to regulate stress that you can use both on and off the yoga mat.
Greater confidence to trust your own experience.
A kinder, less self-critical relationship with movement and rest.
A greater understanding of your own nervous system and what helps you feel grounded.
Practical ways to adapt yoga to suit your needs.
A fresh perspective on yoga as a practice of choice, curiosity, listening to yourself and letting go of expectations.
Ange is a yoga teacher and mental health social worker who integrates evidence-based neuroscience with trauma-informed, neuroaffirming and person-centred yoga practice to create classes that feel accessible, nurturing and empowering. Drawing on extensive experience in mental health, years of teaching yoga, and her own lived experience as a neurodivergent person, Ange understands that many conventional yoga classes can feel inaccessible, not only physically, but also in the expectations they place on attention, stillness, sensory processing and social comfort. For many people, these environments can be intimidating or leave them feeling as though they're "doing yoga wrong." Her teaching is grounded in the knowledge that yoga isn't about changing yourself to fit the practice, it's about adapting the practice to fit you.
Yoga isn't about fitting yourself to the practice. It's about discovering a practice that fits you. Yoga, your way.
Choice over conformity. Curiosity over judgement. Connection over comparison.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
Accessibility
Please note that the Prana House is only accessible via a staircase. Apologies if this is a barrier for you - please reach out if I can help you in any way to make your entry easeful.
Chairs are available for those who cannot sit on the floor/kneel as well as other props.
There is adjustable lighting in the room.
No scents will be used in the room but may be present in the studio.
Instrumental music will be playing in the background at a moderate level throughout the session.
There will be no hands-on adjustments.
Everything is optional.
You're welcome to bring fidgets, weighted items or other supports that help you feel comfortable. We simply ask that you be mindful of noise if using items that click or make repetitive sounds.
Workshop limited to 15 spots. There are a limited number of discount tickets if you bring a friend as we all know having a buddy can make it easier attending something new.
Refunds
Unfortunately there are no refunds for these events but I'm happy for you to sell or pay your ticket forward to someone else who can attend.
Prana House details:
Level 1, 885 High Street, Thornbury
Prana House is 7kms from the CBD. There is ample parking along High Street and in neighbouring streets nearby on a Sunday. It is also a short walk from Thornbury Station, the tram.
Social story: You will enter the front door and go up two flights of stairs where you will be greeted by someone at reception. You will take your shoes off (slippers are available) and take any valuables into the room with you. There will be tea and filtered water available. Please make sure phones are switched off or on silent. The room will be set up with mats, bolsters, blankets, straps and blocks. There are two toilets available down the hall on the left, at the very back of the building. There are two yoga studios at Prana House. “Shiva” a larger studio at the front of the building and “Quan Yin” a smaller studio set back from the noise of High Street. Yoga, Your Way will be held in Quan Yin.
There will be a yoga class on in Shiva when you arrive. Please be mindful of this and keep noise levels in hall to a minimum. You are welcome to enter Quan Yin studio from 9:45 and get settled. Alternatively there are a number of quiet places you can sit if you need some space before the workshop.
Contact
If you have any questions about the event or need to discuss accessibility requirements, please contact Ange at angelascottyoga@gmail.com or via the contact section in Humanitix.
I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this workshop will take place, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. I honour, respect and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters, skies and culture. I pay my deepest respects to the Elders past and present, acknowledging sovereignty was never ceded.
Event Date(s): Sunday 23rd August
Event Time: 10am to 12pm
Cost: Individual: $55
Bring a buddy: $90 (for 2 tickets)
Concession (limited tickets): $40
Booking Link: https://events.humanitix.com/yoga-your-way
Organiser Name: Angela Scott
Organiser Website: https://angela-scott.com/
Event Enquiries Contact: Ange Scott angescottyoga@gmail.com or @angelascottyoga