Trauma Sensitive Yoga for Children sessions have started in the Bundaberg Region, with help from Council, as part of Child Protection Week.
Child Protection Week is a national event that held from Sunday, 6 September, and aims to promote the value of children while focusing attention on the issues of child abuse and neglect.
Child Protection Week Action Group, supported by YMCA Bundaberg, was awarded $1000 through Council’s Micro Grants Program, Round 1, for the Trauma Sensitive Yoga for Children program.
Trauma Sensitive Yoga for Children, and Bundaberg Yoga, instructor Leanne Toy said the program would benefit the children and help capture their physical, emotional and mental health potential.
“Yoga is a way to become friendlier with your own body,” Leanne said.
“Children are natural yogis – They know how to drop down from their busy thinking heads and into their playful, active bodies. They know how to be in the present moment.
“Many yoga postures are named after animals or things in nature, so it’s a perfect fit for children to practise mindfulness yoga.”
Leanne said Trauma Sensitive Yoga for Children was more than just a fun experience for the participants, as yoga offered children the opportunity to realise early on how much power they had simply by being in a good relationship with their body.
“This leads to a ‘friendlier’ relationship with their thoughts and emotions,” she said.
“They learn, through the fun, accessible and mindful practices of yoga, how much responsibility they can have for their own well-being.
“The tools that yoga provides for self-awareness, self-value and self-care can be so empowering. I wish I had learned them when I was in primary school!”
Leanne is trained and mentored in Trauma Sensitive Yoga, teaching by Shirley Hicks, she facilitates trauma-informed mindfulness yoga in the community health, mental health, child safety and early childhood sectors of Bundaberg.
Community Services portfolio spokesperson Cr Tracey McPhee said child protection was an important topic and commended the local Child Protection Week Action Group for all their hard work and dedication in keeping children in the Bundaberg Region safe.
“Caring for children and keeping them safe is a shared responsibility,” Cr McPhee said.
“The support from Council’s Micro Grant will not only help the Child Protection Week Action Group but provide care for individual children here in the region through the Trauma Sensitive Yoga for Children program.”
Child Protection Week focuses attention on child protection being everyone’s business and ensuring that all Queensland communities take responsibility for children being protected and experience well-being.
The week is launched with an awards ceremony recognising outstanding practice in child protection.
For more information on Queensland Child Protection Week click here.
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