Anahata’s Community Outreach Programme

When you donate to The Heart Chakra Fund, your donations support Anahata in a number of ways.

Your support enables us to:

• Develop new online courses to better serve our community & beyond.
• Provide scholarships for individuals who cannot afford the full cost of our programmes.
• Help sustain us during this time of transition.
• Support our Community Outreach Programmes.

One of the Community Outreach Programmes that is very dear to our hearts is the Women’s Integral Yoga and Mindfulness Programme for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

This initiative was launched in 2022. It offers a supportive and nurturing pathway to healing for women in Golden Bay who are living with PTSD.

The Anahata Yoga Health & Education Trust (AYHET) is honoured to be part of this initiative, together with Priyadhara Henderson, Programme Developer and Facilitator, and Director of Creating Balance, Te Whare Mahana Community Mental Health Service (TWM) and local therapists. All parties have worked together with dedication to bring this initiative to life, ensuring women with PTSD can access this transformative support, empowering participants with recovery, resilience, and well-being through a holistic blend of yoga and mindfulness practices.

Each Donation to The Heart Chakra Fund contributes to the health and wealth of the Anahata Yoga Health & Education Trust which was “established as a non-profit organisation to enable us to expand our capacity in sharing the yogic lifestyle for the well-being of individuals and families of all walks of life”. Without your valuable donations, the Anahata Yoga Health & Education Trust would not be able to continue to offer its services, expertise and time to programmes such as this. As a long-standing and respected Trust, the main role of the Anahata Yoga Health & Education Trust  within this collaboration is to support the programme director and facilitate the ability to receive funding, with the Trust Board members offering their time, their offices and their skills.

This programme has been made possible thanks to the generous support of the Lottery Grants Board, Rata Foundation, and the Golden Bay Community Trust. The programme provides free, accessible sessions tailored to the unique needs of at-risk women with PTSD. Delivered annually for a period determined by funding availability, it complements existing trauma therapy with a mindful and somatic approach.

Benefits

The programme delivers meaningful benefits and outcomes for participants, including:

• Empowering recovery: By equipping women with PTSD with mindful somatic yogic techniques and educational tools, the programme fosters self-care, self-awareness, and self-regulation. This empowers participants to build resilience, agency, and well-being, helping prevent violence, self-harm, addiction, suicide, social isolation, and abuse.

• Enhancing community well-being: Supporting women to manage and recover from PTSD enables them to feel safer and more confident, encouraging greater participation in and contribution to their community with improved self-esteem and clarity.

• Strengthening local support systems: The programme promotes community-based solutions and networks to uplift at-risk, rurally isolated women with PTSD in Golden Bay, fostering connection and support.

• Promoting self-ownership: Participants are empowered to take charge of their health and recovery, set meaningful goals, and regain control over their bodies, emotions, and thoughts.

• Building emotional resilience: Participants learn effective techniques to help expand their window of tolerance and capacity to cope with challenges, establish healthy boundaries, and nurture compassionate relationships with themselves and others.

• Cultivating body awareness: Participants reconnect with physical sensations through breathwork and yoga asana postures/movements, release tension, enhance posture and well-being, and understand links between physical, emotional, and mental states, fostering embodied connection to self.

• Building real-time stress management skills: Equipping participants with tools such as breathwork and grounding techniques assists them in developing skills to manage stress and overwhelm in the moment, promoting greater calm, control, and self-regulation when faced with difficult situations.

• Fostering a safe, supportive community: Creating a nurturing, small-group environment where participants feel safe, accepted, and connected, strengthens their sense of belonging and trust, which enhances their healing journey.

“Dear Priya. Your programme has been exceptional. At 72, as a retired health practitioner with diagnosed PTSD, your skilled professional and deeply respectful sessions have provided me with time to truly connect to my body in a way I hadn’t experienced in 60 years. Something my psychotherapist has encouraged me to do to complement our past six years of therapy. I wish all those disconnected from their bodies, unfamiliar with deep breathing techniques, and suffering past trauma, could have an experience of your sessions. For me they were gold standard.” HB

“I have grown as a person. This programme has helped me to commit to something fully. My anxiety is much less now, as I’ve been given a safe place and tools to deal with this. My body is in a more relaxed state. I don’t feel in fight or flight mode all the time. I have learned to calm my body before reacting negatively which was a massive issue for me. Thank you, for creating such a calm and safe place for me to improve, I can’t really express how much this has helped me and I’m so thankful for the opportunity to join. I now have skills in my tool belt that I’ll be able to use forever.” EM