Monique Minahan

I am a San-Diego-based yoga teacher, mother, author and creator of The Grief Practice: Trauma-informed yoga that welcomes grief. At the age of twenty-five I lost my husband, Nathan, to a complication with one of his chemotherapy drugs. I struggled with complicated grief and major depression for many years. Six years later I started practicing yoga. Yoga helped me connect with my innate, somatic resources that helped me find psychological health and my unique way forward.

In 2012 I began piecing together an approach to grief through yoga that welcomed and supported it without having to fix it. These days I share a Polyvagal-based, trauma-informed lens through which to explore and explain grief in the body through science, stories, and yoga. I have been teaching yoga to grieving humans since 2016 and blend my understanding of emotions science, movement science, and trauma – as well as my own intimate understanding of grief – into classes that honor the innate healing ability of every human being and every human body.

I draw on my understanding of Polyvagal theory, movement science, trauma, and my experience as a yoga teacher to support groups and individuals through their physical experience of grief. The movement and mindfulness of yoga is used as a tool to discharge energy, soothe anxious minds and bodies, and reconnect people with their innate physiological resources which often expands their capacity for what they can hold.

We explore resources inside and outside the body to anchor their attention to so they can safely move and be moved without overwhelming their system with sensation or emotion. Many of these tools can be used in their daily life, outside of yoga. The intention is to create space and awareness for humans to safely move through and acknowledge their experience of grief.

This year I taught trauma-informed yoga at Brittany Catton-Kirk’s Sunlight retreat for survivors of rape.