200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training: Briarcliff Manor, NY

Elisha Fernandes Simpson

EMDR Therapist, Social Worker, Trauma-Informed Trainer

Working at the intersection of trauma conscious practices and transformative justice

Where it started

Having the opportunity to transform her own trauma through the practice of yoga, Elisha Fernandes Simpson truly believes in the healing power of trauma-conscious practices. Elisha is a Cape Verdean woman, licensed social worker, accomplished yoga instructor, and mindfulness trainer working at the intersection of trauma-conscious yoga and social justice. 

As a social worker, Elisha has worked in hospital settings, youth detention facilities, homeless shelters, and with teen girls who have been sexually trafficked. She has trained clinicians, social workers, and professionals in trauma-conscious programs and instructor supervisors in offering trauma conscious skills within their organizations. She has led training with the Mount Vernon Police Department, social workers of Westchester County Department of Social Services, and has led trauma-conscious training throughout New York state and Massachusetts. For over a decade, she has provided children, adolescents, and adults who have suffered from traumatic experiences with interventions to help overcome their inability to cope in their everyday lives.

As Founder and Executive Director of the former nonprofit organization, the Crossover Yoga Project's gender-specific, trauma-responsive curriculum entitled I Believe in Me, empowered over 5000 trauma survivors through trauma-conscious yoga, mindfulness, and creative art expressions to build resilience. 

Her personal yoga practice of over 20 years brings her the resilience she needs as a trauma survivor, and the inspiration and commitment to expanding a sense of stability and radical love. This manifests via pop-up yoga classes, and training focused on collaborative care, learning mindfulness, and helping to understand what being trauma conscious is all about. She is currently teaching and trauma-conscious yoga in the women’s, men’s, and acute medical units of Westchester County Department of Correction. 

Elisha is an EMDR Therapist, Mindful Based Stress Reduction instructor, trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) She is a member of the Westchester County Department of Mental Health Trauma Subcommittee in providing education in trauma-informed capacity for executives to lead thoughtfully within their organization. She is an instructor for the Path of Freedom, a member of New York State Trauma-Informed Network, Westchester Women’s Agenda, and on the Health and Wellness committee of the NAACP. 

Training

All the levels are being offered as virtual and hybrid options. For those yearning for an in-person experience, the hybrid option is offering a limited number of spaces for the live training at Bella Maiya Day Spa (1326 Pleasantville Road, Briarcliff Manor, NY).

200hr Level - Transformational Vinyasa, and Level 1 Orthopedic Yoga Therapy

In this co-led course, Elisha & Michele empower you to learn how to instruct Orthopedic Yoga Flow classes. “Vinyasa," means to connect, and in these classes, it enables the joints to be bathed in synovial fluid, the internal, healing lubricant of the body. Students leave fully prepared to teach all levels of classes ranging from power style, sweaty and exhilarating classes, to gentle, slow therapeutic flows. 

This 100hr Yoga Therapy certification is where yoga and neurology intersect. Learn to treat mood disorders such as depression and anxiety, degenerative diseases like Parkinson's, Huntington's, Alzheimer's, and MS; substance abuse, PTSD, and TBIs. Combining yoga therapy and trauma-sensitive education, with neurology and psychiatry this truly holistic training provides a full spectrum approach. Led in partnership with Dr. Nicole M. Absar, Behavioral Neurologist and Neuropsychiatrist.

300hr Orthopedic Yoga Therapy Degree

Combine the 200hr Transformational Vinyasa, and  Level 1 Orthopedic Yoga Therapy with the 100hr Yoga Therapy for Brain Disorders for a 300hr certification.