TRAINING TESTIMONIALS


PRAISE FOR THE IN-PERSON TRAUMA-INFORMED YOGA CERTIFICATION TRAINING

The beauty that emerges from woundedness is a beauty infused with feeling.” -John O’Donohue

Zabie: What you have created is exceptional and infused with your heart as a survivor. The difference is unmistakable. Thank you for having the courage to commit your formidable skills to weaving this beauty from the threads of your wounds. I look forward to sharing it on the ‘right’ coast! The powerpoint and materials are thorough and gorgeous! It is evident you took as great care with preparing them as you attend to students. I deeply appreciate the depth of research, qualitative and quantitative approaches interspersed. Your approach is very survivor centered and it is embodied in your vast array of tools- no one way fits everyone! BRAVO! Blessings dear one!
I’ve had the immense privilege of partnering with survivors and caregivers in the trauma field for well over a decade. I’ve attended a lot of impactful, well-presented trainings. What I experienced at my training weekend, learning from and with Zabie, offered me the tools to begin imagining how my own journey as a survivor could be mindfully accessed, on my own terms to provide compassionate care. Encountering this brilliant, gentle, honest, and authentic professional who was willing to stand boldly in all of her experiences while doing this most important work was paradigm and identity-shifting in the most beautiful, empowering, and unexpected way. Coming from a clinical context, disclosure of one’s experiences in professional settings is often discouraged or framed as unethical. Yet here stood Zabie’s tender, embodied approach to teaching, advocacy, and caregiving. Listening to her and learning from her felt like coming home to myself, like I had finally discovered the missing pedagogical piece to show up to this work in my own way. I don’t think I’ll ever find all the words I want to honor who she is and what she does and how blessed we all are that she’s willing to so generously share her loving presence and gifts with us.”
Zabie cultivated and curated a supportive, empowering, and nurturing enviornment, where for the first time in my survivor-hood, I felt comofrtable enough to disclose my status as a sexual assault survivor to a group of strangers. What I encountered my weekend learning from her and our fellow colleagues, inspired change all the way to my core. Zabie’s training was unlike anything I has ever encountered in a Yoga environment before. She made me feel safe, supported, encouraged, and rather than guiding me through a sequence devoid of any of my own decision-making, she invited me to explore the sequence as much as my own body felt called to it, or to feel free to exercise my choice not to perform the pose. She softly, and tenderly created a compassionate space for me to exercise a series of choices with my own body, something I was previously unaware that my body so dearly craved.
If you are considering training in trauma yoga this is the one and only training you should take! Zabie’s curriculum is incomparable- thorough, victim-centered, compassionate. It is the gold standard if you want to work with trauma survivors in a meaningful way.
I am thankful everyday for the doors your training opened to me. I am forever changed. Thank you
Transcending Sexual Trauma with Yoga was a comprehensive, accessible, practical, and highly restorative learning experience. It offered trauma caregivers and care seekers the needed content, tools, strategies, professional partners (ex. Clinicians, Movement facilitators, Embodied Holistic Healers, and Meditation facilitators) and community connections to successfully imagine and implement a supportive trauma-informed care space. I left my training experience grounded in gratitude for Zabie’s generous sharing of her wisdom and resources and her collaborative approach to trauma care.
I am forever changed because of the experience we had together this past weekend. I can say this for certain even though it will take time to integrate and work through all of the emotions and knowledge from this past weekend. You are the very definition of strength and resilience. Thank you for showing up and sharing yourself with the group. It was truly a heart-expanding weekend with amazing souls. Thank you for creating and holding a safe place for us and for sharing yourself with the group. I have followed and been inspired by your energy and courage for years. I was so honored to be in your presence and to have the opportunity to learn and share it with you. Finding and using your voice and creating something so amazing for survivors and the greater world is incredible. You are such a gift to the world.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for holding space. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for showing up. I remember a year ago finding your website and saying to myself, ‘omg, this is who I want to be in the future...’ without knowing I would be here now. In the past 2 days, you’ve touched and explored new concepts that resonate with my own existing anxieties and feelings. Thank you for putting together this amazing toolkit for us to share with the world. Thank you for bringing in speakers that have such unique roles in the field and most importantly who look like me. Thank you for breaking down these invisible barriers and opening the doors of opportunity. Your energy, your power, your essence is beautiful and calming and just what this world needs.
Thank you for the unbelievable gift that is this training. This needs to be incorporated into every 200-hour teacher training.
The best training I’ve ever done.
This is an invaluable experience for yoga teachers and mental health clinicians alike. I have no words- I am in awe.
Your training left me so inspired and what I have learned from you will stay with me all of my life.
This training changed my life.
This was the best training I have ever taken, and I think everyone should take it. So life transforming.
Zabie, you are such a kind and compassionate human being and your work is a true gift. Your attention to detail made everybody feel safe, welcomed, comfortable and loved during a weekend of vulnerability. What an amazing gathering of intelligent and amazing women. This experience was invaluable. from my heart to yours....Thank you.
What you give of your time, your brilliance, your experience, and your heart are absolutely transformational...and I am deeply grateful, not just for myself, but for humanity as a whole. What I want to share with you is how your influence has given me permission to be warm, approachable, and loving in the trauma-informed yoga classes I have already been leading...the manual! Holy hours of dedication! Thank you for this fabulous resource... as I said before, I feel that I have found my tribe of healers and helpers. priceless is this resource and community! Thanks to you!
I’ve been meaning to reach out to you because what you spoke to and about, opened and comforted my heart and soul. You planted a seed and it seems to have altered the rhythm of my life pace..slowing and noticing how I respond and speak to myself and others. Your powerful, gentle words were so supportive.. it brings me to tears thinking about how safe and loved I felt. I am a survivor and I believe it is part of my purpose to reach and serve others through my traumas/wounds...Thank you for sharing your humble wisdom, guidance, graceful love, space, and support. I hadn’t cried in a while, but thank you for being there when i did. it felt like my heart cracked a little bit.
I just wanted to take some time and thank you so much, from the absolute top and bottom of my heart for being the most amazing and incredible human i’ve ever encountered. I think I’ve experienced every single emotion on the grand scale of emotions following this weekend and I am so jazzed and inspired and empowered by you and all of the extraordinary women I was fortunate enough to meet this weekend.
I started teaching in June last year and have been struggling to find my yoga instructor voice/purpose - feeling quite lost - I now believe that I have found it!
I felt like this training was made for me, a woman of color, rather than having to mentally adjust things to fit my experience.
All yoga teachers in the world should take this training.
One of the most moving training’s I’ve done.
I’m still savoring all of the feelings and learnings from this excellent training. thank you for sharing your wisdom, guidance and intelligence, Zabie! So grateful for all of the strong, resilient, and shining individuals who participated. looking forward to attending another training with you in the future.
After learning from Zabie’s training, I felt prepared with the foundation to set me up for success to be a trauma-informed yoga teacher. As I began preparing for my first time teaching to survivors of sexual violence, I began to realize just how much she had prepared me to not only feel comfortable but also feel confident that I could create a safe and healing space that allowed anyone to practice connecting authentically to themselves. I am so grateful to have gained tangible tools that guided me to build a supportive environment for true healing to begin and I feel blessed to have Zabie as a constant encouragement and resource every step of this unbelievable journey.

My heart is bursting with the possibilities of healing the world, and it’s truly because of Zabie and this training she has intentionally crafted.
Your program really opened my eyes to teaching with care and patience that I was missing sometimes. This past week I let all 6 of my classes have freedom! they did whatever they wanted to do or they followed along with me and it went amazing!!! I was so happy with the number of people who came up to me and thanked me! I even had one of my friends start crying and let herself feel the emotions she hadn’t allowed. It was an incredible feeling to watch my students listen to exactly what their body wanted and it made me grow as an instructor.
Thank you so much for such a wonderful training! I am beyond appreciative for this opportunity to learn and begin to bring trauma-informed yoga into my teaching spaces!
This was an exceptionally well presented and structured course. I highly recommend it!
Fantastic course! I felt like all the content and learning activities were purposeful and taught very well. I learned so much!
I am still in awe of our beautiful weekend. I just had to share a little feedback I received at my community class yesterday. I decided this month we would donate our proceeds to a local organization aiding survivors in their legal processes. When I announced this I noticed one woman began to cry. I’ve been really more conscious of my language when teaching. At the end of class, the same woman stayed and said, ‘I have to tell you, your classes have always felt good to me and I always feel safe here, but today, something was different. I felt safe and held. I felt like everything you were saying was speaking to me. I felt like I had a choice!’ That last sentence broke me. So, the importance of this work in general classes is huge, but I am so motivated to extend further. Thank you so much for your inspiration. Forever grateful!
Even as I journal, I find there aren’t enough ways to express how forever changed I am. You are such a strong container to hold space for our bodies, to offer words of compassion to our experiences, and offer light to these vulnerable topics. I am so grateful & humbled by your journey. Thank you.
I wanted you to know you’ve truly inspired me and changed my life forever.
This was the most amazing, enlightening, and inspiring training I’ve ever experienced.
Zabie, I have so much gratitude for you and all the amazing people i shared space with this weekend. I learned so much valuable information and I feel so inspired! Thank you so much for pouring your whole heart and dedication into this work that is helping to uplift and empower so many.
Thank you so much for allowing my remote participation in the June trauma-informed yoga certification. I’m blown away by the amount of information you shared, the organization (and amount) of resources you’ve given, the clear and thorough manual, the opportunities for delving deeper into the subject and practice you have provided, and the warmth with which you led the class. I’m inspired and motivated to begin this work, and I consider it my calling to do god’s work. Your program has helped me find my purpose. You are clearly a lovely soul, choosing to empower yourself and others in the face of trauma. Living from love rather than fear. Doing what you do makes a true change in the world, and can put this American culture on the path to real rehabilitation. I’m honored to be a product of your program.
This training has changed my life in so many ways. I am completely honored and deeply grateful. Thank you for the liberation.
Zabie is a true blessing. This course was beautiful and life-changing. everyone should take this course. It should be mandatory for every yoga teacher. It flowed beautifully and the structure was effective.
I’ve been volunteering teaching yoga to teens and young adults for almost the past year and last Saturday, I had an awesome moment in class that I wanted to share with you. In my 500-hour training, I was taught to “control the classroom” and I was told that I shouldn’t even give students the option of flowing in cat stretch with their breath because then I might lose control! Your training confirmed how I felt about teaching yoga: letting students do what feels comfortable and good to them, offering poses and guiding them through possible options while always allowing them to be in charge of their own yoga practice, giving them the opportunity to explore whatever poses they desire and letting go of the idea that I was supposed to control the class. On Saturday, I was guiding practice and as I looked at the students, I saw that every one of them was doing their own thing and no one was following what I was saying and I thought, “yes! they are learning to listen to their bodies and do what they need!” It took me many years to break away from always doing what the teacher said and I am so grateful that I attended your training and learned how to create a safe place for my students to explore yoga on their own. Thank you so much!
This was an absolutely incredible and transfromational training. I use the materials all the time in my classes. I would gladly re-take this course it was such a great experience. I think all teachers need to go through this training to offer a 200 Hr
Immersing myself in this training was a magnified step for me. It was an emotional, inspiring, exciting and awakening experience, to learn from so many passionate yoga practitioners (yogis, who also have other exciting careers) determined to make a profound difference as yoga teachers, healers, and educators. I was so moved by all the feedback and information that everyone brought and shared, humbly, and willing to learn more of what Zabie had to share about trauma-sensitive yoga. 



There was not one word throughout the training that did not hold my attention and carry meaning. I know that having gone through this training I will make a difference and foster healing through this trauma-sensitive and trauma-informed lens, in my yoga teachings and as a student myself. There is so much more that I would love to learn and practice utilizing what I’ve learned, so I hope to participate in your next workshop and 5-week workshop! 



Zabie did a remarkable job of bringing together such a large group of inspirations and healers. Going through this training has awakened in me an increased desire to go out and make a difference and foster positive change in the lives of survivors of trauma. 



I am always amazed by Zabie’s authenticity, her truly genuine character, benevolence, and beautiful work, but also by her constant reminders of the beauty that lies in being human. She has ignited in me, the fire to continue on my own path and I am forever grateful to simply know her and be inspired by her light.

PRAISE FOR THE ONLINE, SELF-PACED TRAUMA-INFORMED YOGA TRAINING

The course content was thoughtfully structured, balancing essential theoretical foundations with practical applications. I especially appreciated the focus on creating safe and inclusive spaces, a vital aspect for any trauma-informed practice. The classes that Zabie led in the recordings are especially useful to gain an insight of the language used. This training has not only enhanced my professional skillset but also deepened my empathy and mindfulness as a teacher. I feel more confident in offering a trauma-sensitive approach in my classes and am excited to integrate these new practices. Thank you for a transformative and meaningful experience.
Transcending Sexual Trauma Through Yoga is an incredibly thoughtful and well-structured course. It provides a trauma-informed approach to yoga that prioritizes safety, empowerment, and connection with the body. What stood out to me was the way it acknowledged the complexity of healing without rushing the process or oversimplifying it. Zahabiyah’s insights and practices felt practical yet deeply meaningful, offering tools that are accessible and adaptable to different needs. This course is a valuable resource for both survivors and practitioners who want to hold space in a way that is both compassionate and respectful of individual journeys. Thank you for the magic you have created, e hoa.
I believe every yoga teacher should take the Trauma-Informed Yoga Training by Zahabiyah Yamasaki. The content was not only informative but also incredibly valuable, providing a thoughtful, well-put-together and understandable curriculum. The course inspired me to deepen my practice and teaching approach, emphasizing the importance of mindfulness and trauma-informed approach in today’s world. It was an invaluable experience that I highly recommend to anyone in the yoga community.
This training was so helpful and covered a wide range of topics related to holding space for trauma survivors. I loved that the course was self-paced, which allowed for me to go through in my own time. The topics allowed me to leave feeling completely ready to hold healing space for trauma survivors, increasing my knowledge in neurobiology of trauma, how to effectively and safely hold space, how to ask for consent in various ways, and language for holding the spirit of trauma-informed through teaching. I would recommend this course to any teacher and feel that all teachers should have at least some education around trauma so they can hold spaces of safety and healing.
Zabie’s trauma informed teacher training is absolutely essential! She is amazing at what she does and I am so blessed to have learned from her.
Zabie is a game-changer in the field of trauma-informed yoga for survivors.
Taking Zabies training was one of the best decisions I have ever made. The course was packed with useful information to help led a trauma informed yoga class, but most importantly, giving the student tools to help survivors feel safe. Highly recommend this training!
This is a really good training, especially useful for people who are looking to teach in collaboration with universities. there is a comprehensive section on how to set this up and what to be aware of which I found really useful even for initiating a course at my local studio. Highly recommend this training.
I found this training to be immensely helpful in supporting this specific population. The information is also easily able to be applied in all settings in supporting those who have experienced any type of trauma. A good basis for all teachers and realistically should be made a part of all YTT’s in a more comprehensive manner, not just “touched on.” I thoroughly enjoyed all of the content and even as an already established LMSW and certified yoga teacher, had plenty to learn and pass on to future classes.
A great course to increase my knowledge and understanding of sexual assault and trauma and how to teach in a trauma informed way.
Taking This Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher Training made me a better teacher. I would take this course every year.
I love this training and am so glad I decided to enroll. I learned so much and am inspired to begin creating my own program!
Love Zabie’s work and course! It was so impactful and has really made
me a better yoga teacher!
Celebrating completion of a trauma-informed yoga training with Zahabiyah Yamasaki. Zabie is a master with words, truly awe-inspiring at times. Whenever I listen to her speak I hope that I’m absorbing even a fraction of her skill.

My favorite words of hers during this course were spoken near the end of the training: “Yoga exists deeply within you”

It rings so true, and I thank my lucky stars that yoga was with me these past few months.
This training was so helpful and covered a wide range of topics related to holding space for trauma survivors. I loved that the course was self-paced, which allowed for me to go through in my own time. The topics allowed me to leave feeling completely ready to hold healing space for trauma survivors, increasing my knowledge in neurobiology of trauma, how to effectively and safely hold space, how to ask for consent in various ways, and language for holding the spirit of trauma-informed through teaching. I would recommend this course to any teacher and feel that all teachers should have at least some education around trauma so they can hold spaces of safety and healing.
This course was really great! The instructor’s teaching style was excellent, with a perfect balance of theory and practical applications. The course materials were well-designed and organized, making it easy to follow along and retain the information. The interactive discussions and exercises further enhanced the learning experience.
I highly recommend this course! It provided me with a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter. The content was well-structured, engaging, and delivered in a way that made complex concepts easy to grasp. The instructor’s knowledge and expertise were evident throughout, and the course materials were top-notch.
Today I honor the past two years of completing this training, and celebrate that this is just the beginning.

When I came across Zabie and her Transcending offerings in 2022, I knew I needed to learn from her. At the time, she was offering a discount for her trauma informed yoga course - i felt drawn to dive in but was hesitant to invest the money. In a couple days I had forgotten all about the course, until November 28, 2022, I suddenly awoke from sleep at 11:58pm with the immediate urge to sign up. I fumbled onto my phone to check her website, and saw that the sale would end at midnight - without hesitation I purchased the course.

It took me two years to complete this training and I’m proud of myself for taking my time, honoring my authentic pace, respecting my capacity and approaching this deep work with care, patience and rest. A previous version of myself would feel bad about taking so long, but this version of me LOVES that I didn’t rush to the finish line for the sake of getting an extra training under my belt. This version of me celebrates that I didn’t put achieving over receiving.

This work has been foundational to so much healing in my life. To cultivating a deeper understanding of my nervous system, a greater compassion for my trauma responses and a deeper relationship with my body. It has been foundational to how I facilitate and hold space, how I guide my yoga classes, how I approach movement, rest, breathwork and meditation.

I’ve come to realize that while I signed up because I believe the world needs more trauma informed spaces, I needed this course for myself, first and foremost. I needed the language, the introspection, the space for reflection and integration, in order to transcend sexual trauma. That is what this course gifted me, and I am immensely grateful for that.

When I reflect on these past two years, it was the perfect parallel journey- moving through this course as I moved through my own deeper trauma healing. I now understand why my intuition woke me up that night :)

Our bodies know. Healing cannot be rushed. You are right on time.

PRAISE FOR WORKSHOPS + GUEST SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

I completed teacher training with Zabie in Salt Lake City and learned valuable insights about teaching trauma-informed yoga from her. Zabie’s teaching experience, research, and compassion are remarkable.
To put it simply, I think that the experience I had in your class on Friday made me realize what I am called to do in my (soon to be) roll as a yoga teacher. The feelings of loving-kindness and acceptance were stronger in your class than anything I have witnessed up to this point in my life. I was brought to tears as I looked around the room and saw everyone honoring their bodies and really loving themselves. It was an experience I will never forget and I am so grateful that you shared space with us in such a meaningful way. Listening to you teach made a huge impact on the way I view yoga and I realized what I want my voice to be and how I want my classes to feel. The space you created for us is the type of space I would love to create in my classes in the future.