Yoga Therapy as a profession

 

Yoga Therapy is the therapeutic application of yoga, known as “citiksa” which allows the yoga therapist to use the various aspects of yoga, asanas or yoga poses for the body, breath work for the mind and meditation for the spirit, to help the client come in contact with his/her own inner healing abilities.

Yoga therapy is not meant to be a substitute for good allopathic healthcare, as any responsible yoga therapist will tell you; but, we work hand in hand with clients and their healthcare professionals whenever requested by the client (or through doctor recommendations), as an adjunct to a patient’s treatment plan.

 For example if someone goes to the doctor for chronic lower back pain the doctor may suggest that they take up yoga.  The client takes up yoga, this may help, based on the experience and expertise of the teacher, however it may not heal or move toward a path of total recovery so, although the client sees that yoga helps and they love their yoga class, they do their practice with much trepidation or may delve right in (thinking that they are healed) and then do further (seemingly) irreparable injury to their back and may never experience the deeper possibilities of the body to heal itself.

The yoga therapist works as a bridge between yoga and healthcare.  The yoga therapist will see the client as a whole person and will work with the client not just by recommending a set of poses set in the context of a group class but will work individually with the client thereby also making further recommendations as may be required.  For instance the yoga therapist will spend time with the client to find out how he or she is sitting, what happens when “his back goes out” and will recommend, for instance, not just poses to help the lower back (as may be prescribed in a standard yoga class) but the yoga therapist may provide a treatment program to help them work through their pain, using the breath, meditation and good posture at all times, for example. Also the yoga therapist (YT) may not stop there; but may, based on the client’s assessment, recommend extended Deep Relaxation Practices to reset the nervous system, advise that the client look at his diet and make some changes, the therapist may also recommend meditation to help the client slow down “mentally” and move more mindfully through life, creating less opportunity for injury. 

A yoga therapist is not just a yoga teacher although all yoga therapists have to have as their base certified yoga teacher training and experience.  The yoga therapist is required to get specific and additional training from those working in the field of yoga combined with medicine or healthcare, those who have created programs based on:  information gathering, knowledge, experience and research combined with yoga teachings and practice.  This is the basis for yoga therapy training today.  For example, well know Cardiologist Dr. Dean Ornish, who practiced yoga at the same organization where I learned my yoga training; back in the 80s and 90s, began doing extensive research on how to reverse heart disease using yoga as therapy.  In the movie Escape Fire, the fight to rescue the healthcare system in America, Dr. Ornish talks about how through the practice of yoga, telemores (the natural end of eukaryotic chromosomes) which shrink when a person becomes ill thus compromising their immune system, will in fact lengthen when one regularly practices yoga. Dr. Ornish in his practice worked directly as a professional Medical doctor (cardiologist) and yoga teacher, and thereby developed a program known as Cardiac Yoga to help patients with CAD.  This program for teachers wishing to work with cardiac patients is still being taught today as a valid yoga therapy program to help cardiac patients on their road to recovery. 

Here is how a yoga therapist might apply his skills and training in Cardiac Yoga therapy whether through the Dean Ornish program or some other yoga therapy training program. Someone has a “heart attack”.  They are taken to the hospital and eventually have stints placed in the arteries around their heart to keep them open, to avoid a restricted flow of blood to the heart and a second attack.  Then the person is sent home and told to change their life, eat right and come back for a six week, then six month etc. check-up.  This is where the yoga therapist might work with that client.  After an assessment the yoga therapist (YT) might begin by leading the client through some gentle yoga stretches to begin movement, improve circulation and inspire deeper fuller breathing and a regular exercise program.  The YT might help the client look at her diet; and/or might help her to understand proper food combining and how to develop a healthy diet so important for those with CAD.  They might teach the client how to shop, for instance for  wholefoods, understanding the difference between organic vs non-organic items;  and, how to change the diet in a purposeful and meaningful way yet in a way that meets the clients total needs. Hence for many it may be helping them find a healthy diet that continues to please the palate, yet not empty the wallet.  The YT may help the client better understand stress and how to work with their stress using yogic breathing and relaxation techniques.  The YT would help the client develop greater peace and presence in their life by learning how to control the mind through mindfulness meditation and by developing deeper connections with those she cares about and loves.

Yoga therapy - through the years from the great work of Dr. Dean Ornish and many many others - has created an intricate and respectable bond between the practice of yoga and healthcare.  Yoga is very popular today and it too has morphed into something that anybody who feels that they are “somebody” wants to say that they practice.  Hence on one end of the spectrum yoga seems to be an exclusive club for the lululemon mothers and the Blue Jasmines of the world.  While it is good to know that they are doing yoga, as surely they too are stressed; yoga is so much more than that!  Yoga is for everybody, anybody – the sick, the healthy, the old, the young, the rich and the poor…and it is through this framework known as yoga therapy, not the western mindset of yoga yuppiedom, that this more expansive use of the healing power of yoga is being met! It is through this prism that yoga therapists feel that they are doing ‘sacred’ work for the world and for the community in which they live.

Yoga therapy is not a one size fits all kind of deal.  Because one studies yoga therapy it does not mean that they can assess and provide recommendations for all conditions and issues that they may be presented with.  There is a basic standard 300 hour yoga therapy training that all yoga therapists must have as a generalist yoga therapist, but over and above that, yoga therapists are now appropriately branching out, in order to provide the best support and expertise to their clients by specializing in specific areas.  This is why you will find today, for example: Cardiac Yoga Therapy; Yoga for Depression; Yoga for Grief; Structural Yoga therapy; Yoga for Cancer; Pain Care Yoga Therapy; Mindfulness Yoga Therapy; and, Aryuveda for diet, health and nutrition etc., just to name a few. Yoga therapists are respectful of one another’s expertise.  They will refer clients when the issue that presents itself is not within their field of expertise.

The International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT) (http://www.iayt.org/ ) is the hub organization today, which is providing the oversight for the regulation, development, support and integration of yoga therapy today.  The Bermuda Association of Yoga Therapists (BAYT) is a local association of members keen to see that the standards, support and development of yoga therapy in our Bermuda community has a professional reference point, a model and a mentor to guide its development in keeping with international standards so necessary to support this unique work that we do.

-

Joanne Wohlmuth

Yoga Therapist

Chairperson, Bermuda Yoga Therapist Association (BAYT)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yoga On The Rock presents this upcoming Training Initiative :

 

Pain Care Yoga with Neil Pearson

October 10-12, 2014

 

 

Pain Care Yoga Teacher Training and Learning Intensive

­This training provides in-depth integration of pain science, innovative pain self-management techniques, yoga philosophy and yoga practices. Teachers and practitioners will learn options to avoid, prevent and recover when pain persists. Yoga philosophy, the lived experience of pain, and pain science perspectives are all considered. Daily yoga practices and pain self-management skills acquisition will ready teachers and practitioners to begin integration of Pain Care Yoga into their yoga classes and therapeutic practices.

Yoga teachers, yoga therapists and health professionals are all welcome.

                               October 10-12, 2014

                           The Yoga Centre, Bermuda

Register online at www.BDAtix.bm or for more information contact

                              yogaontherock@logic.bm

 

About Neil Pearson, Facilitator:

Neil Pearson, PT, MSc, BA-BPHE, CYT, RYT500, is a physical therapist, certified yoga therapist, and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia, Canada. He is a leader in the integration of therapeutic yoga, pain science and pain management. 

Neil is the 2012 recipient of the Canadian Pain Society's award for Excellence in Inter-professional Pain Education, and recipient of the British Columbia Physiotherapy Association’s award, for Excellence in Clinical Practice Contribution. He is the Founding Chair of the Canadian Physiotherapy Pain Science Division, and sits on the board of Pain BC, a charity focusing on public awareness, changing health policy, and improving both research and professional education in the area of pain and chronic pain. 

Neil works clinically, exclusively with people with complex and persistent pain. He is an invited keynote speaker at many pain conferences and in numerous yoga therapist training programs internationally. Neil’s Pain Care Yoga modules are sought after throughout North America thanks to his knowledge, expertise and engaging presentation style.

 

 

 

Who Should Apply -

This training is available for yoga teachers  (RYT200 or above), yoga therapists, health care professionals- chiropractors, massage therapists, physiotherapists, nurses, doctors etc. thus providing  excellent tools to integrate Pain Care Yoga into clinical practices and yoga classes, leading to improved benefits and outcomes. Yoga teachers and therapists will receive 24 International Yoga Therapy Association (IYTA) hours toward yoga therapy certification, health professionals can receive 24 community education (CE) hours for this work.

 

 

 

 

Good Morning 2014!

So you are still here...let me sit with you during this quiet time and taste your dewy breath and meditate in your presence.  Here is a lovely tape to inspire regular practice for me and others throughout the year...

Ted Talk on just 10 minutes a day to sit and be still.  Enjoy!

Joanne

http://on.ted.com/Puddicombe

Meditation Course 2014

Dear Beloved Friends!

May I serve you well during this year 2014, better than ever before!  Here is what I have to offer thus far this year.         

 

MEDITATION COURSE - commencing Thursday, February 7th, 2014 for 8 weeks. 

 This 8-week course commences Thursday, February 6th at 7:30pm, and is held once a week for 8 weeks at the Yoga Centre.  The result is an informed, reassured and confident meditation practice and discipline.  This course respects all meditation traditions - Buddhist, Christian, yogic etc. and will provide students with an appreciation for the common thread between all meditation traditions, while honouring their differences.  The purpose of the course is to inspire students to develop an appreciation for the powerful practice of meditation, explore its magnificent benefits for everyday living and dispel myths about what it is not.  It is designed to stimulate regular practice.  Cost: $150 Please register through Constant Contact email or by leaving a message here.

Welcome 2014!

Welcome 2014!!!

Enter and take your rightful place and rest awhile.  I am happy to see, smell  and feel you energizing presence!   A New Year is here, and once again PROMISE and HOPE are standing tall as all things begin anew and invite opportunity to refresh, re-frame and refine what was and what will never be quite the same ever again.  2013, as 2012, 11 and 10, was a year of great hardship, pain and challenge and although mine may have been  minimal to many, I speak of a heartfelt sense of forlorn that has hung over us for many years now, like the heavy, salty humidity of our island summer days. It has weighed us down, stifled our pep, chipped away at our dreams and clouded our direction toward True North.  I have seen this in my clients, observed it in the bodies of my yoga students, I have witnessed this in my children, friends and family members and I have observed this in the faces of many a passerby in the street. More directly, I have felt this in my bones, in my jaw and in my teeth.

Now you are here.  Dressed in simple, unassuming attire.  You speak softly, and sweetly like someone who has tasted pain, someone who knows and who really, really cares, because you know.  Welcome, welcome, 2014!  We are glad to have you.  May we treat you well and honour this time with you while you grace us with your presence.  In this Now moment, you are our best chance yet!!!!

Peace and Blessings,
Joanne/Sujatha

 

 

Weak Ties and the Trayvon Martin Movement

In the book "The Power of Habit", author Charles Duhigg says, " A movement starts because of the social habits of friendship and the strong ties between close acquaintances.
It grows because of the habits of a community, and the weak ties that hold neighborhoods and clans together.
And it endures because a movement's leaders give participants new habits that create a fresh sense of identity and a feeling of ownership."

In February 2012, George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin dead with a bullet through the heart, and many people in the U.S., particularly those in the black community, became enraged because a 17 year old black boy, carrying an Iced Tea and a bag of skittles, was dead, shot by a white man with a gun who pursued him while he was on his way home. The Sanford, Florida Police department did nothing to arrest Mr. Zimmerman. They claimed he acted in self defense although Trayvon Martin was unarmed. 

Hence protests in the form of non-violent activism broke out across many states in America, not just in Florida, with protesters speaking out against the Stand Your Ground law and the need for the Florida Sanford Police department to arrest George Zimmerman and bring him to trial.  In June, 2013 (according to Martin Hodgson of Australia in the article Trayvon and License to Kill) ; for,14 days, 56 witnesses, 2010 pieces of evidence and 6,720 minutes of trial, the George Zimmerman case was tried in the courts.  I watched too, not every minute, but intently so, as the character of Trayvon Martin was tried, stabbed at and he was killed all over again; while a nation watched and shook its head as the aggressor, the perpetrator, the adult in the room was said to be the one who believed HIS life was in danger, and therefore cried, yelled for help and "rightly" KILLED to defend himself because HE thought THAT HE was going to die!  Anyone who watched the case, Mr. Hodgson in Australia, myself here in Bermuda and I'm certain many others in varying parts of the world and of course countless concerned citizens, black and white, in America who deliberately followed this case; many felt, once again, that this was a case gone terribly awry!

At the briefing, after the verdict was read, I remember watching the interview with defense lawyer Mark O'Mara when he stated,  "On the civil aspect, if someone believes it is appropriate to sue George Zimmerman, we will seek and we will get immunity...and we'll see just how many civil lawsuits is spurn from this fiasco. " I suspect  lawyers had similar attitudes toward Rosa Parks who would not give up her seat on the bus, and Dr. Martin Luther King who did not succumb to the fear, hatred and violence of those who refused to believe that blacks should have equal rights and be treated with equal dignity and respect during the Civil Rights Movement. What Mr. O'Mara fails to realize (perhaps) is that the  unstoppable civil rights movement of the 60's  (as expressed in Power of Habit) was spurn out of the strength of weak ties.  My take is that it is these same weak ties, since the George Zimmerman verdict, that are now connecting many Americans and bringing them to the brink of proclaiming enough is enough!

The strength of weak ties is the social network theory of American sociologist Mark Granovetter who argued  that it is weak ties, not strong ties, that build bridges and spur social movements.  The peaceful marches led by Reverend Al throughout many American cities, the sit-in of the "Dreamers" at Mayor Rick Scott's office in Florida, the commentaries of  the T.V. anchors supporting and encouraging (on most stations) a healthy discussion on race in America; and,politicians to the left and to the right and actors from Hollywood, are all steadily weighing in on this tragedy and speaking up about it.  Then there are  the words of the President of the United States of America, who happens to be black , talking out about his own personal experiences and about racism and racial profiling in America and the marginalization of black males. All of these actions suggest a surge, a movement  where the strength of weak ties are taking root and an activist movement is making its case for how and why it needs to be.

Maybe my thinking as an activist is enthusiastically oversimplified.  Or maybe it is not.  It is still too early to tell.  But what I do know, each time I turn on the T.V. or check my twitter page, read the newspaper or see reactions to the verdict in our own Royal Gazette here in Bermuda, I am inspired by the development and integration of a convergent force of energy around a common cause, a common aim  - justice for Trayvon Martin and the many other black and brown boys and men who have been treated unjustly, profiled or killed in America (or any place else for that matter) simply because they are black!

So when Mark O'Mara talks about immunity for his client, I smile.  True justice is more than just facts that are permissible in a court of law.  Real freedom is borne out of the procilvity for true justice, true peace.The Civil Rights Movement in the U.S., the fight against Apartheid in South Africa; the Theatre Boycott in Bermuda or a nation's response to the George Zimmerman verdict and the senseless killing of a young black youth armed with skittles, are all motivated by the strength of  those weak ties, that have caused a movement  ( in this case) to rise up for Justice for Trayvon Martin!  A movement that will leave a legacy for this young man beyond the image of a hoodie, a movement that will change American, the world and the Civil Rights Movement, for good, for ever more.

Yoga On The Rock 2012 Upcoming Events, Retreats, Classes

Upcoming Events, Retreats, Courses and Classes 2012

The years 2010 and 2011 were tough years with the last months, weeks and days of 2011 ending with more stress, turmoil and structural uncertainty here on the Rock than I have ever known before in all my lifetime.  Although we have had  a few positive deviations during the festive Christmas Holiday,  as January rolls in we are again faced with the stark reality on this cold winter day that life on the Rock is not what it used to be; and, although some of us may be okay for the moment, there are many who are not, with no job, overdue mortgage payments and worse still rent!!, health issues and childcare responsibilities that they can ill afford!!   Quite frankly, they need our help in whatever way we can give it. So, as we move into 2012 I invite you to drop the mask ( New Year's Eve is over!!) and journey into a sober 2012. There is much to be done to support (emotionally and physically)  those in need of our help.

Notwithstanding, it is so difficult to reach out to others when our own house is on shaky ground, when we ourselves are struggling to survive. Yet we are called, as Richard Rohr would say, in the book Falling Upward,  to pay attention to the story within the story.  Hence our journey is not just about doing whatever  feels good; but, how will it serve us, and how can that service be transformed into something that will benefit our loved one, our friend, neighbour and  the world at large?

Hence I invite you to join in our classes for 2012 with the interest and/or intent to open yourself up to continued grow and transformation.  I promise to do the same, through my teaching, through my continued training scheduled for this year and also through my commitment to serve you better than ever before. It is my wish that together, through the tools offered in Yoga On The Rock programs and classes, we can step out, during this 2012 season, to do great work to make the world a better place for all.

Here is what we have to offer thus far this year:

The 30-Day Challenge - Students are invited to join  the 30-Day challenge during the months of January and February and pay a discounted rate for classes - $10 per class, for those who commit to 15 classes, during this period or more.  Please check out The Yoga Centre community facebook page for a schedule of all The Centre's classes included in the 30-Day challenge or email me for the schedule. Classes commence January 4th.

Retreat Sunday  - January 15th - Title - Who Am I?
This retreat is an all day Sunday event, scheduled for January 15th commencing at 9:30am until 4:30pm.  It  and will focus on an exploration of the self from self to Self  and will concentrate on  Personality Types, Chakra Yoga, Jnana Yoga  and the question of Who Am I?  This will be an exploratory day to introduce participants to personality types in themselves and those around them, introduce participants to the chakras and how to balance themselves, through the practice of Chakra Yoga, with a final focus on Jnana Yoga, meditation and the True Self.  Meant to be both inspirational and fun. Cost for day - $125.  A light lunch and snacks are included.

Deepening Your Meditation - 8-Week Course
This 8-Week course commences on Thursday, January 12th and runs every Thursday thereafter until completion.  This is a basic meditation course for those new to meditation and/or those wanting support and encouragement to develop a regular practice.  It is a comprehensive course where students learn about meditation theory and background as well as apply practical application each week during class with a formal 1/2 hour sitting.  Students receive 15 Yoga Alliance recognized community education credit hours ( 15 CE hours) and a certificate, at the completion of this course. Call or email to register. Course cost is $150.  Please note Deepening Your Meditation II course, commences in March 2012. 


Wellness Over 50 - 8-Week Course
This 8-week course is a comprehensive course that combines hatha yoga, meditation, diet, job stress, relationships and purposeful living in this inspiring program to help those wanting a fresh start, learn to approach the second stage of our lives with vigor,greater appreciation and meaningful direction.  This course is a combination of both practical application as well as discussion and yoga philosophical teaching.  Students come away with a good understanding on the integral teachings of yoga, yoga lifestyle and how yoga works to maintain health and well being. Course cost is $150.  Call or email to register.

 Yoga Teachers Training
Interested in Yoga Teachers Training?  Please note that teachers training will commence again this year
( dates to be confirmed) during this first quarter.  If you are interested please call or email  for more details.