Amy Weintraub

LifeForce Yoga: Empower Your Clients to Manage Their Moods
August 16-20

July 24, 2010

Registration is now closed in this course.

Western science is beginning to corroborate what yogis understood 5000 years ago. Using the laboratory of their bodies and their minds to work with their moods, Yogis gave us a prescription for maintaining optimal mental health. We'll explore this ancient wisdom with attention to current research done by Woolery, Kamoi, Becker, Telles and many others, learning evidence-based aspects of Yoga appropriate for a clinical setting. These include body sensing, sound, breath, imagery, meditation, and affirmations that arise from the client's authentic experience of self. And we'll practice ways you can introduce Yogic techniques in the treatment room-neither mat nor touch necessary! You'll learn evidence-based Yogic strategies to help clients focus, relax, and have greater access to feeling states. These practices can provide an alternative or adjunct treatment for clients who are not responding to medication or have received only so much relief from cognitive restructuring strategies. In the process of learning Yogic techniques to help clients manage their moods and increase self-efficacy, you will also be practicing tools for self-care.

This workshop is designed for all level of mental health and Yoga practitioners, including beginners. Every day will include easy and accessible movement, yogic breathing, and meditation or guided relaxation. Along with didactic components and practice, the format will include emotional process from a Yogic perspective in dyads and small groups. Yoga mats will be provided. Bring your own props.

Monday

The Safe Container
  • Yogic tools to foster the therapeutic alliance and client self-acceptance
  • Principles of Yoga for the Emotional Body
  • An evidenced-based overview of Yogic strategies for maintaining optimum mental health
  • A review of current scientific literature supporting Yoga as a treatment in mental health care.

Tuesday

Beyond Mindfulness
  • Identifying predominate mood through analysis of current breathing pattern.
  • Three evidence-based Yogic breaths and a simple meditation to calm and focus the anxious mind.
  • Three evidence-based Yogic breaths and two simple meditation techniques to clear the mind and lift the mood.
  • Yogic technique to interrupt panic attack.

Wednesday

Giving the Mind a Bone
  • Meditation techniques effective with OCD and anxiety disorders.
  • Address negative self-talk and the seeds of self-loathing with a Yogic Non-dual strategy that incorporates body awareness, imagery, and Rogerian Dialoguing.
  • Yoga Nidra - an evidence-based protocol effective for managing mood and PTSD, as developed by Richard Miller, PhD and as used at Walter Reed Army Medical Center with soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder.

Thursday

Grief in the Tissues
  • Yoga as an adjunct treatment for PTSD:
    • Body sensing
    • Trauma releasing exercises-how Yoga informs Somatic Psychology
    • Therapeutic long holding of Yoga postures

Friday

Beyond Self-Efficacy
  • Postures of empowerment:
    simple inversions
    heart-opening backbends
  • Application:
    Distinguishing those techniques appropriate for a clinical practice.
  • Community Network:
    Yoga teachers and Yoga therapists in your community - workshops and referrals.

Amy Weintraub, author of Yoga for Depression (Broadway Books, 2003) and founding director of the LifeForce Yoga Healing Institute, is a leader in the field of yoga and mental health. She has a MFA and highest level of yoga certification E-RYT 500. She offers professional trainings in LifeForce Yoga® for Mood Management and speaks at medical and psychological conferences internationally. Amy is involved in ongoing research on the impact of Yoga on mood. Her evidence-based Yoga protocol for managing mood is featured on a number of LifeForce Yoga CDs, and the first DVD home Yoga practice series for mood management, the award-winning LifeForce Yoga to Beat the Blues. She maintains an archive of news and research on her web site www.yogafordepression.com.

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