Changing The Face Of Yoga Podcast

Yoga for Men with Missy Hoffman 2:36 Introduction 4:30 Discrimination against men re: yoga Many believe that yoga should not be modified for men; yoga is for all. But men and women have different social conditioning, motivations, physical and muscular differences. 6:30 Missy’s research: 80% of Western men agree with the statement that yoga is for women. In India, yoga was primarily a male activity. As it moved from India to the West, businesses started marketing it to primarily more affluent women. In the West, yoga is seen as feminine. Men want to know the outcome, benefits, and function to start practicing yoga. Their motivation in different 9:20 Yoga conversations are demonising physical aspects of yoga and yet this is the way many men start. They are at the beginning more interested in the physical aspects, especially how this can help them with injuries, stress and other athletic endeavours. About half the men start yoga by coming with a friend, usually female. It helps to get over the barriers invisible

Highlights: Benefits of yoga retreats Different types of retreats: one day, multi-day, international Look at the story we tell ourselves about our life   1:30 Introduction to Lauren Maher and Volare Retreats 2:38       Therapeutic Benefits of Retreats Breaks down barriers between people and barriers within yourself, Brings people into community,Time to be introspective, Longer retreats give you the opportunity to establish a personal practice 6:21       Shorter retreats – asks attendees what they are experiencing to establish a thread  to plan  the retreat. International retreats – a chance to leave stress and anxiety behind. Forming support systems, intention to do yoga. 8:27       Benefits articulated by students Fresh eye and new perspective, Find like-minded friends, Step our of our environment and can make needed changes, Feeds your soul 13:39     Lauren offers a variety of retreats: one day retreats in the LA area, multi-day retreats in California, and longer retreats internationally. 15:01     People c

SN: Nikola Ellis of Adore Yoga Yoga Research into Eating Disorders Highlights: Research: If and how yoga is beneficial to individuals with eating disorders. Using western protocols for research At the beginning, she wanted to research the effect of faulty interoception, objectification, and trauma on the eating disorders. And how yoga may be beneficial. Standardised the classes so all yoga teachers were essentially teaching the same things in a trauma-informed yoga class. Asked the yoga teachers and the clinicians there observations of the benefit of yoga. Outcomes: In addition to the research paper, Nikola developed a series of protocols   for giving a yoga class for individuals with eating disorders. These protocols are available at www.adoreyoga.com/blog/       1:06 Introduction 2:07 Yoga Research in the popular press             The number of yoga research projects (in the West) has increased in the last 10 years. The media writes about how yoga helps people with a variety of   issues but with little det

Highlights: Working with other professionals to meet the needs of the whole person. Benefits include better proprioception and social engagement Collaborate with the family to help special needs children.     1:00 Introduction to Sheelah Rodriguez and Adaptability Yoga Works in therapy centres, after school settings Works with different challenges –physical, developmental, and mental challenges of children from toddlers to over 18. May introduce the same material e.g. super heroes but at different developmental levels. Class – starts slow, moves to the peak of activity, then down to calmer activities and then relaxation Uses themes, music, mantras (self-affirmations), poses, meditation, some pranyama in classes 13:15 Work on the whole person 15:30 Collaborate with family and other professionals. Team approach; incorporates yoga concepts to meet the goals for the child set by other professionals. Experience with other organisations and professionals through her work and has found that the other professionals a

Highlights: Intensive Yoga Retreats for Cancer Patients Lee Majewski has created and implements a 3 week intensive for those diagnosed with cancer. Anyone with the diagnosis, in or finished with treatment can attend the retreats. Yoga tools are taught to help them with their fear, feeling like a victim and negative thought patterns 6 years of research shows significant benefits for the attendees.   1:16 Introduction to Lee Majewski 3:15  Created a 3 week Intensive Retreat for Cancer Sufferers. Based on her own experience of cancer. There is a gap in care for cancer patients in that during or after the medical treatments there is no support or resources for dealing with the effects of the diagnosis or treatments. 6:20   Anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer, in treatment or finished with treatments of any type of cancer is eligible to attend the retreat. Each attendee develops with the facilatators their unique practice. Small groups 7:40 A typical day: Asana and pranayama early, yoga lecture, pranayama an

Highlights YAMA Foundation of Hong Kong founded by Hersha Chellaram offers classes and training in: Accessible yoga for pregnancy, for differently abled children and adults, and training to become a yoga teacher for those with different abilities.   

Highlights: Yoga teacher/therapist must read the class to provide the correct tools to meet the student/clients’ needs. Internal Family Systems (IFS) combined with the yoga – asanas, breathing, visualisation, and meditation can help find the source of trauma. Movement can disrupt trauma held in the body. Have a healthy relationships with emotions like fear. Ignoring emotions stores them in the body.   1:15 Introduction to Yael Sunshine 2:56 Yael explains her classes for those suffering from breast cancer at Nyack Hospital. People can either be physically compromised from surgery or compromised energy from treatments. The yoga teacher/therapist should read the needs of the clients since there will be students all along the spectrum of breast cancer from diagnosis to years after treatment. 6:00 Healthy relationship with fear – Everyone has fear; fear can run you or you can have a relationship with fear. Allow yourself to feel fear (or any strong relationship), having dialogue with self about the emotion. Moving

1:20 Introduction to Charlotta 3:25 Research on how yoga affects young people: Hippocampus .eu Working the  with the European Union and includes asylum seekers. Training those who work with young people like social workers, psychologists, teachers. Just started working with refugees in Italy. Syrians are open to yoga while Muslims from Africa can be concerned about religious issues. 6:20 Charlotta works with women in the UAE and has designed some yoga classes sensitive to Islam.  The women in the UAE have said that their yoga practice brings them closer to their religion, single gender classes, allow them to express how yoga might challenge or support their religion. 9:42 Pressures and stresses of being a teenager today. 1 in5 14-17 year olds have a diagnosable mental health issue. Suicide is the largest cause of death for males under 21. Social media is impacting health – constantly having to present yourself in a certain way while having a strong desire to belong. Acutely aware of suffering across the globe

Marsha Danzig – Yoga for Amputees 1:15 Introduction of Marsha 2:35 Yoga for Amputees – classes, yoga teacher training for teaching amputees. The basis of the classes and training is: every person is whole. Amputees may not feel whole physically, emotionally or mentally. Maybe stared at often. Takes effort everyday. Need resilience. 7:37 Marsha’s journey: starting teaching classes for “normal” people but attracted students with challenges. Students started asking for her help for their family, friends. Started teaching yoga for kids with challenges. Offered classes for veterans and gave workshops on that topic. The workshops grew into training because of the demand. Yoga for amputees has been celebrated as one of 13 top programs for adaptive yoga for DoYouYoga.com 13:40 “Yoga for Amputees” – Marsha’s book will be published soon and it is quite complete: includes types of amputations, prostheses, adapting to amputations, chapter for clinicians and developing a patient care plan including yoga Continued learning

1:19 Introduction to Melissa Turnock 2:35 Neurogenic Tremor Returns NS to parasympathetic state Richmond Heath of Melbourne brought TRE to Australia Developed by David Berceli 4:35 TRE definition Trauma Release Exercise Developed in war-torn countries and places that experienced natural disasters. It is a mammalian response to trauma and stress. Natural, involuntary tremors which release tension/tiredness in the muscles. Tremors start in the adductors 9:32 TRE in a yoga class Yoga asanas for 30 minutes Tremoring – 15-20 minutes Svasana – at least 15 minutes Emphasis on breath throughout 12:50 Benefits to students of TRE Sleep better More alert Opens spiritual/emotional state Anxiety lessens Helps injuries 17:45 Teach regulation and integration in class Looking for irregular breathing, eye contact, engage in conversation, stop and start tremors so students know they are in control.   Contacts: Email: mel@pittwaterpilates.com.au Website: www.pittwaterpilates.com.au FB: /pittpilatesandyoga/

1:12 Introduction to Christine Wushke and adjustments 2:15 Adjustments – many of us were taught hands-on adjustments to make the student’s body take a certain shape. Christine prefers supporting the student to go into their own body and learn to make their own adjustment and correct their own movement. Her philosophy is to a) help the meet their own yoga goals and b) how to support them to realise what they need to do make their own adjustments. Christine uses the Hakomi (a body-based therapy) precepts of mindfulness, non-violence and organicity to direct her adjustments. 8:15 Walking toward experiment. Two individuals each go into mindfulness, one quite deeply. The other one walks toward the other one. When in mindfulness, one is highly sensitized to movement and proximity. Students in a yoga class are usually relaxed and will be in some form of mindfulness and so very aware of movement and proximity. 16:25 Student led yoga – teacher supports them in meeting the student’s yoga goals and not the teacher’s goa

1:14 Introduction to Vinaya Saunders 1:50 Began with corporate yoga and was pregnant while she was teaching. Some female students became uncomfortable and didn’t come to class as the baby grew. One student said it was painful to see someone so pregnant as she had had great difficulty becoming pregnant. Vinaya started studying Gynocologic Ayurveda in depth and found what the ancient teachings said about fertility Western Medicine solves symptoms, rarely the root cause. Vinaya works with clients using the Ayurvedic practices to develop a healthy uterus, some of her clients have become pregnant and had healthy babies. Birth control and infertility treatments affect the hormones in many ways and are deleterious to fertility. Pranyama is good for vata imbalances and many fertility issues are based in vata imbalances. 11:50 Vinaya likes to work with women in their 40’s because they have tried everything that Western Medicine has to offer and are looking beyond that paradigm. Western Medicine prescribes birth contro

1:06 Introduction to Ashley Adams, owner of Fit Yoga Factory and author of “Zen and the Wonder Woman Complex” - a book to help mums build their tool kit for self-care. 2:12 Ashley defines building a community as creating a safe, comfortable space. Getting rid of whatever preconceptions someone may have of yoga teachers and yoga studios. She brings a real life perspective to yoga classes and yoga studios. She has a healthy mix of students from 13 to 73. Lots of moms that if they have to can bring their children to class so they don’t miss their yoga. Don’t have to be perfect, look perfect, or wear perfect yoga clothes. Her community helps her stay a real person. Its not a “perfectly perfect studio” or “perfectly perfect” yoga teachers, but rather real people who like yoga. 7:05 Ashley’s book – “Zen and the Wonder Women Complex” is the written version of what she is trying to achieve in the studio of being real and accepting that some days can be challenging. The book gives tips and tools on how to start each d

1:23 Introduction of Nancy Candea and Yoga Impact 3:15: In 2009, moved from Hawaii to Boulder, Colorado USA. Wanted to teach more marginalised populations and give back. Started teaching in women’s shelter and a client helped her establish a non-profit charity.  In addition to providing yoga to marginalised communities, the charity also wanted to provide teacher training to individuals from these communities. Nancy teaches at the VA at a women’s trauma unit (for those sexually assaulted in the military). As individuals left the program they asked Nancy for recommendations for where they could take yoga in their community. She didn’t know and started the Yoga Impact teacher training. Students will feel more comfortable if the teacher understands what the students have experienced. As a result, in 2017, Yoga Impact teacher training graduated 17 people of color and one week remains for the teacher training offered on the Navajo Reservation. Some trainees have already been teaching in the community. Yoga Impact p

1:05 Introduction of Caroline 2:20 Corporate Yoga – started as part of wellbeing programs in work place. Caroline was contacted to provide yoga classes and meditation courses. Some corporations are committed to their staff’s wellbeing but less common in last few years. Benefits to students and to the organisation. Company benefits include increasing profits through employee retention and improved employee output. Need a champion to talk to senior management about implementing the program and can also help with logistics. Co-contribution by staff reinforce commitment to attend. 10:20 Corporate classes: Caroline teaches them so that the postures, breathing and relaxation can be replicated in their offices, at home or while travelling. Teaches what the poses do – i.e., opening hips. All classes include work on the mat, standing, and in a chair. Pranyama and meditation. 13:00 Meditation – changed Caroline’s life. Due to health issues, wanted to improve her health and immune system. Asked Craig Hassad (a colleague

Diana Tokaji Part 2 Self-Care during Acute Trauma   1:00 Wrote a book “Six Women in a Cell” of her experience with assault by police. It isn’t a yoga therapy how-to, tells stories of the womens’ experience. Reader and listener share the experience. Story of what it takes to survive. It’s for any survivor and those that work with survivors. 5:20 Diana’s assault occurred three years ago. This time frame has allowed her to start speaking publicly. This and working with clients with similar problems requires a lot of self-care, emotional rebalancing and release. 7:00 Self Care Tips: what restores each of us comes from what we love. Soon after the assault took up boxing – contact, rhythm – really helped. She dances, moves, shares. Recommends that yoga therapists learn re-evaluation counselling where the counsellor is trained to be present, a quality listener to another person. Yoga therapists should be available to each other using this technique. 10:50 Presence is being sware of what the body is asking or trying

Diana Tokaji Part 1 Acute Trauma 1:10 Introduction to Diana Tokaji 2:16 Acute Stage of Trauma following assault. Acute state can appear at any stage to life. Some of the go too’s of yoga therapy may not be appropriate but may put the body in danger. Body may need to rally to face challenges of acute state. Acute stage is survival state. “Yoga Therapy Today” Winter, 2018, Diana’s article  recommend rest and relaxation for PTSD and trauma. But body may be in acute stage which is a state of survival which is the right state for the body to be in. Putting it into relaxation can drop the body into freeze state which could be dangerous.   9:00 Aspects of Diana’s protocol for acute trauma: vigilance, head-centered, legs parallel, close chain, quads and glute engaged, eyes open, heels on the ground. Vigilance = be able to see all around, can scope your horizons. If client wants to be in relaxation pose, Diana may offer to be vigilant for them. These aspects meet the body’s need to watch out for danger. 15:00 Presence

Dayna Culwell – Yoga for Chronic Pain 1:30 Introduction to Dayna Culwell 3:08 Using yoga to interrupt the pain signals. Alert from brain that there is pain and something be done. Sometimes the pain signals become mixed and that the wound that originally caused the pain is healed but the pain continues. The brain needs to be reset. Start with grounding and breathing. Can redirect the pain signals if you can learn a strong focus through yoga; readjust pain signals so that you don’t notice them (as much) or reset so that the brain stops sending false pain signals. Reground: pain makes us lose perspective, power of pain is very strong (survival mechanism). Reground: connecting with the earth (i.e., child pose). 13:00 Chronic Pain Programs in Hospitals: Dayna’s teacher developed and taught the physicians of the hospital. Seeing the value, the physicians helped implement the program. Leads to better recuperation because yoga can address the changes due to the emotional impact of the illness and treatment. Program i

Trauma Explained 1:12 Introduction to Nityda Gessal 4:15 When is yoga appropriate for someone in trauma. Need tools when beginning therapy or yoga. Touch can be a trigger for people with trauma. Get permission to touch several times during class. Need referral list for therapists for students. Yoga is “yoga therapy lite”. If students  describe behaviours of hurting themselves or others, tell you their trauma history, then a yoga teacher should give them a referral for a therapist or if in therapy to see their therapist. 13:32 Teaches trauma informed yoga for therapists and teachers. Therapists are accepting of yoga; accepting of alternative modalities. Therapists understand that trauma is held in the body, right side of the brain and trauma work needs to include movement. Trauma is held in the right side of the brain but fragmented = fragmented, intrusive thoughts. Traditional talk therapy is left brained and can’t reach the trauma. Need to access the right brain, creativity, movement. Yoga integrates the rig

1:45 Introduction to Courtney Kilian 2:40 Writing and Yoga - Kilian found that yoga and writing  complemented each other and were therapeutic in her experience. 4:40 Benefits of yoga and writing for students – a) helps them get through their blocks, b) uses chakras as part of the course,  c) students begin to understand that creativity is not a luxury, d) yoga has the body releases the blocks that prevent creativity, d) use meditation and breathing as bridges between everyday life and the yoga space. Yoga puts them in the present. 11:42 Developed an online course to be launched June 2018 consisting of: gentle yoga, mindfulness, breath, meditation. Movement to get to know the body, each week work on a chakra, meeting students where they are at, and teaching them to find out where they are at, then restorative yoga. Teacher is just the guide, your body tells you what you need to know. 15:25 Class starts with an intention, mantra and meditation on arrival. Use journal prompts about how body feels, and what are b