If you have studied yoga with me for a while, you have likely noticed subtle, positive, and consistent changes in your life. This may show up as general equanimity, ease and/or fulfillment that naturally occurs from your weekly yoga practice.
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PRIVATE Yoga Therapy
Now is the time to move into a deeper commitment and into the next level of health and wellness. Here is what Allison had to say about working with me...
...(it) was so nourishing on so many levels this morning! I’ve been working from home and in life, I’ve been growing tremendously as new lessons and new insights unfold."
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Please contact me for this life changing work or call me at 415-259-8900 for a free 20 minute consultation, prices, and scheduling.
Why go deeper?
A student usually requests a private yoga session with me for 3 specific reasons:
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1. You are interested in learning more about physical alignment, breathing techniques, or meditation issues that pertain to your particular body and specific health concerns. These requests are from beginners up to advanced students or those that are coming back to practice after injury. The sessions are designed to help you find strength and confidence in your practice so you can join or rejoin classes safely.
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2. There is a specific posture you would like to master. We practice step-by-step, developmentally with a specific and "prescriptive" sequences to address your stage of awareness on all levels: Physical, mental, emotional, energetic and the spiritual connection that has meaning for YOU!
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3. You are experiencing a time of immense change, transition or upset, where a one-on-one Yoga Therapy session can provide a safe place to explore a deeper connection to yourself and support your commitment on a new level. I work with chronic diseases like cancer, scoliosis and chronic back pain, MS, Parkinson's, anxiety, depression and age related conditions. These issues can be debilitating and interrupt your life and compromise your vitality. Yoga therapy is a powerful tool for the committed individual who is ready for a one-on-one ongoing and co-created relationship.
Many of you are feeling that pull of inspiration and I am here to support you to take this next step. In our culture, RIGHT NOW is the perfect time to discover a new perspective for yourself and learn the tools to help integrate that into your life.
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Yoga verses Yoga Therapy?
Yoga therapy has become the new buzzword of the yoga world. What is it really? Isn’t yoga a therapeutic practice anyway? What is the difference between a yoga class and a yoga therapy session? To illustrate the difference, let’s break it down, differentiating between a yoga class and a yoga therapy session, and a yoga teacher and a yoga therapist.
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Yoga Class vs. Private Yoga Therapy Session
People attend yoga classes for a variety of reasons but they usually start out seeking exercise within a community. Along the way, they may discover that yoga has more to offer that just a physical workout; they may find an interest in pranayama, meditation or chanting. Yoga classes offer students a variety of techniques so they can learn different ways to explore this ancient health care maintenance system.
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A yoga therapy session is more specific: it is all about you and your issue(s). A yoga therapist’s goal is to investigate your specific symptoms and offer personalized solutions for controlling and/or mitigating them.
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Yoga Teacher vs. Yoga Therapist
A yoga teacher should be trained in both the art and science of yoga as well as effective teaching methods. A good yoga teacher knows how to assess the needs of the students in any given class and teaches techniques that will be of interest to that group as well as enhancing their general knowledge of yoga.
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A yoga therapist is a certified yoga teacher who has additional, in depth training of ancient Yoga and Ayurveda practices and traditional western medical treatments. Through this lens, he/she assess the needs of the client to determine a specific intervention for an individual. Yoga therapy training involves over 500 hours of study, plus deeper specialty and required continuing education for a range of conditions and their corresponding therapeutic interventions
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Let’s look at an example: Let's say that you have developed low back pain that often keeps you up at night. Attending a gentle yoga class helps to ease that pain for a while as you learn to coordinate your breath to movement. However, you are still not finding enough relief to be able to sleep well. You could take prescription medicine, but you decide to visit a yoga therapist, who asks you a variety of questions about your life, your work, your habits, and your diet. Over a period of 4 or more initial sessions, she/he develops a personal practice with modifications that will directly address the specific, current issues that are preventing you from feeling relief. this may or may not include the medication as yoga therapy is considered an adjunct therapy to many traditional western treatments.
What your first private session looks like:
The first session requires 75-90 minutes. Together we discuss what brings you to Yoga Therapy and then through questions about your health and lifestyle, decide upon your top priorities. From there, I ask you to do some simple yoga movements to access your range of motion or places of immobility. From this assessment, I suggest a short term and long term plan and send you home with a prescriptive sequence especially designed to address your top priority.
I offer session packages to help make certain you have guidance and support along this new path to new habits, wellness, and a healthy lifestyle. As a Certified Yoga Therapist, through the international Association of Yoga therapy ( IAYT) my goal is to empower you to learn about your own body and to guide you into understanding the best Yoga practices and adaptations that bring about continued balance, peace, and equanimity into your life.
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