Important Announcement for LFYPs

Dear LFYPs,

We hope you are thriving!  What follows is important information about the changes in the LifeForce Yoga Practitioner Training, how they effect you, and what to do to maintain your listing as a LifeForce Yoga Practitioner on the website.

As a result of changing standards in the Yoga Therapy community and feedback from both LFYPs and the clients/students they serve, we are making changes in the LFYP training program that support your work and may also effect your standing as a LifeForce Yoga Practitioner.  These changes go into effect on January 1st, 2014.

Please take some time to read through all the way to the end. We have also included a PDF of Amy’s contribution to Yoga Therapy Today (IAYT publication) that covers scope of practice issues.

Supporting LFYPs

We are working hard to provide you with support that you can pass on to your clients and students. Every week, we are posting articles and practice articles to our website blog, Facebook and Google+. Many of these postings have a link to the “find a practitioner in your area” page.  This supports your business as an LFYP.

Here are the guidelines for using LifeForce Yoga, including sharing the LFY blogs with your students and social media friends in your own blog and/or newsletter.
Guidelines for Using LifeForce Yoga

New Prerequisites, Hours & Requirments for attending the LFYP Training

The prerequisites to take the training, the training hours and the qualifications for certification as an LFYP are more rigorous than they were.  We want to insure that the LFYP is well equipped and feels confident in using the skills she/he learns in the training to support those they serve.  We also want to offer support LYFPs as they begin LFY home practice.  This will not only help them clear their own space each day but it will help them feel more comfortable introducing LFY practices to their students and clients.

LFY practices are continually modified as are their applications, based on continuous monitoring of client/student response, as well as current research.  We want to offer you, as a LFYP trained before these changes, a way to stay up-to-date on the evolution of practices.  Additionally, we have heard from a number of consumers that when they’ve contacted a LifeForce Yoga Practitioner in their area, they have not always received a response.  Below the current new prerequisites and training requirements for new LFYPs that go into effect on January 1, you will find a list of requirements to keep your own status active on the website.

The prerequisites and training requirements have been upgraded. In order to take the LFYP-1 Training, participants need to have completed the following:

  • LifeForce Yoga to Manage Your Mood weekend workshop, or equivalent program
  • Read Yoga for Depression by Amy Weintraub
  • Practice with the LifeForce Yoga to Beat the Blues – Level 1 or Level 2 DVD (suggested practice of 30 days)
  • Practice with the LifeForce Yoga Chakra Clearing Meditation CD (suggested practice of 30 days)

LifeForce Yoga Certification

In order to be certified as a LifeForce Yoga Practitioner Level 1, the 64 hour residential training is no longer sufficient. As of 2014, new LFYPs who wish to be certified must now complete the following:

  • The 7-day residential training, or all 3 modules of the Modular LFYP Training
  • Leading/facilitating several practice sessions (during the training)
  • Leading/facilitating a 50 minute final session (during the training)
  • Completion of Practice Teach Report (during the training)
  • Completion of Self-mentoring Report (during the training
  • Completion of Quiz
  • Completion of Application
  • Completion of Training Evaluation
  • Completion of 3 Mentoring Sessions post Training
  • Completion of Self-Directed 40 Day Challenge
  • Details here: http://yogafordepression.com/level-one-certification/

Maintaining Certification as an LFYP

With the upgrade in certification standards and the increase in referrals, we want to be sure that everyone listed on the website is current with the LFY practices and procedures. Therefore, in order to maintain your listing as an LFYP on our website:

  • Download the revised manual every year by February 15th. (It’s free) – The manual can be found here: http://yogafordepression.com/lfyp/ Login information is at the bottom of this email.
  • Take 12 hours of continuing education in LifeForce Yoga by December, 2014. This is required every two years.

Options for taking your 12 hours CEs:

  • Attend a LFY program
  • Assist a LFY program
  • Take advantage of the online webinar series
  • Mentoring sessions
  • More options may be provided in the future.

Scope of Practice

The Two-Way Street: Integrating Yoga into Mental Healthcare and Mood Management into Yoga Therapy, by Amy Weintraub, published in the Winter 2013 Issue of Yoga Therapy Today (a publication of International Association of Yoga Therapists). We highly encourage all LFYPs to join as members and list LifeForce Yoga as your main school.

Level 2 Training

The next Level 2 training will take place in Tucson, AZ, May 12 – 19, 2014.
To take the Level 2 training, you will need to have completed 2 of your 3 mentoring sessions, however it is strongly recommended that you have completed all 3. Forms for mentoring sessions can be found in the LFYP portion of the website.
Registration details.

Each day begins with a luscious LifeForce Yoga Practice led by Amy or Rose. We will have two daytime sessions, where each practitioner will share her or his use of LifeForce Yoga strategies in their work. You will dive into the techniques from Level 1 with a manual that includes scripts for practices and processes. Your own personal practice will deepen. Each practitioner will walk away with a greater sense of connection, to Self, as well as to the sangha of LifeForce Yoga Practitioners. We hope that you will join us in May!
Level II continues training in the Yogic strategies for balancing mood, with more practice teaching. The emphasis here is working one-on-one and leading workshops. Level 2 will focus on developing skill levels in assessing, teaching and working with students and clients in groups and individually to facilitate and empower them to manage their moods with yogic principles, practices, and strategies. In this course, you will actively lead, with script in hand, what you may only have experienced in Level 1. Ancient yogic practices will be considered in the light of current research in the field of yoga and mental health. There will be many opportunities to practice, in small groups and one-on-one, the many yogic strategies covered in both the Level 1 and 2 Trainings.

Accessing the LFYP Website

http://yogafordepression.com/lfyp/ (please note that there is no “www” in this link)

Login information can be found in your manual.

We want to support you in the good work you do in the world!

a warm Namasté,

Amy Weintraub, Founding Director
Rose Kress, Director of Programming and Education

 

About the Author

Amy Weintraub

Amy Weintraub E-RYT 500, MFA, YACEP, C-IAYT, founded the LifeForce Yoga® Healing Institute, which trains yoga and health professionals internationally, and is the author of Yoga for Depression and Yoga Skills for Therapists. The LifeForce Yoga protocol is used by health care providers worldwide. She is involved in ongoing research on the effects of yoga on mood.

One thought on “Important Announcement for LFYPs”

  1. Mary Robinson says:

    Exciting — thank you so much for providing these great resources so conveniently!

Leave a comment.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sign up for our Research Newsletter

Cart

What People Say

“Words do not do justice to all that I learned. This workshop changed my life!” — Jen Nolan, Teacher, Cortland, NY
“This workshop helped me rededicate my energies and begin to work through some of the blocks I’ve felt creatively.” — Steve Mark, college professor, New Haven, CT
“I came hoping to learn to move past some of the obstacles blocking my creativity. Over the course of this weekend, I feel I’ve gained a certain measure of faith in myself and in my ability to change. I also had some realizations that I believe will be very helpful to me. I feel encouraged. Both the content and presentation of this program were so well-thought out that I can’t think of any way to improve it.” — Andrea Gollin, writer & editor, Miami, FL
“I gained perspective of who I am in the world and this will change my life significantly.” — Mary Ford, artist, Southport, CT
“My personal practice will change, as well as my yoga classes. I have a better understanding of yoga!” — Andrea Gattuso, RYT, Yoga Teacher, Hackettstown, N.J.
“Giving my clients a strategy and permission to quiet their minds and rebalance the sympathetic nervous system has been very beneficial to them and in our work together.” — Sue Dilsworth, PhD, RYT 200, LFYP, Allendale, MI
“I utilize the LFY techniques in both a class room setting and one-on-one environment. The skills have infused my teachings with compassion, mindfulness, and awareness.” — Kat Larsen, CYT, LFYP
“A client who returned said, "When I came before, you helped me understand and get where I wanted to go. Now you show me yoga practices I use to help myself understand and get where I want to go.” — Sherry Rubin, LCSW, BCD, LFYP, Downingtown, PA
“My patients can now have the same effects as many medications without having to actually take medication!” — Deborah Lubetkin, PSY.D, LFYP, West Caldwell, NJ
“My life is already changed! I will use the tools I learned in my own practice and in my work. I feel safe and seen.” — Susan Andrea Weiner, MA, teacher/expressive arts facilitator, El Cerrito, CA.
“I learned lots of ways to reduce the anxiety and depression of my patients and myself.” – Aviva Sinvany-Nubel, PhD, APN, CNSC, RN, psychotherapist, Bridgewater, N.J.
“I began a fantasy during the meditation exercise... almost as if I’d been there. It’s now an on-going work of fiction.” — Serian Strauss, Tanzania
“I feel profoundly transformed, both physically and emotionally. The connection between mind, body and spirit was clearly evident to me, but revealed to me through this workshop as an integrally vital link to overall health.” — Nadine Richardson, program manager at rehab agency, Monroe, CT
I absolutely love this stuff! I have been using it with my clients and I am just finding it to be so incredibly helpful. There seriously something for everything. Although I am not as skilled as I hope to be someday, even at my level of training I’m finding that I am beginning to figure out what to do. It just blows my mind! - Christine Brudnicki, MS, LPC
“I have gained an incredible opening and clearing of old obstructions. I hope to return to my life and fill this opening with things I love to do and that give me joy!” — Lisa Shine, administrative assistant, Ballston Lake, NY
“I gained tools for working with my own depression and with my clients’ depressions.” — Robert Sgona, LCSW, RYT, psychotherapist, Yoga teacher, Camden, ME.
“I have found the pranayama (breathing practices) especially easy to introduce in a clinical setting. Some people have benefited quickly in unexpected and transformative ways.” — Liz Brenner, LICSW, LFYP, Watertown, MA
“This workshop has changed so much — my self-image and my life. My own heart’s desire is 100% clear. I gained tools to help myself and others to live life fully.” — Marcia Siegel, Yoga teacher, therapist, Carlsbad, CA.
“I have been reminded that I am not on this path alone, that others are sharing the journey that sometimes seems so difficult. I have also been reminded of the importance of daily practice and I will do that. The whole program has been an incredible experience for me. Thank you!” — Lorraine Plauth, retired teacher, Voorheesville, NY
“I have found the LFYP training to be incredibly useful in giving people specific tools to use in maintaining physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual balance, and further opening their intuitive abilities.” — Nancy Windheart, RYT-200, LFYP, Reiki Master, Animal communication teacher, Prescott, AZ
“This program changed my life in a significant way. It helped me connect with the spirit which is something you can’t get from psychotherapy and medication.” – G. W., artist, Pittsburgh, PA
“I integrate strategies like mantra tones and pranayama, but above all I invite myself and those I teach to cultivate svadhyaya, to practice self-observation without judgment.” — Barbara Sherman, RYT 200, LFYP, Tucson, AZ
“I have gained a softer heart, more receptive mind, and tools to enrich both personal and professional aspects of my life.” – Regina Trailweaver, LICSW, clinical social worker, Hancock, VT.
“Yoga Skills for Therapists is the ideal resource for those who want to bring yoga practices into psychotherapy or healthcare. Weintraub, a leader in the field of yoga therapy, offers evidence-based, easy-to-introduce strategies for managing anxiety, improving mood, and relieving suffering. Helpful clinical insights and case examples emphasize safety, trust, and skillful adaptation to the individual, making it easy to apply the wisdom of yoga effectively in the therapeutic context.” — Kelly McGonigal, PhD, author, Yoga for Pain Relief, Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Yoga Therapy
Scroll to Top