Amy Weintraub on Arizona Public Media

Yoga Teacher Treats Her Own Depression, Shows Others

Scientific research shows that yoga as a means of therapy can be an effective treatment for depression, says a Tucson yoga therapist and yoga teacher.

Amy Weintraub says she was able to stop taking medication for depression, replacing it with meditation and her yoga practice many years ago. Since then, she has spread the word by becoming a teacher and yoga therapist and writing extensively about the benefits.

“What yoga does is it actually begins to change the physiology,” Weintraub says. “As you begin to deepen your breath, your posture changes. So for most people who have depression or mood disorders, they may have a physiological look of depression: Their shoulders are rounded, their humped over. There’s not a lot happening in the solar plexus.”

Deeper breathing stimulates the nerves and thus the brain.

“It deactivates the limbic brain,” she says. “That’s very important for those people who have a history of trauma.”

She says that in her own case, she began feeling better through the deeper breathing that yoga and accompanying meditation brought to her, so that she was able to wean herself from her medication.

Weintraub then went into training psychotherapists to show them how to help their clients “to empower them to manage their moods.”

Her book, “Yoga Skills for Therapists– No Mat Required,” was requested by a publisher recognizing that psychotherapists needed the physiological knowledge that yoga had brought to her to deal with her own depression.

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 “Amy Weintraub on Arizona Public Media”

  1. Sue Tebb says:

    This is a very positive interview and support of LifeForce Yoga and your new book; it emphasizes that more and more of us in the health/mental health fields are bringing these skills into practice and we need what you offer to make our work more effective with clients.

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“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
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