“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 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 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
“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.
“Words do not do justice to all that I learned. This workshop changed my life!” — Jen Nolan, Teacher, Cortland, NY
“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.
“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 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 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.
“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 gained tools for working with my own depression and with my clients’ depressions.” — Robert Sgona, LCSW, RYT, psychotherapist, Yoga teacher, Camden, ME.
“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
“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.
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“I gained perspective of who I am in the world and this will change my life significantly.” — Mary Ford, artist, Southport, 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 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
“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
Having just seen “Manchester by the Sea”, completed my 200 hour yoga teacher training in Integrative Yoga Therapy and as a former mental health attorney with bipolar illness I share your experience of suffering as a portal into the deeper experience of yoga or ultimate Oneness.
For some of us this happens quickly, some slowly and some seem doomed to a lfe of pain and remorse. “Manchester by the Sea” is so painful that one can fail to miss the incredibly powerful nuances of healing and hope depicted there. Remember the movie symbolically closes with Patrick and Lee tossing a tennis ball back and forth to eachother. It might not be the fairytale connection we hoped for, but its as meaningful and realistic a connection as one might hope for with one’s adolescent nephew…sometimes its the small steps that open up greater portals eventually.
One of the songs I used for my final praticum on hip-hop yoga for healing trauma was Leonard Cohen’s “Boogie Street”. In fact Boogie Street in the song is a place in Hong Kong where a lot of prostitution occurs. In hip-hop it is a metaphor for life or one’s activities.
The lyrics so clearly describe the path, the journey of life and the practice of yoga:
Oh crown of light
Oh darkened one
I never thought we’d meet
You kiss my lips
And then it’s done
I’m back on Boogie Street.
So come my friends
Be not afraid
We are so lightly here
It is in love that we are made
In love we disappear
Though all the maps of blood and flesh
Are posted on the door
Thers’s no one yet that can tell us
What Boogie Street is for.”
Yogah Chitta Vritti Nirodaha
Margaret, what an articulate and thoughtful response! Thank you. I sense that we are like-hearted, like-minded beings. Perhaps we will meet on the yoga path or back on Boogie Street.
We just went to see Manchester By The Sea and we were disappointed by the ending. We anticipated Lee to embrace the fishing business, engage in raising his nephew. Hoping to see Lee put the pictures of his three children in the drawer and let go of his self hate and move forward.
I know what you mean, Barbara. We so want Lee to heal. But his trauma has been untreated. There are small signs of connection–as Margaret mentioned, the ball toss, and there are more, but I don’t want to say too much for those who have not yet seen this movie. Those limited signs can lead to more connection and some healing. But trauma needs treatment, and it is treatable. Someone like Lee may never find himself in a therapist’s office, unless he is court mandated to do so because of his acting out behavior. There is EMDR, there is IFS and so many therapeutic interventions that can help. And there is yoga.
I think we decide how to react to the tough stuff that happens in our lives. It is our choice of reaction that brings transformation or not. It takes time and experience to develop the wisdom to understand what choice we must make in order to be transformed by suffering. It takes differing amounts of time for each person to achieve this understanding and only then can we move through the tough experiences.
In the face of challenging situations we can choose to feel our feelings but only if we understand that they will not be with us unchanging for ever, that this too shall pass. Then we can look for ways to support ourselves through the challenge, such as a gratitude practice or yoga.
Most challenges will leave us forever changed, but not damaged just different.
Thank you for responding, Ruth! Yes, I think that it takes time and practice to be able to receive the gift of transformation from life’s serious challenges. Biologically, we are programmed so that our limbic system brain (emotional center) goes into gear first, before our prefrontal cortex (executive functioning) comes on line. So when trauma occurs, and I talk about this in the interview with psychiatrist Dr. Michael Seng, the feelings can be so chaotic and fraught that we often numb out. We may have an out of body experience. It’s how we protect ourselves, and yet it can build the muscle of our ability to transcend. For many of us, that part is not a choice. But through our spiritual practices–as you say, “such as a gratitude practice or yoga,”–we can slowly bring our witness (prefrontal cortex) on board. We learn that we do have a choice. We can stay present, because who we are is more than what is happening in this moment, more than our stories and our moods. In the podcast I talk about a few of these practices.
Beautiful post, poignant replies. Thank you, Amy and friends! I have listened to the podcast, but not seen the movie.
I have seen many movies that don’t have “Hollywood” happily-ever-after endings; after all, isn’t that one of the hallmarks of Canadian film making and literature? (Slight ha-ha)
Seriously, I find one of my growing edges in working with people is my desire for them to transform their trauma faster, more significantly, or differently from what is in them to do. Perhaps a ball passing between two people has some transformative effect on others who watch.
On a slightly different note, I agree with non-dual Franciscan priest, Richard Rohr, who has been known to say that pain that is not transformed is transmitted. Not wanting to transmit pain and also knowing that a caring, nonjudgmental listener and my embodied practice have the capacity to transform it are what keepme returning to yoga, movement, meditation, and spiritual direction again and again.
I love this quote, Lonnie, from the non-dual Franciscan priest, Richard Rohr, “pain that is not transformed is transmitted.” Thank you for sharing it with us.It’s what underlies our legacy burdens, I think–trauma passed from one generation to another. So we who are yoga therapists or other healing professionals, walk that fine line between offering people the tools to transform without trying to fix. I heard Richard Miller say, “as soon as we try to fix someone, we fixate them in their issues.” It’s about our own growing self-awareness first, and then supporting others in clearing the constrictions in the koshas–emotionally, mentally, physically, energetically–so that they can more clearly see their own healing path.
You reveal yet another layer, another dimension, Amy. I am so fortunate and appreciative to have you to guide me through the challenges. <3