Today Shira talks about what yoga therapy is, which tools are used, relationships, support network, life meaning, work, lifestyle and occupational effects are all taken into consideration.

We look at how a session starts with a broad, as well as deep, in-take, taking time to get to know the person makes it different from other modalities, and therefore effective.

We also look at how a training integrates many important aspects of being human, and how all these layers need consideration to effectively help each individual.

Managing my depression and anxiety since age 15 with Yoga, meditation and breathing, postnatal depression involved Ayurvedic guidance to accommodate new lifestyle patterns. Working with our layers of biology, physiology, mind, emotions and psychology, Yoga therapy can help shift depression, anxiety and trauma.

We can do many things to alleviate our biological responses to the adversities of our current life. Reducing physical, physiological, emotional, mental and psychosocial stress. 

Included is a short practice to shift biological health and energetic stance. The article Depression, Anxiety and Biological Health has more tools and tips how to manage, self-regulate and eventually shift our state.

Tyla Arnason shares with Shira how movement is a safe and beneficial part of the cancer continuum. She talks about the importance of adapting the practice to the individual especially in group yoga therapy at the University of Calgary.

Yoga Thrive's group programs are value for community, coming together with people on a similar journey, in a safe environment adds to the benefits, helping with adherence and accountability for those who struggle with commitment and being active.

Tyla also teaches a teacher training of evidence-informed yoga program for individuals diagnosed with cancer (on- and/or off-treatment) and their support persons.

Laura Staton, yoga therapist and occupational therapist, and Shira Cohen, talk about how pain decreases life functioning and impacts how we show up for our lives.

Yoga Bones, a Comprehensive Guide to Managing Pain and Injuries Through Yoga, incorporates strategies to manage physical pain and emotional self-regulation. It combines her knowledge and experience in both professional fields.

We discuss how function changes throughout our lifespan and its impacts on quality of life. How yoga practice can increase self-agency with skilled therapuetic tools to increase strength and life participation and decrease discomfort.

Yoga Bones is both beautiful and practical, easy to use and specific. A great gift for anyone whose reduced activity is due to pain or injury.

Anca Amariei and Shira Cohen talk about training to become a Yoga Therapist, the Yoga Therapy Institute in Amsterdam, the importance of an in take to understand a clients story as the actual healing or treatment process of any underlying issue; especially in cases of chronic dis-ease, our five layers as onions; essential to work wholistically.

Anca shares her story of tension, responsiblity and stress related to work, causing intense headaches and led to her Yoga journey which quickly developed into Yoga therapy.

We finish with an easy and effective yoga practice to relieve tension and stress around shoulders, neck and back.

Improving physical posture improves health, breathing and mental calm here's a PDF Improve Posture to help you get started ;) 

Enjoy the talk!

Shira and Amy Jarvis have lots of fun talking about how Yoga is different from Yoga therapy, being about healing the self, how breath is really the transformative practice, that mainstream practices such as mindfullness, iRest and meditation, are orginally an aspect of Yoga's extensive array of practices to work with body, physiology, mind and psyche.

Amy talks about having to choose between a career she loved and the desire to be a full-time mother, and learning to teach in a therapeutic form to group classes and how that is an option even in a drop-in class.

Amy, both creative and playful, also shares a great tip to cultivate the better skills to teach, touch and observe effectively. How to cue and work with older students, beginners and people with injuries. Shira shares a wonderful prompt for strengthening our positive pathways of mind towards the end of the talk.

Shira talks about burnout affecting not only health care professions, but also teachers, single parents, traders, managers, bankers and entrepreneurs. Knowing it as adrenal fatigue opens up a treasure chest of tools and tips.

We finish with an excerpt from Diana Tokaji's book Six Women in a Cell, and Katherine May's book Wintering; a journey into the season of burnout.

DHEA, produced by our ovaries and adrenals, is a hormone that improves stress recovery, energy, mood, sleep, immunity and libido. During perimenopause our ovaries stop producing most hormones and adrenals and pituitary take over this function.

So what happens when our adrenals are fatigued? You guessed it...

Trauma, small and big, also negatively affects our adrenals and therefore increases our likelyhood of burnout.

Overcoming Burnout Tools and tips

1. Get tests done- at a functional medical doctor see what causes imbalance, adrenal fatigue tests, microbiome and methylation labs
2. Minimise stress- which areas causes stress- work, family, home, personal. Create a schedule to minimize stress and more rest. REST REST REST. Meditation, Sama-vritti; breathing in and out same ratio of 5 counts 2-5 mins a few times a day.
3. Decrease Inflammation- curcuma, bitter and astringent foods bring down the acidity, caused by excess sweet, sour and salty foods. Leafy greens for HPA.
4. Eat Protein rich foods- adrenals need protein to convert into hormones and healthy endocrine function, relieving anxiety, insomnia and mental fatigue.
5. Healthy Fats- olive oil, coconut oil, ghee and avocados
6. Supplements & Herbs- Zinc, vit D, C, chamomile, ashwagandha, radhiola, liqourice

Andrea Trank shares her story of anxiety, autoimmunity and emotional dysregulation prompting her to find stress relief through Yoga practice, and improved gut health through functional medicine.

Andrea found the answers for her constitution and issues in HeartMath's simple and effective practices based on research of heart-brain coherence and vagal tone and physiological regulation.

Andrea and Shira, like many health professionals, seek outside conventional medicine to find answers to women's health, which is complex due to our varying hormones during cycles and phases of life.

Seeking to connect the dots and find the right practices and tools to regulate the complex system of women's hormones, health and lives starts with knowledge and sharing what we discover.

Resources mentioned;

- Invisible Women- Caroline Perez

- Emotional Empowerment FB group

- Free PDF Yoga for Anxiety

- Free PDF Yoga for Burnout

- Free eBook Yoga for Overcoming Addictions

This week Anne-Laure Peaucelle and Shira Cohen discuss emotions and how they can be the trigger as well as the transformative factor in our lives. Learning to make peace witn emotions instead of supressing and managing them.

We touch on how trauma triggers, or is triggered by, emotions. Why people struggle so much with struggling, shame and feeling painful or difficult emotions.

Anne-Laure guides us through a lovely, simple and effective practice to deal with difficult emotions.

To work with Anne-Laure's www.yogawithannelaure.com

Her Instagram www.instagram.com/yogawithannelaure & Facebook group www.facebook.com/groups/yogaandemotionalfreedom

Shira's Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/ShiraCohenYoga/

Shira's free resources https://shiracohen.yoga/free-yoga-resources/

Working with Shira https://shiracohen.yoga/yoga-therapy/

Steffany Moonaz and Shira discuss Yoga therapy for arthritis, and what kinds of Yoga classes benefit, rather than aggravate, arthritis and other inflammatory conditions.

We touch on systemic inflammation and its relationship to depression, what makes Yoga therapy different from most Yoga classes and how to find resources and a good teacher for this condition.

Dr. Steffany, Yoga therapist, Yoga researcher, and director of research at the Maryland University of Integrative Health, creates, evaluates and trains professionals in programs to work safely and effectively with people who have arthritis and related conditions. 

She has written Yoga Therapy for Arthritis for Yoga professionals, healthcare professionals and people living with arthritis who want to better understand the role of yoga in arthritis management.