This is Yoga Therapy

In this episode I spoke with Lisa & Neil Pearson. Lisa and Neil are partners in life and in work and are the founders of Pain Care Aware, which offers certification programs and online trainings for yoga teachers and yoga therapists, as well as healthcare and fitness professionals working with people in pain. They reside in Canada and both have a long history of teaching and practicing yoga and yoga therapy. Neil is also a physiotherapist and author, Lisa additionally a swami and educator. They are both on the faculty with Inner Peace Yoga Therapy. In the podcast we discussed what they call a “taboo topic,” and that is Pain is a Part of Yoga. We got into  more specifics of what that means, and why it’s important to break the silence and offer different  perspectives on pain based on science, our lived experiences of pain, and yoga teachings. 

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This episode is a recap of a recent Zoom panel we held with the following Inner Peace Yoga Therapy students and alumni:

• Dawn Schaefer-Stumpf
• Edda Rodriguez
• Jenna Csont
• Rachel Haskovec

 In the panel, these individuals shared their experiences in our training, and spoke to what their yoga therapy work and path looks like today.

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In this episode, I interviewed Soleil Hepner.  Soleil is a certified yoga therapist, educator, speaker and the former Program Director of the Phoenix Rising School of Yoga Therapy. Today she continues on as Emeritus Faculty and also works in private practice in San Diego where she offers individual, couples and group yoga therapy, along with coaching and online sessions.  

The topic of our conversation was “ambivalence.”  Soleil embraced the power of ambivalence herself when she announced the decision to retire from her position as Program Director with Phoenix Rising. She sensed that others wanted to know about the next best thing she would move on to, and that there was discomfort around not knowing. She embraces this ambivalence  or “in the between” and encourages her clients to do so as well.

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In this episode, I interviewed Robin Rothenberg. Robin is a Yoga Therapist and the Program Director of Essential Yoga Therapy Therapist Training. Since as early as summer 2020, her Long-COVID presentation at the Global Yoga Therapy Conference established her place as a thought-leader in the field. She was a co-organizer for the acclaimed Wellness After COVID Symposium in 2021, which brought together top researchers, medical professionals, and policy makers from around the world in support of the efficacy of therapeutic yoga post-COVID. Her four-part series for those living with Long-COVID has consistently been one of the most popular courses offered through the Give Back Yoga/IAYT Long-COVID Initiative. Currently, she is offering a Continuing Ed. forum for IAYT, illuminating over four-consecutive sessions with a client, her unique approach to addressing symptoms associated with the condition. Additionally, Robin works as a consultant for a Long-COVID research team in the U.K. as the head yoga therapist charged with co- designing the intervention.  We spoke about these topics and more on the podcast.

Link: Robin's upcoming course on Therapeutic Yoga for Long-COVID

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In this episode, I interviewed Donna Brooks. Donna is a somatic movement therapist and educator, yoga therapist, and embodied meditator who has 35 years of experience teaching, counseling and coaching in movement and the healing arts.  Even with a lifetime of learning and experience, her biggest lesson was the sudden death of her 36 year old son. She says that when her son died, she actually felt she was at a fork in the road… she could either collapse into unending suffering or find the richness of life in the shadows. She chose the latter, and says that her daily embodiment practice allows her to feel her emotions while also having her life. We spoke about her son and this loss on the podcast, and how Donna sees embodiment as an act of courage and how it creates a foundation for enacting the change so many of us want to see.

Learn more about Donna and her offerings at originalbodywisdom.com
Details and  registration for her course on YogaUOnline.

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In this episode I interviewed Candice Clark.  Cands is a licensed counsellor and yoga therapist that specializes in trauma and mental health. She has supported many individuals and group therapy programs focused on the recovery from psychological trauma, and the physical health challenges that appear to co-occur with post-traumatic stress. Cands is also completing her Masters thesis on trauma-sensitive yoga in the South African context and this was the topic of our conversation on the podcast.

Read more about Cands and her work here.

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In this episode I interviewed Dr. Shailla Vaidya. She is a physician and certified yoga therapist practicing Mind-Body Medicine in Toronto, Canada. She has worked for over 20 years on frontlines of healthcare with vulnerable and marginalized populations. In 2013, after experiencing burnout, she founded The Yoga MD, a trauma-informed practice where she integrates Eastern Mind-Body practices with Western Medicine to help foster stress resilience. With a focus on helping professionals, she developed a yoga-based program called the RnR Program for Burnout. After suffering a head injury, she developed another yoga-based program called the Reconnect Concussion Program. She is a “Compassion-it” change agent and is grateful to be carrying on the work of her ancestors. 

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In this episode I interviewed Anne Pitman. With over 35 years of experience, Anne has cultivated a practice of yoga therapy inquiry to help people return to their body and embody their life. She is the Director of the School of Embodied Yoga Therapy, in Ottawa, Canada; a 800 hr + school, marrying traditional wisdom and evidence based yoga practice, in service to life-altering events. She’s also recently come on board as a faulty member at Inner Peace Yoga Therapy.  We focused  our conversation on two areas of work that Anne specializes in: cancer and grief.

Related links:
For Anne's practices (not cancer specific): http://www.annepitman.ca
For Anne's cancer work: http://www.thechi.ca
Anne's book with Leigh Leibel and Contributors: Yoga Therapy Across the Cancer Care Continuum (coming Spring 2022)
Anne's school with Co-Director Cassi Kitner: The School of Embodied Yoga Therapy

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In this episode we talked about equity and access programs, specifically at our school, Inner Peace Yoga Therapy. Joining Michele Lawrence on the podcast were four students in our program:  Erica Bentley, Fernie Tiflis, Wendolyne Omana and Olivia Roberson. Michele shared information about Inner Peace's scholarship and grant programs. Wendolyne and Olivia shared about the grants they received and the recent community yoga projects they have implemented or are working toward as a result.

For those who wish to support the projects mentioned on this podcast, you can do so by following these links.  

• Donate to Inner Peace Yoga Therapy equity and access programs directly at Give Back Yoga, selecting Inner Peace under the designation. 
• Donate to  Wendolyne's project  directly at wendolyneomana.com 
• Donate to Olivia's project directly at ironwolfrecovery.org.

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In this episode, I interviewed Beryl Bender.   Beryl has been a student and teacher of the classic eight-limbed path of ashtanga yoga since 1971. She is the founder and director  of The Hard & the Soft Yoga Institute, and she, alongside Rob Schware,  founded the Give Back Yoga Foundation in 2007.  We spoke about many things and had a  conversation  on Yoga & Longevity in anticipation of a new course on the subject in conjunction with Yoga International which will be available in November 2021.

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