Yoga in the Therapy Room: Tips for integrating trauma informed yoga

Can you achieve overall wellness through holistic practices? Can we overcome the challenges of self-exploration to reach our wellness goals?

MEET LA Adkins

LA uses she/her/hers pronouns and is a champion of solitude, storyteller, and mindfulness meditation guide. She is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and relocated to Durham, North Carolina in 2015 where she currently practices as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Holistic Wellness Therapreneur and is the Founding Owner of Reconnect With You, PLLC, a private mental health practice. Her practice specializes in working with entrepreneurs, executives, and other professionals and focuses on helping others improve their understanding of and relationships with themselves. Some fun facts about LA are that she gifted the world with a TEDx talk on the power of solitude in healing from loss, shame, and trauma, and she is certified in sound healing.

She firmly believes that one's relationships and work with others are both an extension and reflection of the relationship one has with oneself. When she is not social work-ing, you might find her hitting the stage to perform at karaoke, pouring candles, mixologizing and learning to make new cocktails, and meditating, especially with her singing bowls, cooking, or writing poetry. She sends you sunshine!

Find out more at Reconnect With You and connect with LA Adkins on Instagram and Facebook

• What is a Mindful Meditation Guide? 5:49
• Overcoming challenges within your practice 10:24
• Integrating holistic practices into your everyday life 21:32

• What is the difference between a teacher and a guide?
• Learning from each other and removing the hierarchy of traditional therapy

• How to give yourself permission to slow down
• Balancing work and self-care in your practice
• Setting intentions and allowing yourself to be in the moment

• Giving yourself a way to connect with yourself and be grounded
• Creating self-acceptance and accountability
• Learning to trust yourself and the direction you are going

Download the Free guide: How to build confidence and competence bringing yoga into the therapy room

The Yoga in Therapy Collective —where therapists learn, grow, and get support with yoga-informed practices

Explore the Yoga Basics for Therapists course—designed to help you confidently and ethically integrate yoga into therapy

Yoga Basics: The Therapist's Guide to Integrating Trauma-Informed Yoga into Sessions

Instagram: @chris_mcdonald58

Join the Free Bringing Yoga Into the Therapy Room Facebook group

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Self-Care for the Counselor: A Companion Workbook: An Easy to Use Workbook to Support you on Your Holistic Healing and Counselor Self-Care Journey ... A Holistic Guide for Helping Professionals)

Can a mind-body approach to therapy help heal chronic pain and illness? Can building healthier relationships ease chronic pain?

MEET Destiny Winters

Destiny is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Clinician Rehabilitation Counselor in Atlanta, GA. She specializes in helping people with chronic illnesses find joy and meaning in their lives despite daily, persistent physical and emotional pain.

Destiny practices through the lens of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Somatic Experiencing, Feminist Theory, and social justice to help clients learn to advocate for themselves in a system that has largely left them out. Self-care and compassion are at the heart of her work because without them, we cannot do the hard work required to make big changes in this world.

Find out more at The Chronic Illness Therapist and connect with Destiny on Instagram

• How does chronic pain affect our relationships? 1:48
• Connecting with others to help with our self-care 6:28
• Validating your chronic pain or illness 16:17
• Self-compassion and chronic pain 28:42

• Different ways that chronic pain shows itself
• How to educate your partner on chronic pain
• Why do we create such a strong identity around chronic illness?

• Understanding the effort it takes to create routines and self-care regimens
• Creating sustainable habits by relying on others more
• Balancing our needs and others' needs
• Moving towards community and connection

• Learning to just observe our pain
• Changing our mindset on what pain really is
• Techniques to accurately assess and manage your pain

• Understanding how society looks at chronic pain and illness
• Finding your self-worth and engaging with what you are good at

Download the Free guide: How to build confidence and competence bringing yoga into the therapy room

The Yoga in Therapy Collective —where therapists learn, grow, and get support with yoga-informed practices

Explore the Yoga Basics for Therapists course—designed to help you confidently and ethically integrate yoga into therapy

Yoga Basics: The Therapist's Guide to Integrating Trauma-Informed Yoga into Sessions

Instagram: @chris_mcdonald58

Join the Free Bringing Yoga Into the Therapy Room Facebook group

Leave a review and subscribe to this podcast

Self-Care for the Counselor: A Companion Workbook: An Easy to Use Workbook to Support you on Your Holistic Healing and Counselor Self-Care Journey ... A Holistic Guide for Helping Professionals)

How can we reshape the conversation around mental health diagnoses? Are communication and human connection the key to healing?

MEET Dr. Fred Moss

Dr. Fred Moss is a holistic psychiatrist serving in many capacities: telepsychiatrist, speaker, psychiatry expert witness, telehealth educator, mental health coach, and filmmaker. A desire to help people has been the force leading him to various settings and roles as a psychiatrist over the years and compelling him to continually look for better, more effective ways to provide the highest quality care. He is the amazing person behind Welcome To Humanity and Global Madness.

What is a holistic strategy or technique you use as part of your daily practice? (if you have one)

Dr. Fred Moss, MD is the foremost expert on delivering your True Voice into the world so that it can heal. He is a true believer that your voice matters and your voice can heal.

Find out more at Welcome to Humanity and connect with Dr. Moss on LinkedIn and Facebook.

• Introduction to, "We The People Summit" 4:30
• Shifting our outlook on conventional psychotherapy 7:47
• A different approach to mental illness 12:57

• How to become an influencer through finding our true voice
• Learning to deliver an authentic message to an audience of any size
• Embracing your true self and accepting criticism in a positive way

• Reshaping how we look at holistic approaches to mental health
• Alternatives to allopathic medicine

• Using conversation and connection to address mental illness
• Adapting mental health diagnoses into a broader, more open conversation with clients

Download the Free guide: How to build confidence and competence bringing yoga into the therapy room

The Yoga in Therapy Collective —where therapists learn, grow, and get support with yoga-informed practices

Explore the Yoga Basics for Therapists course—designed to help you confidently and ethically integrate yoga into therapy

Yoga Basics: The Therapist's Guide to Integrating Trauma-Informed Yoga into Sessions

Instagram: @chris_mcdonald58

Join the Free Bringing Yoga Into the Therapy Room Facebook group

Leave a review and subscribe to this podcast

Self-Care for the Counselor: A Companion Workbook: An Easy to Use Workbook to Support you on Your Holistic Healing and Counselor Self-Care Journey ... A Holistic Guide for Helping Professionals)

Can you achieve overall wellness and enhance your well-being with journaling? How to make connections and use journaling as a self-healing tool?

MEET Jennifer Convissor

Jennifer Convissor is an LCSW and Reiki master with LiveWork Solutions, a psychotherapy practice licensed in NY, CT & SC. She's been journaling for over 30 years and loves helping people find The Write Balance between journaling and holistic mental health. In 2021, she published Journaling for Non-Journalers: Your expert guide to creating a journaling practice that works for you, which mixes the science of habit formation, with guided journaling exercises and a comprehensive overview of the beginner, intermediate and advanced benefits of this versatile self-healing tool. She teaches a variety of workshops, webinars, and online courses, for a general audience and for other mental health professionals. She's also a proud mama of two cool kids, a singer-songwriter, rabid crafter, and vegan ice-cream sundae artist.

Find out more at Live Work Solutions and connect with Jennifer on Instagram and Pinterest.

• How to get started in journaling 4:19
• Different types of journaling 9:57
• Planning your journaling schedule 18:00
• Benefits of Journaling 22:40

• Techniques to get started journaling
• Refocusing with lists
• The best tools for journaling
• What is a non-narrative form of journaling?

• What is process journaling?
• Using gratitude journaling to retrain your brain with positivity
• How to start a dream journal
• Creating a manifestation journal

• Getting rid of barriers that are stopping you from journaling
• Using journaling as mindful meditation

• Dealing with difficult situations with journaling techniques
• How to use journaling to make connections with your triggers and how you interact with others
• Practicing self-compassion
• Integrating journaling into your practice

Download the Free guide: How to build confidence and competence bringing yoga into the therapy room

The Yoga in Therapy Collective —where therapists learn, grow, and get support with yoga-informed practices

Explore the Yoga Basics for Therapists course—designed to help you confidently and ethically integrate yoga into therapy

Yoga Basics: The Therapist's Guide to Integrating Trauma-Informed Yoga into Sessions

Instagram: @chris_mcdonald58

Join the Free Bringing Yoga Into the Therapy Room Facebook group

Leave a review and subscribe to this podcast

Self-Care for the Counselor: A Companion Workbook: An Easy to Use Workbook to Support you on Your Holistic Healing and Counselor Self-Care Journey ... A Holistic Guide for Helping Professionals)

Can you integrate meditation into body movement? How do you maintain a calm, centered mind in everyday life?

MEET Rev. Won Gong

Rev. WonGong (affectionately known as Rev. Wow!) is a lifetime dedicated dharma teacher. A pioneering Won Buddhist priest, she has established temples in Chapel Hill and Raleigh, North Carolina. She is a guest lecturer at schools, colleges, and meditation centers, teaching Buddhist philosophy and meditation to people of all ages and backgrounds.

Rev. Wow! leads workshops, retreats, youth dharma camps, and cultural enrichment programs. She integrates creative forms of meditation with body movement, vocal Qigong, breathing techniques, guided meditation, and laughter. She is active in the international interfaith community and is a leading Korean-to-English translator of dharma teachings, serving as a spiritual bridge between East and West.

Rev. Wow! is a master of integrating Buddhist concepts in daily practice. Her kind, compassionate, and wise nature makes her an effective teacher and a valued life counselor. She loves gardening and singing. In 2018, she released a CD, Chants of Samadhi for Daily Practice. In 2020, she released her second CD, Chants for Healing.

Find out more at Won Buddhism of North Carolina and connect with Won on YouTube and Podcast.

• What is a Dharma teacher? 3:00
• Timeless, Placeless Meditation 6:09
• Centering your mind & being present 12:00
• What is walking meditation? 13:45

• What does Dharma mean?
• What makes a Dharma teacher a unique spiritual guide
• Understanding Dharma wisdom from Won Buddism tradition

• Meditation at rest vs. meditation in motion
• Integrating meditation into daily life and movement
• Engaging with tasks mindfully and appropriately

• Using our "planning," mind
• Applying our meditative practices to focus on one thing at a time

• How to get started with walking meditation
• Centering our energy and connecting with the earth
• Techniques for walking meditation

Download the Free guide: How to build confidence and competence bringing yoga into the therapy room

The Yoga in Therapy Collective —where therapists learn, grow, and get support with yoga-informed practices

Explore the Yoga Basics for Therapists course—designed to help you confidently and ethically integrate yoga into therapy

Yoga Basics: The Therapist's Guide to Integrating Trauma-Informed Yoga into Sessions

Instagram: @chris_mcdonald58

Join the Free Bringing Yoga Into the Therapy Room Facebook group

Leave a review and subscribe to this podcast

Self-Care for the Counselor: A Companion Workbook: An Easy to Use Workbook to Support you on Your Holistic Healing and Counselor Self-Care Journey ... A Holistic Guide for Helping Professionals)

Are you facing a major transition in your practice? What should you expect when making these big changes?

MEET Michelle Hardman

I am a "unicorn" in the clinical world - with an MBA in strategic management AND as a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor/Private Practice owner - I'm kinda unique!! Plus, as a Certified Daring Way Facilitator, teaching curricula based on the research of Dr. Brené Brown, my business coaching and productivity tools incorporate powerful components of this body of work.

I am SO passionate about helping you FLOURISH because I KNOW you went into private practice with your own passion for creating a healing space for others!!

I coach clinicians, just like you, with a vales-based approach to business ensuring your practice's marketing and branding efforts are authentic and effective! This way, you can be sure to attract YOUR ideal clients and build a thriving practice you love.

Find out more at The Primed Practice and connect with Michelle on Facebook and Instagram.

• Micro vs. macro transitions in your business? 2:22
• How grief is part of a transitional process 7:38
• Strategies for dealing with transition 16:57
• Breaking down difficult transitions into stages 23:36

• Unexpected transitions and learning a new skill set to overcome a shift in your life or business
• Examining the whole health of your business
• Dealing with comparing yourself to others when going through difficult transitions

• Understanding that adding something to your life or business, that we are inevitably letting something go
• Honoring and giving space for grief as we move through transitions
• Focusing on self-compassion when dealing with grief

• Recognizing your body's response to stress and becoming aware of what is causing it
• Finding the support within your field for dealing with the pressure of change

• Understanding what you can do on a day to day basis to make change manageable
• Giving yourself permission to make changes in stages and giving yourself a reasonable timeline to make these changes

Connect With Me

Download the Free guide: How to build confidence and competence bringing yoga into the therapy room

The Yoga in Therapy Collective —where therapists learn, grow, and get support with yoga-informed practices

Explore the Yoga Basics for Therapists course—designed to help you confidently and ethically integrate yoga into therapy

Yoga Basics: The Therapist's Guide to Integrating Trauma-Informed Yoga into Sessions

Instagram: @chris_mcdonald58

Join the Free Bringing Yoga Into the Therapy Room Facebook group

Leave a review and subscribe to this podcast

Self-Care for the Counselor: A Companion Workbook: An Easy to Use Workbook to Support you on Your Holistic Healing and Counselor Self-Care Journey ... A Holistic Guide for Helping Professionals)

MEET ISZABEL

Iszabel is an Ecstatic Dance DJ, Movement Medicine Teacher, Sound Technician, and Sound Therapist. She holds classes, workshops, retreats, and ceremonies around the world. She has DJ residencies in Ibiza and the UK and has played some of the most forward-thinking festivals, including Burning Man and Buddhafield. She hosts a monthly radio show on OpenLab, 'Music Medicine', and runs an online DJ course – 'DJ Mystery To Mastery' is a heart-based approach to the art of mixing music.

Iszabel's offerings are tailored to the audience and occasion. She mixes shamanic tribal beats rooted in the Elements with underground club vibes. She combines technical skills with physical and emotional healing, fostering a sense of freedom and deepening the relationship with self, others, and the world around us.

Find out more at DJ Mystery To Mastery and connect with Iszabel on Facebook and Instagram.

• What is Ecstatic Dance? 6:31
• Ecstatic Dance Vs. Movement Medicine 8:35
• Sound Therapy For Healing 16:05
• Daily Holistic Strategy 31:10

• What is moving meditation?
• Creating space through freeform dance

• DJ led movement through Ecstatic dance
• A deeper dive into movement, voice, and exercise
• From movement and dance on the dance floor to physical healing
• Accessing the full spectrum of the human body through dance, community, and celebration

• Using sound vibration to change the vibration in the body
• Altering brain state to promote healing

• Daily routines to promote health and centering the mind

Connect With Me

Download the Free guide: How to build confidence and competence bringing yoga into the therapy room

The Yoga in Therapy Collective —where therapists learn, grow, and get support with yoga-informed practices

Explore the Yoga Basics for Therapists course—designed to help you confidently and ethically integrate yoga into therapy

Yoga Basics: The Therapist's Guide to Integrating Trauma-Informed Yoga into Sessions

Instagram: @chris_mcdonald58

Join the Free Bringing Yoga Into the Therapy Room Facebook group

Leave a review and subscribe to this podcast

Self-Care for the Counselor: A Companion Workbook: An Easy to Use Workbook to Support you on Your Holistic Healing and Counselor Self-Care Journey ... A Holistic Guide for Helping Professionals)

Does your mental health practice have systems in place, so you, as a provider can focus on your clients? Do you have time to grow and scale your business and still have time freedom?

Cindy Molder, the owner of Therapy Practice Solutions, has a vision for a Virtual Assistant company that specializes in mental health. Her goal is to train and equip women in order to provide professional, personal service to practices, providers, and clients.

One of her greatest joys is to meet potential clients and once they are a part of the TPS team, to serve them wholeheartedly alongside the Virtual Assistants with Therapy Practice Solutions. TPS now has VAs and clients nationwide.

She grew up in Shelbyville, TN, and is married to her high school sweetheart. They have two grown sons, a daughter-in-love, and twin grandsons. She has lived in TN, AL, NC, FL, and OK.

Cindy says, "living in a variety of locations gives her a deeper understanding of diverse religions, races, lifestyles, sexual identities, and cultures." Her best-kept secret, she is a lifelong NASCAR and auto racing fan.

I like to include a holistic "takeaway" for my listeners, this could be as simple as an affirmation, advice, encouraging words, or a handout (anything really) What is something you would like to share as a Holistic Takeaway?

No matter what size of practice or how many tasks you need to be completed, there is wisdom and great value in finding assistance and support in all administrative aspects of your practice.

Find out more at www.therapypracticesolutions.com and connect with Kristine on Facebook and Instagram.

• What services are provided by a Virtual Assistant? 9:15
• Specialized Virtual Assistant training 15:23
• Therapist self-care 21:33
• Value of having a Virtual Assistant 28:35

• Setting up, refining, and getting systems in place so you can better serve your clients
• Verify eligibility and benefits
• Insurance liaison
• Advocate for providers and clients

• Specialized VA training for handling difficult situations
• Provider training on all EHR systems
• Insurance, callback, and systems training

• How giving therapists the gift of time as well as giving their entrepreneurial side time to work on other aspects of their business is imperative to functioning well and fully in this line of work.

• Consider the ROI of having a VA and understand the importance of budgeting and planning this into your yearly business plan.
• Finding a virtual assistant solution that will customize a plan that works for you and your practice and fits your budget
• Hiring a Virtual Assistant company vs. hiring an onsite employee

Download the Free guide: How to build confidence and competence bringing yoga into the therapy room

The Yoga in Therapy Collective —where therapists learn, grow, and get support with yoga-informed practices

Explore the Yoga Basics for Therapists course—designed to help you confidently and ethically integrate yoga into therapy

Yoga Basics: The Therapist's Guide to Integrating Trauma-Informed Yoga into Sessions

Instagram: @chris_mcdonald58

Join the Free Bringing Yoga Into the Therapy Room Facebook group

Leave a review and subscribe to this podcast

Self-Care for the Counselor: A Companion Workbook: An Easy to Use Workbook to Support you on Your Holistic Healing and Counselor Self-Care Journey ... A Holistic Guide for Helping Professionals)

How can mindfulness reduce stress and chronic pain? Can practicing mindfulness create a connection between success in life and physical health and wellbeing? Do you find yourself reacting to life mindlessly instead of pausing and reflecting mindfully?

Janis R. Cohen, LCSW, is internationally known as The Intuitive Therapist. She has worked with children, adults, couples, and families for almost three decades. Janis combines her extensive clinical expertise with psychic and intuitive gifts of clairvoyance, empathy, and mediumship. She uses this unique skill set to get to the root of a challenge with razor-sharp accuracy and to offer specific and effective strategies to resolve her client's problems.

In addition, Janis offers Intuitive Therapeutic Psychic Readings to people who want clarity and direction for their most pressing issues around money, love, relationships, and health as well as connecting them with loved ones who have crossed over.

Janis has authored articles in PINK Magazine, Associated Press, and has published her own columns in local newspapers such as The Jewish Times, Aquarius Magazine, and Conscious Living Magazine. Her podcast, The Intuitive Therapist, merges therapy with intuition, spirituality, and metaphysics.

Visit Janis Cohen's website and connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

• Chris' definition of mindfulness 06:22
• Why you should consider incorporating mindfulness into your life 07:22
• Mindset 10:38
• Non-judgmental awareness 33:34

Mindfulness is finding the equilibrium, the balance, between the mind, body, and spirit in the present moment.

Often anxiety is characterized as being stuck in the future and depression as being stuck in the past.

Therefore, mindfulness – when practiced correctly – can help people to find a place of rest and peace in the now.

You become less reactive to life and more proactive, and responsive. You retain your agency and peace of mind instead of reacting from a place of unknowing, frustration, or powerlessness.

This ability to "make space" between what happened and how you react to it can help you to develop healthy coping mechanisms, and minimize:

- Anxiety

- Anger

- Stress

By practicing mindfulness, you are focusing more on "being", and you have to match your mindset to create this state of awareness and appreciation.

Mindfulness and mindset go hand in hand. You can enter into an appreciative, present, and focused mindset to help you practice mindfulness.

You can wash the dishes mindfully, you can cook dinner, pack your lunch, and go for a walk mindfully.

Practicing mindfulness is, firstly, to be aware of what you are doing and experiencing, and secondly, not to place judgments on the things that you are doing or experiencing.

If your judgmental mind comes up, acknowledge it, and then come back to a sensation in the body to ground you.

In this way, your breath is a powerful mindful tool that you can use to refocus on the present, on the body, and on sensation. Be intentional to choose what you think.

Download the Free guide: How to build confidence and competence bringing yoga into the therapy room

The Yoga in Therapy Collective —where therapists learn, grow, and get support with yoga-informed practices

Explore the Yoga Basics for Therapists course—designed to help you confidently and ethically integrate yoga into therapy

Yoga Basics: The Therapist's Guide to Integrating Trauma-Informed Yoga into Sessions

Instagram: @chris_mcdonald58

Join the Free Bringing Yoga Into the Therapy Room Facebook group

Leave a review and subscribe to this podcast

Self-Care for the Counselor: A Companion Workbook: An Easy to Use Workbook to Support you on Your Holistic Healing and Counselor Self-Care Journey ... A Holistic Guide for Helping Professionals)

Is there a connection between your chakras and your mental health? How do you process your life experiences through each chakra? What does the current research say about biofields?

Kristine Weber, MA, is a leading authority on the neuroscientific benefits of slow, mindful yoga and an advocate for the use of these practices as a part of the solution to the healthcare crisis.

Kristine is leading the charge to get slow, mindful practices to people who desperately need them through her Subtle® Yoga Revolution series of online courses and training for yoga teachers. She has been studying yoga and holistic healing for nearly 30 years, teaching yoga since 1995, and training teachers since 2003.

Find out more at www.subtleyoga.com and connect with Kristine on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

• Chakras: a recap 11:38
• Biofields 12:59
• The connection between chakras and mental health 18:39
• Different chakras 25:25

Some idioms express this, such as someone saying; "I was so sad and choked-up that I couldn't express myself", or "that broke my heart", or "I'm so confused it's giving me a headache" and so forth.

Most practitioners can agree that there is a midline in the body that acts as a manifestation of someone's emotions. This is the interaction between the nervous system and the brain.

The history of chakras is being carried over into the research around biofields.

There have been some questionable publications around biofields, but then there are also recent publications that are rooted in science that speak to biofields' existence and their influence.

The research shows that we are intimately connected to others and the earth, and that our emotions do not occur solely in the brain.

Emotions manifest in the body in the different subcenters, typically known as the seven chakras.

Therapists and mental health practitioners need to realize that people's emotions locate themselves in the physical body.

There is no quick fix, anything that is selling itself to you as a quick fix is after your money, most likely.

It takes time to heal. Mental health and the body are connected. If someone is struggling with their mental health, take it day by day, week by week, and month by month.

Look after your gut health, practice yoga four times a week, meditate, and hone in on connecting with and resolving your deeper emotions and where they manifest in your body.

1 – Root: Holds the seeds and roots of everything possible in their human existence. This is the place where everything is possible.

2 – Sacral: Generational trauma, and life-threatening addictions and situations. The hardest aspects of life to be dealt with.

3 – Naval: Wakes you up from the negative cycles in your life, and you process the changes you want to make.

4 – Heart: Helps you to form a sense of self and identity, and find the meaning and purpose in your life. It helps you learn the power of love for change by wanting the best for life and yourself, and how to set boundaries.

5 – Throat: Self-actualization. This is where you express your intention, and make happen what you have realized in your heart from where it rose up as a seed from your root.

6 – Third eye: Your capacity for intuition and expansive thinking, and the direct connection to your higher self.

7 – Crown: Experiential and being one with the cosmos.

Download the Free guide: How to build confidence and competence bringing yoga into the therapy room

The Yoga in Therapy Collective —where therapists learn, grow, and get support with yoga-informed practices

Explore the Yoga Basics for Therapists course—designed to help you confidently and ethically integrate yoga into therapy

Yoga Basics: The Therapist's Guide to Integrating Trauma-Informed Yoga into Sessions

Instagram: @chris_mcdonald58

Join the Free Bringing Yoga Into the Therapy Room Facebook group

Leave a review and subscribe to this podcast

Self-Care for the Counselor: A Companion Workbook: An Easy to Use Workbook to Support you on Your Holistic Healing and Counselor Self-Care Journey ... A Holistic Guide for Helping Professionals)