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

Why is it imperative for a clinician to practice self-care? How can practicing self-care benefit a clinician's work ability? What is the difference between self-confidence, self-esteem, and how can you build on them?

I speak with Dr. Carla Marie Manly about building self-care and self-confidence and why it is important that we make this a priority.

Dr. Carla Marie Manly, a clinical psychologist and wellness expert, makes her home in Sonoma County, California. In addition to her clinical practice, she is deeply invested in her roles as an author, consultant, advocate, and speaker. With a holistic, body-mind-spirit approach, Dr. Manly specializes in improving professional and personal relationships through mindfulness and communication skills.

With a focus on self-development as the foundation for optimal wellness, she builds teams by fostering individual awareness. Blending traditional psychotherapy with alternative mindfulness practices, Dr. Manly knows the importance of creating healthy balance, awareness, and positivity. Her motto is this: "A well-lived life is a journey of consciously crafting the best version of oneself. Wellness and joy do not occur by chance; they are fostered by manifesting one's true light with courage and strength. Overall wellbeing occurs by creating a respectful, aware relationship with oneself and others."

Dr. Manly's highly acclaimed books, Joy from Fear and Aging Joyfully—plus her newest title, Date Smart, offer life-changing insights and wisdom-filled tips to help readers create positive, purpose-driven lives. As a clinical psychologist, advocate, and author, she's been cited in top-notch media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Oprah, Reader's Digest, Psychology Today, NBC, Parade, GQ, Women's Health, and more.

Visit her website. Connect on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

• Self-care can mean tuning out
• Self-care for clinicians
• How can clinicians boost their self-care practices?
• Self-confidence and self-esteem

When we become wrapped up in the business and busyness of life we start to do this automatically, without consciousness and without awareness. We eat without tasting, we work without productivity, we see people without connecting.

As we begin to practice tuning out from this busy world and practicing tuning in to ourselves, we are creating a form of self-care by caring for how we perceive the world and making an effort to be conscious of the experiences we have.

Most physicians have a support team: receptionist, nurse, fellow doctors in the room and people to refer to. However, psychotherapists work on their own and give to their clients from their energy, wisdom, time and effort – not just from their expertise.

It is our responsibility actually, so that we can serve our clients, so that we can be in our best body, mind and spirit envelope: we really need … to engage in good self-care. (Dr. Carla Marie Manly)

Creating the conscious space to reset after a therapy session, after a day of work or after a day of caring for your family is important to be able to keep on going and function in a sustainable and enjoyable way.

Without taking and making the time to practice self-care, psychotherapists run the risk of becoming burnt out because the well of energy and effort is exhaustible.

What we draw on to give to clients, other clinicians and families is not an endless amount, and when we create space to replenish ourselves, we give ourselves the ability to keep on giving without running ourselves into the ground.

It's important for a therapist to have a therapist often to have somewhere to download, and many therapists are under the impression – partly because of societal expectations, client and loved one's expectations – that we … should have it all together, that we should be perfect, and that's absolutely baloney. (Dr. Carla Marie Manly)

Practicing good self-care is not only important for the clinician, but also for the work they do.

When they give themselves the time, space and energy to replenish and work on their personal wellness they are better equipped to serve and help their patients because when you push yourself to your absolute limit, you risk letting your personal issues bleed into the therapy you conduct with your clients.

It is not always about not having the time, because often time is available. Mostly what happens is that we do not properly choose what to do in the time that we have and we end up wasting it, or not using it well.

If you have time to do one more client, or one more workshop, you certainly have time to take care of yourself because it is imperative to care of yourself as a therapist and therefore you must make time for yourself.

Self-care needs to be intentional and it needs to be that part where we carve it out so that the psyche hears "I am important", "I am as important as all these other people and things that get calendered, "I am important". (Dr. Carla Marie Manly)

When we are more mindful about prioritizing the self, the care of the self, our self-esteem will naturally grow because … now the body, mind and spirit are all saying "she/ he cares about us, I am important and if I am important, if I am prioritized then I must be valuable" and so thus self-esteem grows. (Dr. Carla Marie Manly)

Our self-esteem is more internal, it is how we regard ourselves and that is why self-care is incredibly important. Our self-confidence is more external and is developed and changed by the skills that we move in and out of, what we are outwardly good at.

By encouraging yourself to own your skills – what you are good at and also what you can work more at – it gives you the space to be real with yourself and others and set reasonable expectations for your goals.

Having self-confidence does not mean that you think you are the best at everything, it means that you know where your strengths lie, you are ready to learn in spaces wherein you can learn more and you enjoy your capacity and ability without relying on external validation.

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)

Where do you see yourself as a therapist, are you in the new or advanced category? How do you decide which type of holistic practitioner you want to be? What are some of the most common holistic practices?

• New practitioners
• Advanced practitioners
• Recap on the previous 4 episodes

This could be someone who fresh out of college or maybe someone who has some experience but is new to using holistic strategies.

• Not sure how or where to start
• Still building enough confidence
• In the discovery phase
• May make the mistake of taking on too many trainings and not applying the lessons
• Feeling isolated and may experience imposter syndrome

They feel confident in their practice and have internal ease with connecting mind, body, and spirit.

• Actively seeking out others in the field to network and consult with
• Utilizing the support of the community
• Know which areas to focus on, and don't take on too many trainings - instead, they are always advancing their skills in their chosen field

1. Introduction and Discover Holistic Therapy
2. Legal and Ethical issues in Holistic Therapy
3. How to integrate holistic strategies into clinical practice safely and effectively
4. An overview of the most common holistic therapies

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 aware of all the common holistic therapies out there? Which modality would be best suited to your client's specific needs? What are the modalities that require a lot more intense training and supervision?

1. Mindfulness/Grounding
2. Breathwork
3. Guided imagery
4. Meditation
5. Yoga
6. Reiki
7. Aromatherapy

This means being in the present moment, not worrying about the future or the past. You are just connecting to what is right here, right now.

You can do this by:

• 5-4-3-2-1 technique (5 things you can see, 4 things you can hear, 3 things you can touch, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste)
• Doing a body scan
• Internally asking what you need at that very moment

Be extra careful with this modality, especially if you are working with someone who has experienced trauma.

Have your clients see what works for them and practice it outside of therapy, as much as possible.

Using this in therapy can be very powerful and a common one to use could be to think about a safe place, imagery for relaxation. And this combined with breathwork can really make a big difference.

There are so many forms of meditation and as always, there is no right or wrong way. You have to experiment and practice to see what works.

A few are:

• Mindfulness
• Transcendental movement based
• Mantra
• Loving kindness
• Progressive relaxation
• Zen
• Sound

This is about helping the parasympathetic to engage, to settle down the nervous system, especially with anxiety.

It can be broken down into grounding practices (helps with anxiety, stress, feeling hyped up) and energizing practices (helps with depression, trauma, dissociation).

Energy healing helps physical, emotional, and spiritual issues. It comes from universal life energy force. It works with removing blockages and releasing negative energy.

This is using plant-based essential oils that help harmonize mind, body, and spirit and helps to heal.

You can inhale using a diffuser, you can combine different essential oils to cater to different needs such as balance, motivation, or relaxation. It can also be used on your skin (mix with a carrier oil first).

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 a new holistic therapist working in the traditional clinical field? How can you safely integrate holistic strategies into a clinical setting? Which clients can you introduce to holistic therapeutic practices in a way that is best for you and for them?

• How to overcome the nerves
• Getting started with holistic strategies in your clinical practice
• Which clients to introduce to holistic strategies

Something I learned from my yoga practice, which applies to any new strategy, is to become comfortable with it, and that means practice.

The best way to become accustomed and confident with any new skill is to practice it. Spend time working on it alone and then practice it alongside people close to you such as family members, partners, friends, and even colleagues.

Working on your new skill with people who are unfamiliar with it is an incredibly good way to learn how to introduce it to a new class or client one day, and to prepare yourself for the kinds of potential struggles and issues a brand-new client may have.

Another bonus of practicing often is that you can inform your clients of the benefits that you have experienced firsthand due to your daily routine, meditations, yoga, and so forth. Your clients will be more willing and optimistic to follow your advice and wisdom when they see that you practice what you preach.

I learned the importance of building on the trust and the relationships you have with your client first before recommending different kinds of practices and treatments.

Ease into it, take your time to get to know your client and for them to become accustomed to you before jumping into any strategies that would be completely new for them.

SOME TIPS:

• If you are practicing in person, make sure that your counseling space is welcoming, soothing, and comfortable for your client to try new things in. If you intend to incorporate movement-based practices such as yoga into the treatment, make sure to inform your clients to wear comfortable clothing.
• If you are practicing over telehealth, be aware of the space behind you and make that space as visually pleasing or soothing as possible. Keep your space clear, clean, and together.

When you are starting your sessions, whether in-person or over telehealth:

• Start your counseling session with some kind of ritual such as lighting a candle, using essential oils, or starting with some grounding and breathwork before diving into whatever it is they would like to talk about. Explore this idea with your clients and see who is more interested in adding this into their practice.
• You can gently explain the benefits of a ritual before each session, and what to expect such as the timeframe of the ritual.
• Follow their non-verbal clues to see how they are interacting with the new practice.
• Do not close your eyes: you want to be fully present and checking-in with your client.
• After the ritual, tune-in with clients. See how they experienced it in their body or with their feelings. You can note whether or not to change anything in the future.

In a way, working with clients who are more ready and open can also help you to build your confidence because you are working with a client who is more open to trying new things, who will ask some questions, and be excited to try something different.

Listen to those clients who talk about holistic practices they already do in their home or in their daily routines, because they may be open to trying new things or adding new things to their own routine.

Listen to the clients who feel stuck with their traditional talk-therapy because they may enjoy the different approaches to therapy that you can provide for them.

After the client leaves, check-in with yourself. Did you enjoy the practice? What can you do better or differently next time that is best for both you and the client?

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 you be true to yourself as a holistic therapist while providing ethical service to your clients? What is the difference between the scope of practice and the scope of competence? Are there ways you can set up your business to provide two different streams of service?

• How to protect yourself against liability as a holistic therapist
• Scope of practice vs scope of competence?
• How can you expand your scope of competence?
• How can you expand your therapy practice, ethically?

I found the American Counseling Association Code of Ethics where it discusses treatment modalities and thought this was a good place to start.

What does this mean for holistic therapy and therapists?

The important thing that you have to do is if there is something you want to get into you, have to do your own research to really see what is out there.

I found a lot of research around reiki, essential oils, and yoga and their potential benefits. Although it is also as important to research any potential risks that you need to be aware of when working with your clients. For example, if you work with yoga you have to get a separate liability, even if your yoga practice is incredibly gentle, just in case.

Scope of Practice

Scope of practice is essentially the explanation of what a practice does as a whole and places limits upon what can or can not be done in that profession. My board, which is the Licensed Clinical Mental Health Board, states that:

Scope of Competence

This is more individually based on what a clinician may do and is determined by one's education, training, and experience.

So in summary: the scope of practice is more general in the therapeutic word but the scope of competence specifies what you yourself are competent in and can do best to treat.

With the scope of competence, you can build on that by taking more classes and courses, building your experience, and training more often to broaden and strengthen yourself in the field you work in.

You can also read the relevant literature at the beginning to find the research out there that supports your findings. Try to find as much as you can in books, articles, and videos.

Your scope of practice is also not only what you do but what you say to clients during sessions. This means that you need to make sure that you are clear with how you explain things to them, that they sign an informed consent form.

1. Make a service you offering, such as tarot card reading, a separate part of your business. In this way, you can fulfill two parts: being a traditional therapist and offering holistic healing as a separate business whilst remaining ethical.
2. Do some journaling: think about what is the best way you can add different integrated healing into your practice. What are you called to do? How can you weave this in somehow so that you feel you are not disregarding your passions and your calling.

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)

Welcome to the Holistic Counseling Podcast, I am excited to be on this journey with you!

• Meet your host, Chris McDonald
• Why I started this podcast and who it's for
• What to expect
• How do you discover what kind of holistic practitioner you want to be?

I believe a good holistic practice starts with a ritual, and so this morning I lit the candle at my 'desk/altar space' to remind me of my intention for the year, which is summed up in my word for the year: ACCEPTANCE.

What would be a good holistic ritual for you while you listen to this podcast? There is no wrong answer to this. It is an open space and invitation for you to practice a small ritual with yourself to create an intentional space of healing and awareness.

So, I am Chris McDonald, and to me, Holistic Therapy looks at all parts of the self: the mind, body, and spirit. It focuses on wholeness and, not just the psychological aspects.

Years ago I was a school counselor and went to a retreat for teachers. This was my first experience with meditation, I immediately connected with it and really loved it.

I started to learn more about meditation, breathwork, essential oils, mindfulness, and yoga and thought about how I could incorporate these into traditional therapy.

There are not a lot of holistic therapists out there. We are spread few and far between and often struggle to find one another in the midst of traditional therapy.

Traditional therapy is great and has its strengths but I wanted to build up the holistic therapy world and provide a voice for this budding community.

This podcast is geared towards mental health therapists who are interested in integrating these holistic strategies into treatment, or even if you just want to build your own personal practice.

• Solo shows
• Guest/Interview shows
• How to integrate your learnings
• A variety of topics spanning meditation, breathwork, and essential oils
• How to do this safely and ethically
• Practice building tips
• Your self-care

The way you do this is by turning inward to hear yourself more clearly. Opening up your mind and heart and listening.

• Where do you want to be with your therapy practice?
• Who do you want to be?

Pause if you would like and write some thoughts down, without judgment, and be playful, curious, and creative with your raw ideas.

Explore your ideas: research different teachers, practices, free courses, podcasts, and teachings. Spend some time looking through the resources you find on Google or Youtube.

Look around to see if there are any holistic centers near you to see what is available. Consider visiting a local Buddhist temple if you have one near you and spending time with like-minded people and engaging them in the conversations you would like to learn more from.

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)