Yoga for Mental Health

There are so many research studies emerging about the benefits of yoga and meditation for managing the symptoms of stress, trauma, depression and anxiety. It is with this in mind that I designed the six week course "Yoga for Mental Health". I have experienced (and continue to experience!), firsthand, the transformative nature of yoga and meditation, both in my own life and that of my clients.

The course begins with a one-on-one with me, Tabatha, where I get to know you and we explore an initial yoga and meditation practice specifically tailored for you. Then, over the ensuing six weeks, we experiment with a sequence of yoga forms and meditative practices. Each week builds on the week prior, so that at the end of the course you have a yoga sequence and the foundations of a meditative practice that you can take with you and build on.

The symptoms of stress, anxiety, trauma and depression are experienced on multiple layers of our being. It is not only our mind that is effected, we store these things in our body. Talk and drug therapy can go a long way to helping many people, but they may not help everyone or go far enough. Yoga can be a wonderful adjunct to therapy precisely because it helps us get into our bodies and it's sensations.

When someone is overwhelmed by stress or anxiety, there are a host of physical sensations that accompany the racing mind - shortness of breath, sweating, muscle tension and/or headaches. If one can enter those sensations, tenderly and thoughtfully, often just the act of attending to them makes them more bearable. 

Trauma is also not just in our minds, but our physical body as well. People who have suffered traumatic events may have learned that the body is not a safe place and that physical sensations are too overwhelming. This can lead to hyper-arousal or a deadening of bodily awareness, a sensible adaption during the traumatic event, but not so adaptive in the long-term.

Depression can be experienced as a lack of feeling altogether, like the world just can't reach or touch you. Andrew Soloman describes that the "opposite of depression is not happiness, it is vitality." Yoga and meditation may assist in a return to vitality.

In this six week course we will explore ways to tenderly attend to our minds and bodies. We will work to re-establish a safe connection with ourselves, our senses and our physical sensations. We

If you are interested, please book in soon. There are only a couple of spaces remaining in the Wednesday night class.
http://www.nourishedsoulnow.com/yoga-for-mental-health.html

Please note that I am not a Registered or Clinical Psychologist. I do know some very good ones though, and I am happy to provide referrals.