What you need: Medium Size Balloons of different colors.

This activity can be done one on one or as a competition with others.

How To:

1. Choose a color
2. Blow up the balloon and knot it
3. Hold the balloon above the head and look up
4. Shout three positive thoughts at the balloon
5. Blow air up into the balloon to keep it up
6. Try to do it for 1 minute or until someone lets it fall

Modifications:

• You can use a wall or corner to provide a boundary
• Try laying down- takes a lot of patience
• Hold arms behind back- more difficult

My intentions going into the training were to build more skills regarding body mind yoga therapies and to meet like-minded people. The program did not let me down!

What I was not expecting to walk away with, were a few “gems” about myself. I made a few unexpected discoveries through the process that the PRYT creates. These “gems” are going to help me improving my relationships with others and how I work with the clients I see.

I am appreciative that founder Michael Lee took humanistic psychological approaches and them integrated with the oldest therapy approach that we know of: yoga.

To me, they are one in the same. A true union of health. I have seen people, including myself, experience profound change through both yoga and therapy.

The next step.

Unfortunately, the next steps will not be easy ones for me. Level 2 is a 6-day commitment, Level 3 is an in-house residential program that meets in Bristol, Vermont for a 8 day orientation and then again for another 8 day mid-term 4 months later. There is no doubt I will be completing this program. Though when is a little up in the air. More to follow.

Have you experienced a Phoenix Rising Therapy Session?

What I got out of today’s training was simplicity. We integrated the three words we learned yesterday with the poses. A simple approach at basic therapeutic beliefs. Be present. Listen. Trust the process.

As a therapist, I know these components are helpful but I often feel expected to “do something” with my clients. I find it especially true when I work with young people.

While in my “formal” educational trainings there were few opportunities to practice being present, listening, and witnessing the process. Today I practiced these techniques and watched the process run its course. It was experiencing the end result which makes one trust the process.  We can read about this over and over in books but when it is experienced we get the Ah Ha.

PRYT is giving me that space to practice those simple tools AND see the process of emotion–expression–release enfold. Along with this experience is the reassurance that wherever we are, whatever we are feeling or not feeling, it’s OK.

Today felt simple. Complete. Clean.

There is a moment in therapy where you settle into yourself and go, “ah ha”. During my second day in the level 1 Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy Training, it hit me.

Today we spent time with the energy in our hips and practicing the language that goes along with PRYT.

We began the day pairing in two’s to practice and experience the techniques that go along with hip opening. Hello mama and papa!!! I experienced different things on each side which correlated to the beliefs that one side of our body is connected with our masculine (dad) side and the other our feminine (mom) side. In experiencing the process, I felt grateful to have found something which could access that stuff so quickly. For me, memories, feelings, and long forgotten beliefs came up in my silent poses. It was powerful.

As I practiced the techniques on my partners,I had moments where I struggled to get the appropriate body alignment where I felt comfortable holding my partner up and not feeling pain in my own body.  After a few adjustments I felt more confident. The most beautiful part about PRYT is that we are, as practitioners, not having to do anything.

In the “therapy” world we call it holding space. In Phoenix Rising holding space doesn’t just mean meeting the client where they are.  It literally means holding space by holding the body in a way that fosters a deeper awareness.

Along with practicing a few techniques we also practice mirroring or reflecting. A Carl Jung approach which anyone who has studied psychology knows a little about. Some call it parroting and because of that connotation I had my doubts. However, when I was experiencing the process I witnessed many shifts happen within my body and mind.  Towards the end of my experience, I feel into  a pleasant meditative state where I felt that my whole being was filled with light.

That is when I said,, “Ah Ha!”

There were 10 students who participated today. Four of us came from the mental health field. We spoke at length about being drawn to mind, body, and spirit building resources. Personally, in choosing a profession that helps others, there is no doubt that our current mental health profession is in need of a huge shift!

Maybe my experience as a licensed clinical social worker who has been working with “emotionally disturbed”  labeled students in the education and residential system is skewed. I feel that most of my job has been in labeling others so that they may receive the help they need.  If I give them this label then they will get this support.  However, the label does nothing but make a complex issue sound simple.  I find that we are often expected to get the client to “do something else” rather than just listen and accept.

Many of my fellow therapists realize that it is counterintuitive to minimize students/clients differences or challenges, but in order to get the help many of our clients need we have to prove that what they are dealing with is a “problem”.  We are expected to formulate goals, write mental health assessments, and talk about the clients “identifying problems” more often than not.  It often leaves me exhausted and feeling that I did little to help my client. A sad reality especially when it is regarding a young child.

I have found that yoga creates the exact opposite.  It looks at us as whole being and encourages us to just show up as is.  What a concept.  Today our trainer, Soleil, reminded us of acceptance.  She recognized our “glitches” and welcomed them.  She reminded us that we don’t have to change anything.  There was little do’s or don’ts presented to us today.

Soleil had us pair up and start touching each other right away.  So different than in the “therapy” world.  We practiced assisting each other in about 6 different poses.  It was experiential with a little processing.  Having the experience of being in Bioenergetics for several years, I was comfortable allowing others to hold me and it appeared that others were as well.  However, I could see that someone who held an experience of trauma in their body may be uncomfortable.

Overall, the first class of PRYT provided me with many tools.  My intention going into this program was to build/rebuild my confidence in working with people in their body and to be reminded of the beliefs of yoga.  I look forward to the next three days!

Here are some poses we practiced.

I take care of myself in a few ways.  One of those ways is by expanding my knowledge base by staying updated on current research and by attending trainings that interest me.  Over the past 5 years, I have been drawn more and more to body and mind psychotherapy approaches.  For the past 5 years I have been part of some sort of training to increase my understanding and awareness of body-mind approaches.  For two years, I found myself drawn to the knowledge of Bioenergetics.

“Bioenergetics recognizes that our experiences leave physical imprints from our earliest days of childhood. Our physiological responses to events in our lives are stored in our cells and muscles as well as our minds. Negative stored “memories” can manifest in a range of problems in adult life, from patterns of failed relationships to illness and chronic pain.

Bioenergetics also recognizes that difficult childhood experiences occur in the context of close relationship with parents and caretakers, and that healing from them requires a nurturing and safe relationship in the present.

Bioenergetics invites the release of unconscious holding patterns in the body through breathing, movement and emotional expression while being supported and protected by a trained and caring therapist. ”

Along with Bioenergetics, I had completed my 200 RYT yoga certification through YogaWell.  Yoga has given me many useful tools as a clinical social worker.  These tools are not only useful when working with my clients but also for my own well being.

As my job has become increasingly more stressful, I begin to reach for those things that help me stay motivated.  This time, I am drawn to a combination of psychotherapy and yoga.  The program is called Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy.

My training starts this Wednesday (November 3rd, 2010) for a four day intensive practice.  I will post each day regarding my experience and how I see this fitting with the world of psychotherapy.  My hope is that other therapists find their balance as I continue to work on mine.

While traveling, I thought about what type of job I would like to have when I returned to the United States.  I knew in my heart that I wanted to go back to working with young people.  I had enjoyed my last few jobs in residential, day treatment, and as a school therapist.  It was challenging and rewarding but most of all I found that in this line of work creativity is key.

However, the mental health field can be full of labeling, limited resources, bad vs. good, and burn out.  It took a few months to shed the traumas that I had carried around with me from my former clients and I am very aware of how stressful it can be while in the field of “helping”.  But knowing all this didn’t keep me from searching for the same type of job when I returned.  As it turns out, I got what I was searching for.

My new job has a lot of paperwork requirements which request my mind to think in the medical model.  The medical model basically views the client as a patient who has a problem that the therapist is trying to eliminate.  It leaves little room for strength based or skill based thinking.  Let me be clear that this is the paperwork, not the expected way we deal with the patients, I mean clients.

I have given it a good solid two months.  I have found that it has been hard to be creative in a culture that has limited resources, medical model, and a pile of paperwork.  So I am taking a step out of the “mental health” world and back into the yoga world.

On November 3, I will be attending Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy level 1 in San Diego.

Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy, through a combination of classical yoga techniques and elements of contemporary body-mind psychology, encourages this deeper connection with self. Through this deeper connection, we are able to know ourselves more fully. And out of this knowing, we are more easily moved to embrace the opportunity for change, growth and enhanced well being in body, feelings, thought, and spirit.

They say Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy changes lives from the inside out.

I am hoping it is a place for my creativity to be reborn.

I was reading a book the other day, Saltwater Buddha, which described the difference between a state of “hell” and “heaven”.  It went something like this:

“A samurai seeked out a Buddhist monk and asked him if he could teach him the difference between heaven and hell.  The monk turned to the samurai and said, “why would I waste that knowledge on a stupid samurai.”  This was a very disrespectful thing to say to a samurai and caught off guard and feeling ashamed and disrespected the samurai took out his sword and held it above the monk in a rage.  The monk then calmly said, “that is hell.”  Once the samurai realized that he was about to strike down a monk he fell to his knees and wept asking the monk for forgiveness.  The monk then said, “and that is heaven.”

There are lessons to be learned in the sensations that our body creates.  Though to be intuned and ready for the lesson is to be in a constant state of curiousity.  If we are curious and in tune with ourselves we can be in more control of our choices and not let our emotions dictate how we manage our lives.

These questions are great in helping children start to think about or express their inside feelings that might be causing them physical pain.

Do you know anyone who holds any feelings in?
Do you think that holding feelings in helps people feel good?
What type of feelings do you think would be hurtful in our body?
How does anger effect your body?
What do you think people should do to stay healthy and pain free?Would you like to learn how express your feelings safely so that they don’t hurt you?

When:  Saturday February 28th
9 a.m.- 12:30 p.m.  before our adjustment training

Location:  Swedenborg Hall
1531 Tyler Ave. San Diego 92103
Between Cleveland and Campus near 163 Fwy.

Cost::: :FREEEEEEEE if you have a LCSW or MFT you can earn CEU’s for 25$

Call Diane Devore if you are interested in attending— (858) 444-7126