Yogapathy:
d
describes a practice of yoga with the intention to meet ourselves in healing and health, based on evidence-based therapeutic approaches of empowered self-care.
There is beautiful word in sanskrit, sarvodhaya (sar-vo-dye-yah). It can be translated as meaning "self-care". Therapy is a word which is greek in origin, meaning an intentional, healing change. And yoga is sanskrit word often translated as "union", a bringing together of kindness and care for self-healing and empowerment. This is the aspiration of Yoga Therapy at Sangha Yoga.
Our Yoga Therapy Philosophy
& Offerings
See the Inspirational Yoga Therapy Research
Featured Yoga Therapy:
Empathy in Motion
Trauma Sensitive Yoga
What is it?
TSY is body oriented and spiritually nourishing. It is instructive
and emphasizes choices.
TSY provides structure to
help foster our internal
sense of safety, personal agency,
and choice in cultivating
our capacity for self- awareness
and self-regulation.
Becky Morrissey has been teaching
Trauma Sensitive Yoga classes
and trainings since 2011.
She trains with
The Center for Trauma and Embodiment
at JRI: Institute for Research.
Current Yoga Therapy Research Inspiration: May, 2020
Somatic Dominance in Yoga Teaching is the current topic for Yogapathy this month.
What is Somatic Dominance? A very good question, which has many teachers and students in the yoga world conversating, examining, and defining, right at this moment.
It's tender work, and thank you for being curious and willing to consider.
One way to thinking of somatic dominance is how a yoga teacher may be embodying the teacher-student power differential, consciously or unconsciously, in the yoga practice experience. Some styles of teaching include authoritarian, collaborative, therapeutic, and others.
For Trauma Sensitive Yoga experiences, this awareness is a key factor of what creates a definitive Trauma Sensitive Yoga environment. TSY endeavors to allow the student to be the authority and choose to collaborate or to self-care as needed at any moment. Research indicates it is not enough to say these things in a yoga class; they must be modeled and embodied by the teacher, or perhaps "Guide" may be a better term which communicates the somatic (manner) of
Featured Somatic Discussions:
WHAT DOES SOMATIC DOMINANCE FEEL LIKE IN YOUR BODY WHEN YOU'RE DOING IT?
How ingrained in how we are trained to teach yoga is Somatic Dominance?
(especially take a look at the comments from Patty Townsend, who advises a clear-eyed examination of the topic, individually and as a community).
Featured TSY Resources:
Trauma Theories: Trauma Informed Essentials as published in ACESConnection.com
Bending Without Breaking: A Narrative Review A TSY for Women with PTSD
as published by Elsevier and Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga
a program of The Center for Trauma and Embodiment.
Texts for Yoga and Trauma Recovery:
Yoga for Emotional Trauma by Mary NurrieStearns,
David Emerson's Overcoming Trauma with Yoga
and Bringing the Body into Treatment.
Evidence-based research into Yoga Therapy's true utility guides Becky's yoga therapy class offerings, workshops, teacher trainings, and her own personal practice, from which the roots of her teaching practice originate.
Becky Morrissey
Ph.D (abd), C-IAYT, LPCC-S, LICDC-CS, e-RYT500, TCTSY-F
becky.morrissey.2017@gmail.com
Yogapathy's Intention: Empowerment of the Practitioner
Yoga Therapy at Sangha is multidimentional. Physical concerns often have their roots in emotional patterns, impressions, and habitualistic thinking. How we inhabit the body is the starting place for yoga therapeutics; how we breath, how we look outside ourselves into the world around us, how we carry our past into the present. Yoga practice interacts with these natural ways of our being, and we can become conscious of these patterns and co-create with them. Naturally, compassionately, wisely.
Foundation: Maitri (Loving Kindness)
Learning to authentically offer ourselves kindness and care, so we can offer it to others without depleting ourselves. This is one of the many gifts of yoga; through the practice of the postures we find our literal and metaphorical sense of flexibility, adaptability, mindful attention, and spacious sense of self both as an outward and as an inward experience.
Compassion: Stewardship of the Practice via Research
Becky Morrissey is a certified Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT), TCTSY-F, and a licensed Mental Health & Substance Abuse Therapist who offers yoga therapy modalities as well as conventional therapeutic approaches.
Joy with Equanimity: A Safe Place of Sanctuary and Support
Everyone who enters the space is welcomed into an open-minded, non-judgmental and compassionate environment. Our goal is to provide yoga programs that offer something for everyone. We encourage all to come as you are, without an agenda, and become a part of one larger community.