Susanna Barkataki: So tell us a bit about your role in Yoga Service. What motivated the yoga service work that you do and the creation of the retreat for Alzheimer’s caregivers? Melissa Smith: My father has been the caregiver of my step mother for more than 10 years. She was diagnosed in her late 50’s and…
Trauma as Spiritual Crisis When we talk about purpose in yoga, we use the word dharma. Dharma, a Sanskrit word denoting one’s “ethical duty,” serves as our guiding principle for living. A need and desire for dharma is innate, yet changes over the course of our lives. If we were to intermix Western psychology and…
Excerpted from Meditations on Intention and Being: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga, Mindfulness and Compassion. A few years ago I went on a ten-day meditation retreat in California’s Yucca Valley. It was very well attended, and each morning I sat at the back of a large room full of people as they…
The Beauty and Versatility of a Chair Yoga Practice in Institutional and Clinical Settings by Joanne Spence I have just had the great fortune of finishing up a three-week trip to Australia, where I have been teaching some yoga workshops and visiting friends and family. It has been an exciting opportunity to revisit the country…
Understanding Interception and Supporting the Recovery of Trauma Survivors through Yoga: David Emerson One of the key theoretical underpinnings of our model of Trauma Sensitive Yoga is neuroscience with a particular focus on parts of the brain collectively known as the interoceptive pathways. These are parts of the brain that make visceral sensory experiences available to conscious awareness…
