Shawnee is a C-IAYT-certified yoga therapist, M.Ed., 500 E-RYT and RCYT (Registered Children’s Yoga Teacher). She is the founder of Asanas for Autism and Special Needs and the founder/director of Yoga Therapy for Youth Teacher Training Program. Shawnee has worked with children and adults with autism and special needs for over 20 years, specializing in working with children and adults with significant cognitive and language delays, sensory processing deficits, as well as severe behavior challenges. She wrote and published a book, Asanas for Autism and Special Needs – Yoga to Help Children with Their Emotions, Self-Regulation and Body Awareness (Singing Dragon, 2014), is the creator of the C.A.L.M.M Yoga Toolkit and is currently working on her new book Yoga Therapy for Children and Teens with Complex Needs, to be published by Singing Dragon in 2021. She has a yoga school through Yoga Alliance in order to train others in yoga approaches to support children and adults with complex needs and travels globally to share her teachings.
Asanas for Autism and Special Needs Yoga to Help Children with their Emotions, Self-Regulation and Body Awareness Shawnee Thornton Hardy
Teaching yoga to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other special needs is easy using this visual how-to handbook. Breaking down yoga instruction pose by pose, body part by body part, breath by breath, this book uses easy-to-understand language and clear photographs to show parents, teachers, yoga instructors, and other professionals how to introduce the life-long benefits of yoga to a child with special needs. Read more
Shelly discusses the nuances and different orientations of compassion in pain care and how having compassion for self, and for the other, is critical for better pain care outcomes. She discusses some of the topics of her book chapter about what the current research is saying about compassion, why we don’t always act in compassionate ways, compassion in healthcare, and the value of integrating compassion training along with the wisdom traditions and practices of yoga into modern day pain care without getting practitioner burnout. She explains that yoga is inherently a compassionate practice and can also offer a space for further compassion to emerge. Shelly also shares with us the difference between the terms “Persistent Pain” and “Chronic Pain” and when/why to use them.
Neil is one of the global leaders in pain education, including education on pain biology. He summarizes what the research says about how pain is not an accurate indicator of tissue health. No one diagnostic test or alarm from our body tells the whole story about how we will experience pain, how our nervous system is wired to receive and give danger signals and what other factors contribute to the lived experience of chronic pain. He discusses if we should use pain as a guide for how far to push ourselves in exercise and movement practices. He goes on to explain how education about pain management is an intervention tool.
Marlysa discusses her passion for eudaimonia (finding meaning and purpose in life) when living with chronic pain. She explains when we have meaning, connection and purpose, that numerous (and very fascinating) physiological changes take place in our bodies. These changes have been thoroughly researched in scientific studies, and have been shown to contribute to positive health changes, particularly helpful for people living with persistent/chronic pain. A Yoga Therapist has the potential to help a person in pain find connection, meaning and purpose in life. This will impact the client’s physiology, their perception and ultimately their experience of pain.
The 3 also discuss the White Paper they have co-authored along with Matthew Taylor about how and why yoga therapy can be part of the national Integrative Pain Policy Congress’ strategy towards Comprehensive Integrative Pain Management (CIPM) to address the current public health pain crisis. The paper includes a review of the available evidence we have to support yoga therapy as an important team member of CIPM and outlines recommendations and CTAs to make impactful progress towards better pain care. The paper is currently under peer-review and hopefully published in 2020.
Chapter contributors to “Yoga and Science in Pain Care” include Joletta Belton, Steffany Moonaz, Matthew Taylor, Matt Erb, Lori Rubenstein Fazzio, Tracey Meyers Sondik, Michael Lee, Antonio Sausys Marun-Avisap, with foreword by Timothy McCall, MD.
Yoga and Science in Pain Care Treating the Person in Pain
Edited by Neil Pearson, Shelly Prosko and Marlysa Sullivan. Foreword by Timothy McCall.
This is an integrated approach to pain rehabilitation that combines pain science, rehabilitation and yoga with evidence-based approaches from respected contributors. The book shows how to integrate the practices of yoga and pain science, and promotes the movement to a patient-valued, partnership-based biopsychosocial-spiritual model of healthcare. Read more
Robin Rothenberg is an author and internationally respected yoga therapist with a full time practice serving people living with chronic pain and illness. She is director of Essential Yoga Therapy with an IAYT Accredited Therapist Training Program and has been involved in yoga research since 2000.
Restoring Prana A Therapeutic Guide to Pranayama and Healing Through the Breath for Yoga Therapists, Yoga Teachers and Healthcare Practitioners
Robin Rothenberg
Grounded in the yogic teachings, this text introduces the Buteyko breathing method as a more contemporary way of understanding the original intention of pranayama. Through extensive research, Robin Rothenberg establishes that as with Dr. Buteyko’s breath retraining technique, the ancient yogis prescribed breathing less not more. Read more
“Why does a medical system want yoga?” Dr. Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani asked me this in a conversation about yoga therapy and its intersection with healthcare. “Because modern medicine focuses on curing, but when yoga is added to the equation, it can help individuals heal and give them a sense of their own inner wellness.”
Dr. Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani is both a medical doctor and successor to an ancient yogic tradition and therefore has a foot firmly in each camp of mainstream medicine and traditional yoga. “Modern medicine is good at acute interventions. First, medicine was an art, then it became a science and now it’s more like a business. So is yoga, by the way,” he joked. His view is that medical treatment has changed over time; from treatment of the individual, then to treatment of the diagnosis and now to treatment to the lab report. “But the limitation of modern medicine is the strength of yoga. Yoga empowers the individual and it helps them to connect with their own inner resources. Hence when they come together, they help in the best possible way.” Continue reading →
Heather Mason, MA, MA, MSc, RYT-500, and yoga therapist is the founder of The Minded Institute, a yoga therapy training school, and also the Yoga in Health Care Alliance, a charity devoted to bringing yoga into healthcare at both the grassroots and policy level in the UK. Heather has been teaching yoga since 2001 and has specialised in the use of yoga therapy for mental health populations since 2007.
Heather is actively focused on the integration of yoga into the UK’s National Health Service and in 2018 helped to create an All-Party Parliamentary Group, “Yoga in Society”, in hopes of gaining support from central government.
Shelly is a physiotherapist, yoga therapist, educator and pioneer of PhysioYoga with over 20 years of experience integrating yoga into rehabilitation with a focus on helping people suffering from chronic or persistent pain, pelvic health conditions and professional burnout. She guest lectures at yoga and physiotherapy programs, presents at yoga therapy and medical conferences globally, provides mentorship to health providers, offers onsite and online continuing education courses for yoga and health professionals and is a Pain Care U Yoga Trainer.
She maintains a clinical practice in Sylvan Lake, Canada and believes that cultivating meaningful connections, compassion and joy can be powerful contributors to recovery and well-being. Shelly is co-editor of the bookYoga and Science in Pain Care: Treating the Person in Pain (Singing Dragon, 2019).
In this webinar, Shelly discusses chronic pain and the possibilities that lie in yoga therapy to improve health and manage pain.
Yoga and Science in Pain Care Treating the Person in Pain
Edited by Neil Pearson, Shelly Prosko and Marlysa Sullivan. Foreword by Timothy McCall.
This is an integrated approach to pain rehabilitation that combines pain science, rehabilitation and yoga with evidence-based approaches from respected contributors. The book shows how to integrate the practices of yoga and pain science, and promotes the movement to a patient-valued, partnership-based biopsychosocial-spiritual model of healthcare. Read more
Donna Noble has been practising yoga since 1999. She is the creator of CurveSomeYoga. She has been a certified yoga specialist since 2011 with the Yoga Alliance and British Wheel of Yoga. She is also a certified NLP Master Practitioner. As well as teaching in New York and Texas she teaches all over the UK, and also taught at the Om Show, runs workshops and yoga retreats. She hosts her own show “The Noble Art of Wellbeing” on Natural Health Radio as well as being a fitness writer and blogger. She is on a mission to make yoga more accessible and diverse.
Donna is currently working on a book for Singing Dragon about making yoga classes body positive, due to be published in 2021.
James Foulkes is a yoga teacher and IAYT Registered Yoga Therapist. Originally from England, James has trained for 15 years with the students of Vanda Scaravelli.
At present, James operates a busy Yoga Therapy Practice, and has taught on numerous Yoga Therapy trainings and Yoga Teacher trainings. He conducts classes and workshops around the Washington DC Area, around the United States and internationally.
In this video James discusses yoga therapy and lifestyle medicine, touch, complex illness as well as using yoga therapy to support those who have been incarcerated.
Principles and Themes in Yoga Therapy An Introduction to Integrative Mind/Body Yoga Therapeutics
James Foulkes, Foreword by Mikhail Kogan, MD, illustrated by Simon Barkworth
Provides a brief history of yoga therapy before offering a new way to think about anatomy and the wholeness of the human being. Through case studies, the author explores different principles of practice with tips for yoga therapy practitioners to develop their working client relationship and their own conditioning. Read more
Born with severe clubbed feet, Max Strom spent much of the first six years of his life with his feet confined in plaster casts and braces. Today, he is known for inspiring and impacting the lives of people from all walks of life, teaching breathing patterns and personal transformation worldwide. His method, Inner Axis, is known to produce immediate results in alleviating stress, anxiety, burnout, and depression, impacting the internal and emotional aspects of our life, as well as physical healing. His TEDx talk, Breathe to Heal, is approaching one million views on Youtube. Many know him for his two inspiring books: There is No APP for Happiness, addressing the challenge of finding meaning in the digital age, and A Life Worth Breathing.
In this video, Max discusses men in yoga: why they might feel excluded, the importance of connecting with emotions, and the benefits for men in joining the yoga community.
Originally a professional dancer, Catherine discovered yoga as a teenager. Practicing for over 35 years, she has explored everything from Sivananda to Astanga before gravitating to the teachings of Vanda Scaravelli.
Catherine’s practice and teaching focuses on deepening physical awareness and alignment to reveal the natural freedom of the body, particularly the spine. She teaches regular weekly classes in London at triyoga and the Life Centre and leads retreats worldwide. She created the first Scaravelli-inspired immersion course.
Catherine has contributed to the Yoga Student Handbook with an essay on Scaravelli yoga.
In this video, Catherine discusses how to approach teaching inclusively, the importance of language, how to communicate with students confidently and comfortably, and much more.
Asanas for Autism and Special Needs
