Yoga Therapy for Mental Health

In a world where we are constantly surrounded by a society that demands time watching and perpetual rushing, quite often there is a calling within, an innate need to listen to the body that ask us to simply stop. This notion is becoming ever present within the health industry as our society begins to recognise the detrimental effects of ever-present technology has on our connections with others and our true self. Moreover, there is slowly becoming an overt awareness as to the imperative nature and need for balance, restoration, and compassionate connection to the body, mind, and breath.

There is now a need for those within any element of the health industry to reintegrate knowledge and understanding of the great wisdom instilled within the intuit body; a need for health professionals to come to understand how the body and mind work together, as well as why and how specific practices can alleviate the detrimental effects of a disconnected and apprehensive lifestyle.

Let Celia Roberts, Leanne Davis, Renae Stevens, Samantha-Lindsay German be your guides in understanding and applying state-of-the-art science and traditional wisdom to practices that assist the self and other in releasing and overcoming states of stress, anxiety, insomnia, and depression.

Yoga has the word out on mental health, with evidenced based practices that support a return to health; it is a boon to your body and your brain!

Saturday 15 February
9:30am – 1:00pm
Hosted by Celia Roberts BSc
Senior Yoga Teacher and Yoga Therapist
BioMedical Yoga Therapy for Mental Health including Anxiety, Addictions and Depression

This is an immersive experience of state-of-the-art science and practices for overcoming suffering and moving towards physical and mental liberation through the art of clinical yoga therapy. Celia’s afternoon session is an introduction to the theory and research behind the neuroscientific link between meditation, yoga, and natural restorative remedies to the body’s reactive states. Clinical yoga therapy for mental health offers practical wisdom for overcoming the ailments of anxiety, addiction, depression, and other mental and physical illnesses.

We will be exploring:

How stress, anxiety, addiction, depression, and the like are in the body not just the brain, as well as how adverse mental health effects the microbiome and vice versa;
How and why the size of the amygdala and its connectivity to the rest of the brain is linked to high levels of prolonged anxiety;
How and why inflammation is connected to mental health;
The neuroscientific foundation of how meditation positively effects in the body and the brain including the biological and karmic fate in our genes;
How and why traditional yoga has always explored neuroscience with reference to the sutras and philosophy;
How and why some dietary changes can often show greater improvement than psychological treatment, while still acknowledging the imperative nature of utilising the two together in a successful manner;
Practical application of breathing for heart rate variability thus excellent nervous system control (vagal tone), as well as how to invite yourself to explore a pose with mindfulness of the internal perception of pleasant or painful sensation.

Saturday 15 February
1:45pm – 4:45pm
Hosted by Leanne Davis
President of Yoga Australia
Traditional Yoga Therapy for Mental Health

This is an immersive experience of true yogic wisdom that encapsulates what it means to be in a state of mental health and holistic well-being, that is the state of yoga. This session is specifically aimed at understanding and cultivating states of peace, equilibrium, and evenness of mind through the philosophy of practice and the eastern yogic perspective.

We will be exploring:

What yogic states of mind are (exploring Rajas, Tamas, and Sattva);
Why yoga therapy is not about treating a condition;
Why assessment of state is vital in underpinning application of yoga therapy tools;
How one assesses the activity of the mind;
How we establish what is taking a person away from the state of yoga and clarity;
How we know what tools to use in accordance with an individual’s needs and wants;
Looking at intelligently placed steps for the practices according to the yoga sutras;
Overall assessment, selection, sequencing, and application, of yoga therapy tools.

Sunday 16 February
9:30am – 1:00pm
Hosted by Renae Stevens
Senior Yoga Teacher, Antigravity Master Teacher Trainer, and Registered Art Therapist
Yoga Therapy for Heart Flow, Neural Integration, and Living with a Whole Heart

This is an immersive experience of understanding the innate energetic connection between body, mind, heart and breathing.

This heart-flow state brings about deep mental and physical freedom as we look to move through our anxieties, depression, trauma and shame to find a whole heart. The yogic term for Anahata Akash (heart space) can be translated to mean ‘unstruck or unbeaten’ and Renae will aim to help you find this place to reside and live from; living life with a whole heart.

Renae will also help you explore the yoga sutra, “vishoka va yotishmati” through practice, which means to concentrate on the effulgent, everlasting light of the heart.

Heart breathing, as described by the HeartMath Institute, has the power to elicit calm by regulating heart rate and improving heart rate variability, a marker of both physical and mental health. This heart connection brings simplicity to complexities, may resolve ongoing problems of the mind and allows for a heart felt connection to ourselves and others, allowing ultimately for neural integration and the space within for energy or Prana to flow.

Our breath overall is the manipulator of subtle energy flow and it has the power to cultivate qualities of the ‘sattvic’ state: calmness, peace, lightness, comfort and attentiveness.

This session is aimed at understanding how and why aligning state-of-the-art science and the Yoga Sutra’s allows us to cultivate well-being within ourselves and others. This session aspires to enhance your understanding of heart coherence, living from the heart, and the “spiritual heart” in yoga.

Living with a whole heart allows us to find our own truth and live free from shameful or depressive states, states that may be likened too ‘lying to ourselves’ (Paul Gilbert, Brene Brown).

In discovering heart flow and presence, we find freedom from the mind that causes anxiety based on a future that is a projected memory of the past – and thus access to wonderful mental health. This is the Power of Now.

We will be exploring:

Understanding how the body, mind, breath complex relieves stress related conditions;
Using heart breathing practices to influence our psychology and physiology;
Heart-Brain (Citta Nadi - Yoga) and Heart Coherence (Heart Math);
Cultivating heart flow for physical and psychological freedom;
Moving through PTSD, anxiety and depression by connecting to the hear;
“Breathing of my heart”: where yoga meets science;
The Power of Now (Eckhart Tolle);
Living with a whole heart (Brene Brown).

Sunday 16 February
1:45pm – 4:45pm
Hosted by Samantha Lindsay German
Kundalini Yoga
Kundalini Yoga Medical Model for Addictions and Mental Health

This is an immersive experience of understanding the Kundalini Yoga Medical Model by David Shannahoff-Khalsa and the protocols for use for addictions and mental health issues.

This session is aimed at understanding addiction as a way in which we view and process life - not as a specific attraction to a negative substance.

This session is also aimed at seeing addictions and mental health issues from a different perspective in accordance to Yoga sutra 2.16, creating a “future free from suffering”.

We will be exploring:

How and why Kundalini yoga is proven to work for addictions and mental health and how to build a resilient brain;
How to strengthen the nervous system – parasympathetic and sympathetic;
How to challenge and reprogram the nervous system through the Kundalini Yoga Medical Model;
Understand the Medical Model of kundalini yoga techniques by David Shannahoff-Khalsa and the protocols for use;
Learn to practice and teach the 40-day kundalini yoga program for healing addictions and incorporate everyday short meditations for healing addictions into practice.

At the end of this 13-hour face-to-face weekend you will be provided with materials for reading as well as a BIYOME certificate of completion. This course is intended to provide you will a substantial knowledge base in yoga therapy – this however does not qualify you as a yoga therapist. We use the term “therapy” as a reference to varied methodologies that enable well-being.

Disclaimer and Waiver:

This weekend is a registered 20 hour Yoga Australia training weekend and attracts CPD points for yoga teachers, therapists, allied health professionals. Interested members of the public who are engaged in the practices of yoga and meditation may attend for interest, education and higher-level learning.

These short courses do not qualify you to become a yoga teacher or therapist. By registering and attending this course you agree to our terms and conditions and our waiver as located here. For more information on how to become fully qualified, please check our yoga teacher training and yoga therapy training for more details.

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