General InfoYoga as Therapy
workshops and teacher training intensive
2a Wrentham Avenue,
London NW10 3HA
Book all 5 days for £400 (if booked before 29 August 2008.)
You are highly encouraged to book all 5 days of this intensive, however a small number of places will be available to be booked as individual days.
Daily workshop price £85.
Any queries on Teacher Training Intensives should be directed to events@thelifecentre.com or
call 020 8826 4727
Downloads
Download Booking Form for this Intensive
Open to yoga teachers, trainee teachers and all experienced yoga students. Students on The Life Centre Yoga Teacher Training Programme who attend all five days may count this as one of their approved intensives.
Doug Keller’s background reflects a lifelong commitment to studying, imbibing and sharing the vast field of knowledge and practice known as yoga. After receiving degrees in philosophy from Georgetown and Fordham Universities in the United States, and teaching philosophy at college level for several years, Doug pursued his ‘post-graduate’ education in the practical experience of yoga at the Siddha meditation ashram, Gurudev Siddha Peeth, in India, for seven years, and spent a total of 14 years doing service, practising, training in and teaching yoga in Siddha meditation ashrams worldwide. He received intensive training in the Iyengar system in New York City, practised Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga in India, and became one of the first certified Anusara yoga teachers, producing three highly respected books on asana, pranayama and yoga philosophy. His work has since taken him beyond the confines of the Anusara system.
Doug’s further expansion in learning is reflected in his latest and most in-depth work, ‘Yoga as Therapy’, which is one of the most comprehensive, innovative and useful treatments of the structural aspect of yoga therapy available. For a year he has also been a regular columnist for Yoga+ Magazine (formerly Yoga International, published by the Himalayan Institute), writing the ‘Asana Solutions’ column that addresses specific therapeutic problems. He is at the highest level of certification with Yoga Alliance, ERYT500, and a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. This intensive is the initial programme for an extensive teacher training for yoga as therapy that he will be rolling out in 2008.
Doug’s teaching is rooted in a vast and inclusive perspective of study and practice that honours the insights of the many streams of wisdom that flow into the river of yoga. He is a very regular visitor to The Life Centre, always drawing rave reviews for the usefulness and depth of the variety of topics he has covered over the years, and for his lightheartedness, humour and wisdom. He continues to travel and teach extensively in both the US and Europe, as well as at his home base near Washington D.C. He can be found at www.DoYoga.com
Finding the Source of Pain and the Role of Emotion in Therapeutic Issues
Understanding our postural patterns is key to understanding the source of chronic pain and dysfunction. This workshop will teach a simple and systematic means of recognising postural patterns and the associated joint, spinal and muscular problems these patterns cause, including trigger point pain. The framework of the myofascial ‘sutras’ set forth in Doug’s book, ‘Yoga as Therapy,’ will be the basis for specifically targeted series of asanas and stretches for undoing these patterns. Our focus will be to identify key muscles and their relationships with one another that play a vital role in therapeutic problems, and how to work with them. Each of the sutras and their general ‘problem areas’ will be explored in depth in the remaining four days of the training with great specificity.
The afternoon will explore the understanding of emotion or ‘Rasa’ in Ayurveda and Tantra — the nature of emotion, its foundation in our own unique Prakrti, its influence upon body and mind, and how we can work with the Rasas — especially through Pranayama practice — to our greatest benefit.
Moving and Breathing from the Core
This workshop will explore the ‘Core Sutra’ – the psoas and the related myofascia which form the central support of movement and breath. We will focus on recognising dysfunctions in the psoas, and the related therapeutic problems they cause – principally lower and upper back problems, as well as neck and sacral problems – and we will work with series of yoga asanas to restore the psoas to its proper tone and function. This will include attention to other muscles such as the multifidus an layers of abdominals that provide support in matters of low back and sacral pain.
The afternoon will apply this understanding specifically to the breath and Pranayama; the function of the diaphragm and the role of the bandhas in enhancing the actions of the diaphragm — especially mula bandha and the relationship of the pelvic floor to breath and vocalization. We’ll be looking more deeply at the energetics of Pranayama — the influence of the bandhas on the energies of the prana and apana, and the effect of this both upon meditation and therapeutic practices of Pranayama focused on the emotions or Rasas.
Contracted and Expanded Spirals
This workshop will explore the ‘Spiral Sutra,’ the basis for understanding postural rotations and their causes that are at the root of ankle, knee, hip, shoulder and neck pain as well as back pain from spinal rotation. A systematic series of asanas will be covered for targeting each of these problem areas. This will include a look into problems arising from a ‘shorter’ leg (both apparent and real), and an in-depth treatment of working with scoliosis.
The afternoon will include a deeper look at the specifics of breath work in the case of structural imbalances such as scoliosis, and will cover hands-on adjustments for working with these problems through breath and asana. The afternoon will also include further work with Pranayama and the bandhas — especially the core support provided by uddiyana bandha, and its paradoxical relationship to the breath.
Atlas Unburdened: Liberating the Neck and Shoulders
This workshop will explore the ‘Shoulder Sutras’: their relationship to joint problems in the shoulders themselves, as well as their role in wrist, elbow and neck problems especially disc herniation and other problems arising in the neck, jaw and head from muscular tension.
A systematic series of asanas will be covered for each of the ‘sutras’ in the shoulders and their related problems, including work in hands-on adjustments and in-depth therapeutic work on asanas in which the arms are weight-bearing. There will be emphasis on principles of assessing shoulder problems, and the specifics of the anatomy of the neck and shoulders.
The afternoon will include work in Pranayama focused specifically on the actions of jalandhara bandha and its key role in the energetics of the upper body and the ‘higher’ work of Pranayama related to the ajna chakra. Discussion and practice of Pranayama will include deeper exploration of the energies of the ida and pingala, and their relationship to the chakras from a therapeutic perspective.
The Big Picture: The Vital Role of Sequencing
This session will explore the Ayurvedic and Tantric perspective on therapeutic work as ‘purification’ of the elemental energies that influence health, known as ‘Tattva Shuddhi.’ This includes the specifics of the Doshas and their imbalances, as well as the work of establishing health as ‘graceful flow’ or Srotamsi.
This summary will pull together our discussion of the ‘Sutras,’ the ‘Rasas’ or emotions and of Pranayama and the bandhas in order to provide the ‘big picture’ of the therapeutic value of yoga practice. This perspective harmonizes the practical and rather technical understanding of the biomechanics of the myofascial sutras with the energetic understanding of health provided by Ayurveda and Tantra.
This ‘big picture’ will provide a basis for exploring all aspects of sequencing in asana, Pranayama and even in meditative dharanas. The session will provide a comprehensive framework for sequencing, particularly for therapeutic issues, with emphasis on how and why sequencing is central to deriving the greatest benefit from a yoga practice.
Downloads
Download Booking Form for this Intensive
