Personal practice is the most direct way to allow yoga to serve you.
Yoga is a system which recognizes our multi-dimensional nature, and understands that healing involves more than just our physical body. Yoga therapy is the thoughtful application of the tools of yoga - postures, movement, breath-work, meditative tools, teachings and more - to come into conversation with all of the aspects of ourselves necessary for real transformation. Yoga therapy aims to bring us into nourishing relationship with our whole system, helps us to open to what needs our attention, to access what is hidden beneath our stories, to bring intentionality to our reactivity, and to understand ourselves more deeply, so we have full access to our innate, internal support for our own healing.
Hopefully, some of your questions are answered below. The first step to beginning this work is to book a free 15 minute consultation with Sarah.
What does a Yoga Therapy session look like?
These sessions look different for each individual and their specific needs. They can include prescribed movement and breathing practice, led meditation, conversation and listening, exploring teachings, visualization, chanting, ritual, or supported rest. There is no agenda or requirements, only a vast resource of tools at our disposal. Sarah's first intention is to keep her clients safe, supported, and seen.
Our work is guided by the Indian metaphysical system of Yoga, especially the Pañcamaya model from the Taittrya Upaniṣhads, Yoga’s understanding of the subtle body, and the Yoga Sūtra-s. Yoga's teachings are our primary source for understanding ourselves. Yoga therapy is an exchange of traditional and responsive care. It is both creative and rooted.
There is an approach for every body, every budget, every stage of life.
How can practice serve me?
This work can be a support for those dealing with illness, injury, and treatment, emotional and mental health, chronic pain, life transitions, as well as those who wish to deepen their engagement in their lives and support their wellness. Sarah has particular experience and passion for working with clients during and post cancer treatment, care around grief and loss, trauma, and death and dying, and practitioners who wish to expand and deepen the scope of their practice.
Practice can help with:
Addressing concerns in your life holistically
Building strength, mobility, and ease in movement
Physical imbalance, both structural and systemic
Respiratory problems
Chronic pain
Development of healthy habits
Disturbed sleep
Anxiety, depression, stress, working with emotional states
Creating a foundation to improve your relationships
Recovery from injury and countering treatment
Life transitions, especially prenatal, postnatal, and the dying process
Yoga therapy is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure conditions. Yoga therapists are not physical therapists or psychotherapists. This work is appropriate for those who wish to utilize practice to meet their life and their challenges with the whole of themselves. Sarah has no healing to sell or promises to make. AND she has unwavering faith that what is needed to support ourselves we already have and are. Our work is in this conversation.
Schedule a Session
First Yoga Therapy session: Our first session will allow a little more time than a typical session to give us a chance to talk about your needs, your goals, and your life. By the end of the session you will have a personal practice to take with you, which Sarah will draw out using TKV Desikachar's system of stick figures so that you can feel confident practicing at home on your own. Initial sessions run 75-90 minutes.
Building your practice: We will build on your initial practice in these 60-75 minute sessions. In each session, Sarah will check in on where you are that day, what has changed for you since the last meeting, and will continue to evolve your practice based on your needs.
Sessions are available online via Zoom as well as in-person one Saturday a month at FulBeing Collective. Visit our booking page for details. You can find answers to other common questions about online sessions here.
Payment to the Teacher
Sarah works by dana, which is a Buddhist practice that invites the student to consider the meaning and value of the teachings they have received, and to give payment that reflects how they wish to support the teacher's ability to continue this work. Typically, dana for a private session is given on a sliding scale between $90 - 135 per session for online sessions and $120 - 150 for in-person sessions at FulBeing Collective. After our session, you will receive a follow-up email which will direct you toward our payment options to make your donation.
I do ask all students to maintain a 24 hour cancellation policy. If sessions are not cancelled within 24 hours of the start time, full payment is expected.
Hear from other students about how practice serves them:
“My particular practice is essential in grounding me both mentally and physically while working within an unpredictable and - at times - chaotic vocation. Through the practice, I have become more in touch with my breathing which has enabled a deeper cultivation of peace of mind. Because I take this time daily, I feel I am better able to balance all that I do throughout the day bringing a newfound sense of energy, focus and clarity.””
“ I have found over time that these practices have greatly helped to give me sturdier ground to stand on. They provide me with a clearer view of my relationships, my habits, my actions and my interactions. This balance has helped bring a certain level of peace and acceptance for myself and my world and a greater ability to engage with it. I am very grateful for this as someone who has had struggles with depression and anxiety. I have more faith in my ability to deal with whatever will come my way.”
“I believe there is a connection between the mind and body that is inextricable. Unfortunately, in my work (and play), I tend to get wrapped up and consumed in the mind, and as a result neglect my body. Yoga is the way I return to the body, but also the mind...not the superficial intellectual mind, but the deeper mind. Without my practice, I would get stuck in the intellect, and lose the deeper connection—which happens to improve my ability to be present at work, at play, and in my relationships”