Over the past few years I've focused my yoga teaching practice on helping older adults age into vitality. I've developed a variety of classes so students can participate at the level they feel most comfortable. As vitality and well-being are my goals, not physical ability, my classes offer tools for managing mental health; depression & anxiety share a spot in the top five chronic conditions older adults have. Many of my students share how my classes have helped heart disease, COPD, and arthritis improve to a point that joint replacements are postponed.
As my expertise in teaching older adults has grown I feel that a significant piece of my training is missing; how to help people at the end of life.
This is an area where there is so much need; helping the dying be at ease while at the same time creating space for the grief that their family and friends are feeling. Offering tools to the folks who work in hospice environments is also part of the picture; preventing burnout and promoting resiliency. Since death is part of the wholeness of a life, how to give people tools to feel whole within this final stage.
To fill this gap in my own knowledge I'm attending the Beside Yoga and End of Life Training retreat in December 2018 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I know you will help me get there!
This five-day session, limited to 8 participants, is for yoga teachers, therapists, hospice workers, chaplains, clinicians and others in pastoral care, or for those simply interested in learning more about being with people at the end of life, offering solace, presence and appropriate movement and touch.
We will look at three broad topic areas of yoga: self- study, movement & breath, and contemplative tradition – and explore how each aspect has something unique and powerful to offer in end of life care. We will then learn and practice specific techniques within each of these areas, including movement and touch via basic Thai Yoga compressions and gentle passive stretching.
Beside Yoga is offered by Molly Lannon Kenny, the founder of Integrated Movement Therapy, and is based upon her work in at the Bailey-Boushay House when she lived in Seattle. Molly has been developing Bedside Yoga since 2003 and has worked extensively with people at end of life, including assisting and attending at scheduled deaths. She is a master teacher and a dedicated spiritual practitioner who can deftly weave practical tools, deep philosophy, and individual practice with humor, humility and joy.
