Join the Global Yoga Therapy Day Celebration: Whether you are new to yoga therapy or a seasoned practitioner, Global Yoga Therapy Day provides a wonderful opportunity to explore this transformative modality and its countless benefits. Seek out local events, workshops, and online resources to deepen your understanding of yoga therapy and somatic psychology.
Read MoreBrother Thay, as he was known, asked us to use all our senses when eating the tangerine, to let each bite hit the tongue and to notice the juice washing over it – the acidity, the sweetness, the tinge of sourness. He said, “Each time you look at a tangerine, you can see deeply into it. You can see everything in the universe in one tangerine. When you peel it and smell it, it’s wonderful. You can take your time eating a tangerine and be very happy.” There is true and pure happiness in each and every tangerine if you just be with it.
Read MoreSeeking out the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco for my doctoral degree was important and has tremendously helped shape my practice today. Started by Haridas Chaudhuri, student of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, this institute offered a lens into ways to address and help the whole person, not merely the mental aspect of the lived experience. Studying in India deepened my understanding of how art, music, body movement, and states of consciousness are as much an integral part of the practice of psychology as much as are the id, ego, superego, transference and countertransference. It was easy to see the archetypes personified before my eyes as I saw 50 foot statutes of Ganesha and Saturn.
Read MoreI sought out my graduate studies beginning in human sexuality because the body is typically a central part of sexual expression. And then I found my way to the California Institute of Integral Studies, where Indian Psychology was, in part, what the school was founded on and Indian Psychology has a deep understanding that the human lived experience is far beyond the mind and most certainly includes the body, at the very least. Somatic psychology, a western psychology field, is a field that explores the relationship between the mind and body, emphasizing the importance of bodily sensations, movement, and physical experiences in psychological well-being and healing.
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