• Check in, centering, balanced hatha yoga set considering contraindications, relaxation (with imagery as appropriate),
• Balanced pranayama considering contraindications, meditation/centering.
• Include at least one suggestion from Karma, Bhakti, Raja, or Jnana Yoga tailored for this client.

Yes, I make sure that I don’t give client any asana that tilts her chin upward because that causes discomfort in her neck. I adapt asana’s that move the head upward.

Client wants to totally relax.

Client is learning to relax more and worry less. Reframed Yoga Sutras have helped in this respect, and so have the guided meditations. She really likes the guided meditations and the Chair Yoga.

Client really likes practicing chair yoga and is able to do it without difficulty. She is also practicing the joint freeing movements that she has learned in our sessions – especially those for the hands where she has arthritis in one of her thumbs.
Client is also walking 20 minutes everyday.

Client’s energy is good. She is a very functional senior citizen. Client breaths normally. Client has been taught Deergha Swaasom but does not do it on her own time. She does it in the Yoga Therapy session.

She responded well to learning about Stress Response education and understands that we produce internal stress. Client would worry about her grandchildren but she is learning to be less emotional less worried about them and leave them in God’s hands. Thus, she understood that she makes her own stress when she worries about them. She is happy to be able to meditate and become calm and then in that calmness pray for them.

Client gets occasional external stress but she is learning to keep her calm.

To begin with the client’s sense of self was good. She is a religious person and goes to church several times a week. At church they do a meditation and she feels closer to God.

Client was not looking for spiritual orientation from Yoga Therapy. But client has been very open to being guided in meditation on the image of Jesus Christ. In fact, it seems that she really likes this practice.
The combination of the meditation she does several times a week at her church in a group, and the guided meditation we do together, and the prayer she does before going to bed – she is meditating probably almost every day in the week.

I do not use Yoga terms with this client. I have discussed with her how the mind works using the wisdom teaching of Sutra I.2, I.3 and I.4 with reframed everyday language and I have found that the client is responsive.

Client says she likes all of the practices.

She was very open to the guided meditation on Jesus Christ and his love and white light coming from him, as depicted on one of her favorite pictures.

Client says that she is sleeping longer now that she is taking a shower at night and turning off the tv earlier.
Client appreciated the information on the scientific research study that found that yoga (MBSR) decreased by 15% cholesterol levels in older adults who were at risk for coronary artery disease.

All joint freeing movements given thus far for Scapula/Shoulders, Arms and Hands/fingers.

Chair Yoga:
o Standing half-locust
o Seated cobra
o Seated side bends
o Forward bend with spinal stretch
o Spinal flexion and extension
o Spinal twist

Meditate on Jesus Christ and being surrounded by White Light, followed by prayer every night before going to bed.

If I could, I would like to communicate with her on-line but she does not do this, thus I have to give her the homework verbally. It has been working out.

I have to speak in Spanish to this client so this was not easy at times because although I am pretty fluent, I don’t know everything and sometimes I forget words in Spanish.

I felt I got the support that I needed when my mentor told me to ‘tread cautiously here’ because the Catholicism had advised the client that Yoga was bad because it makes the mind blank. I found it a great challenge.

Yes. I met this client at the Senior Center where I occasionally taught Chair Yoga and she loved it and wanted more. When I had to do the practicum, I asked her if she would be interested in being my client. At that time, I did not know she was a very religious person.

It has been a very good experience to work with a very religious client and find her to take in the Yoga practices that we did very well. It helped that we knew each other and she had taken the Chair Yoga with me. Of course, I carefully reframed Yoga, and when possible, I would show her how her religious teachings were similar to Yoga.

I also enjoyed doing Yoga Therapy in person with her.