• 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.

Alignment: Awareness about the position of the shoulders, knees, and feet while in various poses (mountain, down dog, chair pose) and while doing chores around the house. Keep a slight bend in the knees and check in with the position of the feet and make a slight external rotation adjustment to the feet. Ensure that the shoulders are lowered during upward extension and not arched in down dog.

Breathing practice: Continue rectangle breathing from our first session.

Meditation: Develop a consistent meditation practice. Meditate daily at the start of the day for one minute following three rounds of rolling Om chanting.

Emotional awareness: Journal the emotions as they show up each day, just labeling them without judgment. We’ll discuss them in our next session.

Centering: Guided Awareness

Check In

Balanced Hatha Yoga considering contraindications:
Eye Movements
Joint Freeing with emphasis on head/neck/sensing into feet and body awareness
Sun salutations with focus on body awareness and without kneeling on knees
Utkasana at wall with block between the knees
Bridge pose with block for support
Constructive rest pose

Balanced Pranayama considering contraindications: Square breathing to help the client regulate their breathing into a more consistent breathing pattern.

Meditation/Centering: Chanting based meditation utilizing Om to calm the limbic system and trigger a parasympathetic response in preparation of relaxation. Guided meditation of placing emotions on leaves.

Relaxation: Contract and relax (Laura Mitchell method) to help the client feel a sense of relaxation, followed by Yoga Nidra witnessing practice.

Karma, Bhakti, Raja, or Jnana Yoga tailored for this client/group: Discussion about the Khleshas starting with self-ignorance and delusion to help the client reconcile how she’s feeling about herself, including self-judgement.

The client reported that their rumination was not as pronounced in the last week. Despite having business travel, she practiced meditation a few times and used rectangle breathing every day. She indicated she has some “numbness” to emotions or struggles to label them. She said that our sessions are helping her and she’s glad she came. She also went to a “care network” session a few days before our session that involved free acupuncture and taping, which she said they did to her knees, shoulders, down her back, and up her neck. She said that the taping gave her more proprioception and has helped her understand ways to position the body that create less pain.

The client has been struggling to articulate emotions so I used MI to help talk through this and the client arrived at the conclusion that 1) no one has ever asked her how she is feeling or what she is feeling 2) she represses her emotions, and 3) she wants to learn how to label emotions and set them aside like we did in the guided leaf meditation. I was able to come up with a practice on the spot that she could do for homework and that we will talk about in our next session. I feel like we’ve established a good relationship quickly where she is able to speak freely and I think that will help her longer term with creating some space to alleviate stress and anxiety by giving her permission to release what she’s carrying with her daily.

Centering: Guided Awareness

Check In

Balanced Hatha Yoga considering contraindications:
Eye Movements
Joint Freeing with emphasis on head/neck/sensing into feet and body awareness
Sun salutations with focus on body awareness and without kneeling on knees
Utkasana at wall with block between the knees
Bridge pose with block for support
Constructive rest

Balanced Pranayama considering contraindications: Rectangle breathing to help the client regulate their breathing into a more consistent breathing pattern.

Meditation/Centering: Chanting based meditation utilizing Om to calm the limbic system and trigger a parasympathetic response in preparation of relaxation. Guided meditation of DBT Stop, sending emotions in and out of doors.

Relaxation: Contract and relax (Laura Mitchell method) to help the client feel a sense of relaxation, followed by Yoga Nidra witnessing practice.

Karma, Bhakti, Raja, or Jnana Yoga tailored for this client/group: Yoga Sutra 1.12 to help the client think about their attachment to outcomes and begin to develop non attachment.