• 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.

Body awareness—sensing into the shoulders while in asanas and making adjustments so that the shoulders are not elevated up to the ears, or arching back during poses where the shoulders should be neutral.
Breathing practice—A-kara breathing with Shanka Mudra
Sadhana practice—Reestablish a daily practice to include meditation, helping to calm the mind and build a routine of regular practice

Check In
Guided Awareness
Discussion of Yoga Sutras Tapas 2.1 and 2.30 Yamas starting with Ahimsa
Balanced Hatha Yoga considering contraindications:
Joint freeing series with shoulder shrugs, gentle neck stretches
Oculocardiac convergence therapy
Tadasana with strap in hands, arms out in front with palms facing each other and then rotated up to help with proprioception and strengthening the muscles around the shoulder joints
Creeping Urdhva Hastasana, walking the fingers up the wall to improve shoulder flexibility and mobility
A-Kara Breathing with Shanka Mudra (Conch Shell with prolonged A sound during exhalation)
Cognitive defusion guided meditation to alleviate attachments to negative thoughts about self and attachments to thoughts that cause suffering. This meditation will be about placing thoughts as they arrive in the mind on a leaf and letting them float by down a stream.
Yoga Nidra with tensing and releasing and sensing into the body to create a parasympathetic system response.

The client was actively experiencing a headache that started two days prior to our session and had forgotten to wear sunblock the day before so she was experiencing sunburn. She shared that she felt much better and more balanced during the week because she started up her daily sadhana practice, but she skipped it on Thursday and Friday. She reported on those two days she felt very disrupted all day. She felt distracted on those days. Her interpersonal relationship with her super of her building is resulting in her feeling like she has to move right away. She feels a lot of emotional pressure and believes its manifesting in her headache. She was visibly anxious when we started our session—talking fast and was unable to sit still. She responded well to our session and appeared more relaxed at the end of the session.

I used MI with this client to explore how she’s practicing Ahimsa and places where she might be self-harming and engaging in aversions, i.e. not doing her meditation on days where she has to work remote, forgetting her sunblock, and applying pressure of self-made deadlines. The client initiated discussion of Tapas as though perhaps she had to go through this pain to be “purified” so I read Sutra 2.1, but then quickly shifted the conversation to the Yamas and Ahimsa. I felt that it was important to remind her that there are ways to avoid some of the pain that we bring on ourselves through the Yamas. This discussion challenged her, but she said that she felt validated and supported with my feedback and that she understands that perhaps she may need to shift her mindset. I also used MI to help her arrive at the conclusion that a majority of the pressure she is feeling is self-imposed, such as the pressure she feels to move. I reminded her of areas that she has control, like around when she moves and if she moves.

Check In
Guided Awareness
Discussion of Sutras 2.2 and 2.3 to talk through the five obstacles and help the client consider the current obstacles that she’s feeling and whether some are internal instead of external.
Balanced Hatha Yoga considering contraindications:
Joint freeing series with shoulder shrugs, gentle neck stretches, and
Sun salutations with adaptations, including Tadasana with strap in hands, arms out in front with palms facing each other and then rotated up to help with proprioception and strengthening the muscles around the shoulder joints
Creeping Urdhva Hastasana, walking the fingers up the wall to improve shoulder flexibility and mobility
90° Abduction & External Rotation of shoulder while lying down in savasana with towel roll under active arm
A-Kara Breathing with Shanka Mudra (Conch Shell with prolonged A sound during exhalation)
Cognitive defusion guided meditation to alleviate attachments to negative thoughts about self and attachments to thoughts that cause suffering. This meditation will be about placing thoughts as they arrive in the mind on a leaf and letting them float by down a stream.
Yoga Nidra with tensing and releasing and sensing into the body to create a parasympathetic system response.