With this student, I envisioned providing three practices that we would do every time we met; pinning the muscles of the neck, ball release with a stress ball or other tool, and a jaw release exercise with the pads of our fingers. Beyond these three tools, my plan was to arrive at each session with two to three restorative postures at the ready and, after checking in with her and allowing her to share for several minutes, offering what I saw would make the greatest difference at the moment.

Raja Yoga and Jnana Yoga.

Over the course of our sessions, this client began working at a bakery and was arching her neck over a table for several hours consecutively, rolling dough, which exacerbated the pain in her neck. This was a perfect opportunity to explore the principle of Ahimsa. In that exploration, she found that she could rest periodically throughout her shifts and created a routine for after work that I will describe in greater detail in the next prompt.

Jnana Yoga. I was very sensitive to the client's sense of being "tired of all the tools" and desire to have a routine that was reliable in her body. So, the first assignment I gave her was to journal 1-2 sentences every night answering the question "Today, what did I do that increased my sense of pain? What decreased my sense of pain?"

1. After a thorough intake conversation, we did two restorative postures. She began the journal exercise here.

2. Client reports her pain decreasing throughout the week. We did supported the child's pose, jaw release, pin and stretch in a seated pose, and tension release with a sweet potato against the wall. Out of journaling, she noticed that the application of heat relieves pain. I gave her an assignment to transition back and forth between applying a wet heating pad and a cold compress with a mentholated rub.

3. Pain decreased again this week as she continued with her practices.

4. The client had an IUD inserted a couple of days before this session, she was shaken by the physical and emotional impact, she had stopped doing her nightly journal practice. She felt overwhelmed. I lead her through gentle pranayama and meditation to greet and interact with the overwhelm.

At the end of our working together, the client shared that the following practices became staples and in what way she intends to use them moving forward:

1. The meditation to greet and interact with her sense of overwhelm.

2. Supported child's pose - The client shared that she is now taking this posture casually throughout the average day, resting her forehead on a height and allowing her neck to relax completely.

3. I was moved to suggest that the client incorporate wetness when using heat on her neck because of the strong Kapha element in wet heat and the client shared that alternating wet heat with a cold compress plus her CBD theracane whenever extreme pain is present is the routine that she was looking for at the beginning fo the work together.

4. Last, she shared that she'll continue to use the gentle jaw release exercise.

For the most part, I was able to apply my intended plan when I met with the client. I understood from what this client shared that she regularly deals with an imbalance in the Vata Dosha. So, one of my secondary goals was to explore a sense of continuity as access to stress relief and I don't think that we achieved that. If I were doing it again, I might dedicate more attention there.

And, yes, the goal was to leave her with a routine that would reliably relieve pain during episodes of extreme pain, as well as a set of simple daily practices that would support her in decreasing the number of painful experiences she has over time, and it was very clearly achieved.

Yes. At our fourth session, when she had stopped journaling, I met her where she was at and, in so doing, we had one of our most powerful and impactful sessions with one another. There is also something to be said for how straying from the continuity, in this case, was in service of something she was being immediately impacted by and didn't make sense to step over.

The meditation that I guided the client through during that session was not something I had planned to do during the session but it was obvious that the client was suffering trying to avoid the experience of overwhelm that was present for her. I took the case that the overwhelm was present for a reason and there was something she would get from it if she engaged with it and that turned out to be true.

If I had this kind of client to work with again, I would approach the work in mostly the same way.

What worked about the sessions with this client were that I arrived with a thoughtful plan and intention for each session but that I was also flexible and willing to respond and interact with whatever showed up in our initial conversation at the top of each session.

I confirmed that applied pressure, deep relaxation exercises, as well as transitioning hot (with wet) to cold temperature (with menthol/cbd) made a difference consistently throughout the clients healing process, where stretching would have been aggravating to someone with this condition and I will be able to use that to inform future client work.