Sutra I:33: "By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregard for the wicked, the mind-stuff retains its undisturbed calmness"
This is known as the "locks and keys" and can be helpful in daily interactions with others.

Goal: To experience Raja yoga's calming effects in daily life. Specifics: We will meet 3 times to read and discuss relevance of Sutra I:33 - Session #1: Sri Satchidananda's commentary #2 : N. Joy Devi's #3: Carrera's Client will observe stressful times during interim and journal a time when sutra was helpful. We will discuss journal entries also.

Female, healthy, practices hatha yoga, not familiar with Raja yoga of Patanjali

Three ZOOM meetings about one week apart:
Session #1 - Zoom meeting reading together from Sri Swami Satchidananda and discuss
#2 - Read together from N.Joy Devi and discuss
#3- Read together from Carrera and discuss
Assignment in between each session for client to observe and journal how sutra helped her "unlock" stress and feel more at peace in specific situations.

Raja yoga - Sutra 1:33 is one of the most accessible sutras, and applicable in many situations. It relates to the goal of experiencing the stress reducing effects of yoga by offering 4 "keys" to help "unlock" stress responses in interpersonal relations. The sutra supports one toward equanimity in interacting with others: friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous and disregard toward the wicked.
Scripture study is a Niyama, one of the eight limbs of Raja Yoga, and this was the basis of our sessions.

Client seemed to enjoy reading various translations and commentary on Sutra 1:33 and in discussions noted many instances where applying teaching could be helpful. She especially related to stories like "the monkey and the bird" in Sri Satchidananda's commentary, and she resonated with N.J.Devi's commentary that "compassion for the unhappy" can be applied to oneself especially if one tends to be self-critical.
She illustrated in her journal times when each of these teachings helped give her some peace and perspective i.e. one time client
was driving home after a stressful meeting at work and was able to use "delight in the virtuous" to reframe a feeling of being attacked with criticism. She saw that rather than feel defensive, she could delight in the fact that experts were sharing their wisdom with her. This helped her feel calmer after a stressful day.

Client said she will continue to read Sutras as she found our sessions helpful.
I recommended especially Sutras II:33 and II:34 - Pratipaksha bhavana, and gave client a short introduction to those sutras.

I applied the intended plan once I met with the client: The 3 sessions went as planned and the client did the journalling homework as assigned.
The goal of the sessions was achieved:
The client demonstrated in discussions, and in journal entries that there were instances where Sutra 1:33 helped her relax and regain equilibrium in her daily relations at home and at work.

Reading the Sutra and commentary together took up a lot of time, so there wasn't as much time for reflection and discussion during each session. I had imagined one-hour sessions, but client could only do half-hour sessions.
I learned that sharing my experience of the teaching is not as helpful as listening to client's experience and thoughts.

If I were to do this again I would make sure client has the text ahead of time, so we could use more time in sessions to review and discuss concerns of client. I would also have client identify a particular stressful situation at the outset so sessions and journalling would have a less general focus.
What went well was reading three different commentaries on the sutra because it gave client a sense of the broad applicability of the sutra in different situations.
What I might change is the assignments in between sessions - rather than "write in journal" , I would be more specific, perhaps giving a series of specific sutra related questions to answer. I would also have client identify body sensations that accompany stress, and rate stress on a scale (of 1 to 10 perhaps) before and after applying teaching.