Using reframed language to bring stress management techniques to a local addiction treatment center.

Use movement and breathing strategies to reduce stress and resist cravings. Reports of stress, cravings, and success of movement and breathing-related coping strategies will be kept in a journal. Goal is to reduce levels of self-reported stress, cravings, and drug use within 30 days.

This will be a heterogenous group of people, all of whom are seeking to recover from substance use disorders. More specific client details will be noted in the TCA report depending on who is most responsive to follow-up.

I envisioned explaining the science of stress and how movement and breathing strategies can help with stress management before assisting a few clients an adaptive breathing and movement practice. We would then discuss what came up during the practice and discuss specific stressful scenarios in which these practices would be useful. Then, I'd offer journals to the clients and go over how to log journal entries so that they can track how the practices are helping them to manage stress and cravings.
I anticipated that not everyone would want to participate, due to my previous experiences in bringing yoga to treatment centers. My main goal was to present the teachings in reframed language and find at least one person who seemed excited enough about the practices to keep the journal and stay in contact with me. For those not participating, I'd offer visualization practice of the movements.

This was a "reframed language" teaching, so I did not mention "yoga" or related terms. However, we did do asana and pranayama, even if we didn't call it that, which is related to Raja Yoga. We also did a short concentration exercise at the end of our practice, which was essentially a meditation.
I did mention practicing gratitude to the world/universe during the movements, which could be construed as a form of Bhakti Yoga. I mentioned that having faith can reduce stress.
I introduced a witnessing practice while we were doing the breathing exercises, which is related to Jnana Yoga. I invited them to notice the space between their thoughts and their ability to witness those thoughts, and to identify with the witness moreso than the thoughts themselves. I stated that witnessing practices could help to decrease stress.
The affirmation could be thought of as Japa Yoga. Reduces Stress.

The session started a little bit later than it was supposed to, which meant I gave a synopsis of how stress works, and the movement, breathing, and affirmation practices. There were 8 people in the class; most of whom participated in the chair movements and breathing exercises. One person was very interested: an 18 year old male. He stayed after the class was done, asked questions, and then asked if I could come back. I offered to meet with him 1-on-1 to go over the practices again as long as he would keep the journal. We met again the next week, and for every week thereafter. He was quite committed to the practices and to keeping a journal.
Two of the other clients also gave positive feedback and said they would log entries in their journals. The rest of the clients left shortly after the session concluded.

I attempted follow up with all three of the clients that showed interest after the session; the 18 year old male was the one that I was able to maintain contact with. I suggested that he continue to explore other methods of gentle movement to help him to reduce stress. He mentioned that he liked to swim, so I suggested he develop a swim routine and adhere to it.
We also practiced other chair movements, breathing exercises, and concentration exercises. I noticed his tendency to be supercritical of himself, so we got him a self-compassion journal and started to practice loving-kindness exercises. I also advised that he continue to keep his stress and cravings journal, and elaborate upon his daily thoughts and feelings as a means to develop more witness consciousness in his life.
Though he had achieved sobriety from fentanyl, I advised he not make any large changes in his life just yet.

I came into this stress management session with a more realistic and practical mindset; I knew that I wasn't going to be able to make everyone interested in what I had to offer. Instead, I focused on finding a few people with whom I could follow up to see if the goal was achieved.
I believe that I achieved the goal, because the practices worked quite well for the young man that I wound up working closely with over the course of the next few weeks. I did achieve the goal of maintaining reframed language; I didn't say the word "yoga" once. The client that followed up did reduce stress, cravings, and drug use.
I do feel that I applied the intended plan, but also wound up having to veer off into a new direction quickly when I met one-on-one with the client and his supercriticality was mentioned. I had no intention to implement loving-kindness, but it seemed to help to mitigate stress.

I did have to adapt the plan when I realized that most people were just not able to do the laughing "ha" breath. They just seemed to be incapable of doing the breath without triggering a cough or some other kind of discomfort. I learned that that particular exercise was not the best choice for this population, since many of them vape and/or smoke heavily. I adapted by teaching them the extended exhale breath instead.
I learned that it was very difficult not to say the word "yoga" - especially when meeting one-on-one with somebody and getting deeper into yogic practices. I found myself slowing down and speaking more thoughtfully.
Although I adapted to the non-participants by offering that they visualize themselves doing the movements, I learned that next time I should bring journals or offer a more energetic option, since some of the non-participants fell asleep and started snoring.

If faced with the same situation, I'd approach it in mostly the same way, though I'd bring another alternative activity for non-participants - perhaps loving-kindness writing prompts like the ones in the self-compassion journal that my 18 year old client wound up using. I think the movement, breathing, and affirmation practices themselves went really well for those who did them, though I do wish there was a way to separate the participants from the non-participants, especially in this environment. I think it can be tough for some people to get into the practices when other people in the room are not participating and/or actively snoring.
When bringing these reframed-language stress management teachings to addiction treatment centers in the future, I would try to separate into groups based on who is planning to actually do the movement practices and who is going to do the journaling or another alternative activity.
I would also change the laughing "ha" breath - or at least be prepared to quickly offer the alternative for those who are unable to do it without coughing or not interested in doing it. This seems to be a great way to serve the community and get yoga therapy clients.