Mind-Body & Yoga Psychotherapy


Mind Body Psychotherapy is an approach that intentionally involves the body in healing.

 

 

 

 

 

A Mind Body Approach in Psychotherapy

Research in recent decades has found that the impact that stress has on our lives is playing a central role in some of our most common medical and mental health problems.  Stress impacts our brain through our mind, body, emotions and body chemistry.   We are often not aware of the impact of stress it until it becomes extreme or causes us problems.

There are 3 major areas of functioning in the brain:   our thinking center, our emotional center, and our nervous system.  Traditional talk therapy engages us mostly in using the thinking and emotional part of our brain for healing.  A mind body approach to psychotherapy involves your body in the healing process too, so that all of the important parts of your brain can work together in healing and helping you move toward your goals.   We experience so many mental health problems on a physical level.  Often clients feel a deeper sense of relief and progress when skills such as mindful breathing, and simple physical practices are integrated within other counseling approaches.

Yoga Psychotherapy

Yoga is an ancient practice that has become very popular in recent decades.  Modern science has found that the breathing and physical practices that have grown out of yoga can have a balancing effect on our nervous system.  Better balance in the nervous system has proven to improve medical and psychological problems related to stress.  We integrate yoga as a mindfulness practice that works well with other kinds of counseling.  Yoga has been found to be particularly helpful in addressing the physical symptoms of anxiety, addiction, and traumatic stress problems.  We specialize in integrating yoga with psychotherapy in the treatment of these challenges.  We offer trauma sensitive yoga groups in a variety of settings and assist professionals and organizations in providing yoga and other mind body skills as a mental health intervention.

Adjunct Yoga Psychotherapy

Practicing yoga and other mindfulness skills can be such an important resource for managing the body based symptoms of trauma and anxiety.  These practices can support your healing process if you are already in therapy.  We also provide Yoga psychotherapy as a time limited adjunct to therapy if you already have a primary therapist.   If you are a client or a therapist please contact us for a complementary 20 minute phone consultation to see if working together with  this approach may be of interest.

Mindfulness Based Psychotherapy

Our favorite definition of mindfulness comes from Jon Kabat-Zinn:   “paying attention on purpose, in the present moment”.    Mindfulness skills and practices have been actively studied in the past 30 years and found to be effective as both a direct approach to therapy and when used to enhance other already effective forms of therapy.  We use mindfulness based approaches to help people address depression, anxiety, aggression, trauma and compulsive behaviors.

Mind-Body Approaches for Parents and Teens or Children

One of the main tasks of growing up for all children and teenagers is to feel a sense of self control and self direction.  Mind body skills such as mindful breathing, yoga practices and other mindful awareness practices teach young people an effective way to work with their thoughts, feelings and actions.  When young people experience problems such as depression, anxiety, surviving sexual or physical abuse, substance abuse problems or disordered eating,  mind body skills can be an essential resource in helping them find more positive ways to cope – so they can continue to grow into healthy individuals.   Many mind body skills can be taught to parents and children together so they can find better balance with each other and use healthy ways to handle emotional problems, as well as the inevitable ups and downs of growing up.

Mind Body Therapy Groups for Tweens, Teens and 20 Somethings

We provide group services in specialized juvenile justice and child welfare settings in the state of Colorado.  We also offer community based groups for youth with trauma sensitive, addiction or other special mental health needs.  Please contact us if you are interested in bringing a group to your setting or you are interested in technical assistance or consultation.