Foundations Program Graduate
Advanced Program Student
C-IAYT Candidate
Location: Delmar, NY
Website : Carol Day Young Yoga Therapy
Initially, I was drawn to yoga and yoga therapy for the physical healing. Much to my surprise, since enrolling in the Breathing Deeply Yoga Therapy program, I am much more interested in the mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of yoga. I now have over 1,000 days on Insight Timer – mostly Yoga Nidra, and a growing meditation practice. What really drew me into Breathing Deeply was Brandt’s approach and the desire to deepen my practice.
Since enrolling, I have gradually and subtly become less judgmental, somewhat less reactive, and less afraid to make mistakes. I may even be overcoming a lifelong tendency to procrastinate. Being in community at the retreats was huge for me in terms of self-acceptance and realizing how we all struggle. I also love the Breathing Deeply community I’m a part of now.
The biggest impact my training has had on my clients is their awareness of the fact that they have agency over their own healing. It’s a huge relief for people to realize that they have tools to alleviate their own suffering.
When I applied to the Breathing Deeply Yoga Therapy Program, I was happily retired. I had no intention of completing the full 800-hour program, but I kept coming back because I loved it so much. The financial investment probably would have deterred me if I’d known the full extent at the beginning. – I just signed up for a weekend for a few hundred dollars and as the program grew, I couldn’t stop. I have since chosen to work exclusively one-on-one with clients, instead of teaching group classes.
I had studied in another yoga therapy program that focussed on the physical – I found the level of detail overwhelming. The Breathing Deeply program is different. I was drawn to Brandt’s Koshic approach, and his ability to organize therapy into the big picture.
I would encourage anyone considering the Breathing Deeply Yoga Therapy program to apply. This is the real deal. You’ll have tons of support in terms of accessible material, an accessible teacher, and a loving community.
One particular client success story I would like to share is the work I had done with a 73-year-old woman who had been active all her life and now was unable to walk very far without pain. She had pretty much accepted her doctor’s opinion that her shoulder and foot pain was inevitable with age. She came to yoga therapy to deal with high blood pressure that would spike with stress.
I figured out that the excruciating pain in her foot was from Morton’s Neuroma, nerve pain, that she alleviated by learning to spread her toes and wear more supportive shoes. It was an easy and life-changing fix. For shoulder pain and stress, she practiced changing her breath and movement patterns. Basically, by learning to breathe through her nose and spread her toes, she had a whole new lease on life.
Most of us western yoga teachers have a similar path that looks something like this: We realize we are suffering (from an illness, anxiety, watching family age poorly, etc.) We find yoga and it helps us We want to share this amazing helpful thing called yoga with others We see our local studio has a […]
Yoga therapy is a relatively new method of healing born out of an ancient tradition. Yoga has been around for over 1,000 years. The idea of using yoga in a therapeutic context has been credited to Tirumalai Krishnamacharya who died in 1981 at the age of 100. We can think of yoga therapy the same […]
Listen in as Brandt discusses how a Yoga Therapist might work with a client who has already been to physical therapy, as well as some of the different approaches between the two therapies.