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7962 ANSWERING THE CRY OF FRUSTRATION: SIMPLE YOGA FOR COMPASSION FATIGUE AND FOR THOSE ON SPECTRUM


Friday, July 10, 2015: 10:45 AM-12:00 PM
Room Number: 104 (Colorado Convention Center)
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Want to leave today with free, simple tools to manage compassion fatigue and help those on the Spectrum? Experience simple stretching and breathing for all sizes, ages and abilities. Learn how to share yoga with people on the Spectrum to strengthen affect regulation, balance, physical muscles and social interaction. Teaching Methods:

The session is a combination of a short lecture, experiential learning, and discussion. It is important to provide a science context so participants understand both why and how, based on neuroscience, yoga is an effective tool for managing stress and for affect regulation. Doing the simple stretching and breathing is a key to participant success in incorporating the ideas into their professional and personal lives. Participants experience other benefits of yoga: building strength, balance, and social connection. The discussion component allows participants to share ideas on how to use what they have just learned and provides social sufpport, a key part of why this session format has proven to be so successful.

Learning Objective #1:

Compassion fatigue is a natural result of working in helping professions and to those with family members on the Spectrum. Information on identifying, understanding, and addressing compassion fatigue will be presented.  Simple yoga helps to increase body awareness and to develop an awareness of signals given by the autonomic nervous system (core arousal systems) – signs of stress or anxiety, which then can be regulated through simple breathing and stretching exercises.

(program based on Francoise Matthieu’s Compassion Fatigue program (www.compassionfatigue.ca), and the GreenTREE Yoga’s “Simple Yoga for Compassion Fatigue (www.greentreeyoga.org).

Learning Objective #2

Multiple short yoga breaks are done throughout the session. Many free materials are provided: handouts, audio and video breaks both for adults and children, a 20-minute video explaining a simple game to engage children in doing the stress breaks at home or in school.

The many physical and social benefits of yoga to people on the spectrum are discussed:

  • body awareness
  • flexibility
  • stress management techniques
  • coordination and balance
  • social interaction
  • self-confidence
  • physical strength
  • incorporates deep pressure, repetition, relaxation, body awareness, visual cues, and visualization.

Parent comments about our program:

~  One son benefited from the motor planning, another greatly benefited from the breath.  

~  Continued improvement of core balance in a non-therapy setting

~  Following direction and imitating - huge for K. to follow direction and imitate with her body, she used to not even look at the person

~  Learning relaxation techniques, especially to use at home and school.

“GreenTREE Yoga continues to make awesome contributions to children with special needs directed to the unique needs of kids with disabilities with fostering their relaxation, coordination, mindfulness and well-being. Yael Calhoun uses her intuitive insights gained over thirty years of teaching.” ~ Louis Allen, MD, FAAP, Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics. Founder, AbleDifferently. abledifferently.com.

“Excellent job! Good to have a program designed for these children that may struggle in grade-level classrooms, yet may not fit in with more involved children! ~ Scott A. Anderson, AlignmentYoga.com YogAutism.org

Learning Objective #3

It is key to put yoga in a strong science context. The neuroscience of stress and the science of how yoga can help address these issues are foundational pieces for understanding how to help oneself and those with whom one works or lives. Accessible information is given on the newest findings in neuroscience.

Learning Objectives:

  • - Recognize the current neurobiology of stress and the science of how and why yoga affects the brain and body as a healing tool; and to identify available references/resources on yoga for self-care and for people on the spectrum
  • - Identify and assess issues of compassion fatigue by learning to more effectively decrease personal stress and improve the ability to self-regulate, so that the professional or family member can improve personal health and be more effective and emotionally available
  • - Explore short yoga breaks adapted for professionals and families to develop affect regulation skills, physical strength, focus, and balance

Content Area: Education

Presenter:

Yael Calhoun, M.A., M.S., E-RYT
Executive Director
GreenTREE Yoga

Yael Calhoun, M.A., M.S., E-RYT is an educator and author, with a strong background in using yoga as a tool to address trauma, special needs, anxiety and compassion fatigue. Yael is the co-founder and Executive Director of GreenTREE Yoga, a nonprofit. Yael has written training manuals and CDs/DVDs on these topics.