Educating rehab professionals and helping them to think with new perspective is an important aspect of Professional Yoga Therapy Institute’s mission. Presenting an inservice at UNC Rex Hospital’s outpatient clinic is a grand opportunity to expose many rehab professionals to the MTY model and to open discussion regarding how yoga and healthcare blend well. Main points of the presentation include making a shift from being the provider or fixer of physical problems to being a therapeutic presence and creating a therapeutic relationship as a precursor to using MTY with patients/clients. Other objectives to be covered include understanding pain neuroscience and how to educate clients on pain, especially neuropathic or chronic pain. Furthermore, the topic of stress (HPA axis), including trauma- based influences as a foundation of most chronic pain and the importance of finding safety in the body. Bodily safety lends well to an introduction to the polyvagal theory and the importance of learning from pain/stress. In addition, ways of influencing a sense of safety include light therapy, sleep hygiene, mindfulness, and breathwork. At this point, an introduction to Medical Therapeutic Yoga will be given which incorporates all of the above with a functional movement assessment, similar to the FMA. MTY will be explained further to include a progression of postures and lifestyle coaching while in a safe, therapeutic environment. PYT precepts will be presented for a fuller understanding of foundational principles. Lastly brief information on my studio and other resources in the community and online will be given.

Presenting the inservice at Rex outpatient rehab was a great way for me to stretch myself while educating others on medical therapeutic yoga and PTYI. Less than half of the group (roughly 20 therapists) knew of PYTI at the time. The presentation was done in the spring of 2017. Of course, I still had a lot to learn as well, but I gave them what I could assimilate at the time. This includes themes of therapeutic relationship vs. fixing patients, creating a safe therapeutic environment, calming the body through breathwork and working into TATD, utilizing polyvagal theory in practice. I also touched upon pain neuroscience and how stress/trauma create an environment for chronic pain to set into the body/brain. I helped them understand that MTY brings in aspects of all of the above with a perspective of addressing the whole person and includes an assessment similar to the FMA for yoga practice. I also talked through the precepts of PYTI.