Amy Weintraub - Yoga Skills for Therapists: Effective Practices for Mood Management

Imagine immersing yourself in the wisdom of body-centered awareness from thousands of years of practice under the compassionate and skilled guidance of an experienced and illuminating practitioner. Yoga Skills for Therapists is Amy Weintraubs gift of fresh air that weaves detailed instructions for personal and clinical applications with what modern research is now demonstrating to be effective clinical interventions for anxiety, depression, and trauma. Even your own mental and physical health will be greatly enhanced with the accessible steps illustrated in this fabulous contribution to our human journey toward well-being!

Daniel J. Siegel, MD, Executive Director, Mindsight Institute;
Clinical Professor, UCLA School of Medicine; author, The Mindful Brain,
The Mindful Therapist, and Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology

Amy Weintraub represents the new masters of yoga... who will carry the art and science into the new millennium. She is one of the forerunners of integrating yoga and therapeutic modalities, and I highly commend her for courageously pioneering this field where others will follow.

Rama Jyoti Vernon, co-founder, Yoga Journal; founder, Unity in Yoga

A psychotherapist might spend many years studying yoga and still not achieve anything near this elegant, practical, powerful integration.

Donna Eden & David Feinstein, PhD, co-authors,
Energy Medicine and The Promise of Energy Psychology

Weintraub, a leader in the field of yoga therapy, offers evidence-based, easy-to-introduce strategies for managing anxiety, improving mood, and relieving suffering... making it easy to apply the wisdom of yoga effectively in the therapeutic context.

Kelly McGonigal, PhD, author, Yoga for Pain Relief,
editor-in-chief, International Journal of Yoga Therapy

I offer gratitude for Amy Weintraubs book, which provides those of us in the helping professions with a rich medley of well-designed interventions that enable us to integrate the powerful and now research-proven healing modalities of yoga into our daily interactions with clients.

Richard Miller, PhD, author, Yoga Nidra: The Meditative Heart
of Yoga; president, Integrative Restoration Institute

While this book is written for psychotherapists, I highly recommend it to yoga teachers and practitioners looking to understand the mood-management power of yogas deeper practices.

Danna Faulds, author, Into the Heart of Yoga and Go In and In

Yoga Skills for Therapists will become a timeless guide for therapists at all levels of experience.

Richard P. Brown, MD, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychiatry,
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; co-author,
Non-Drug Treatments for ADHD and The Healing Power of the Breath

... a concise, easy-to-read book that helps healers center themselves and, by doing so, expand the circle of healing to encompass others.

Shirley Telles, MBBS, PhD, Director of Research, Patanjali Research
Foundation, Haridwar, India; head, Indian Council of Medical Research
Center for Advanced Research in Yoga & Neurophysiology

... an indispensable contribution to the emerging field of integrative mental health. This exceptionally clear and comprehensive discussion of time-honored and effective bodymind interventions should be required reading for all psychotherapists.

Rubin Naiman, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine,
University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine; author,
Healing Nights: The Science and Spirit of Sleeping, Dreaming & Awakening

... well-written and well-researched... simple, easy-to-apply but powerful breathing, meditation, and hand gesture techniques that do not require a mat or body postures. Therapists can easily incorporate these techniques into their practices without otherwise having to change what they do, and clients can use them on their own. Thank you, Amy, for giving us access to this ancient healing wisdom.

Richard C. Schwartz, PhD, developer, Internal Family Systems
Therapy; author, Introduction to the Internal Family Systems Model

Yoga Skills for Therapists brilliantly opens a door to the physical and spiritual layers of a clientone that therapists and counselors have been waiting to walk through... From a place of genuine respect, integrity, and intention, Amy offers easily applied foundational yogic practices to enrich the therapeutic experience for both client and practitioner.

Elissa Cobb, MA, Director of Programs,
Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy; author, The Forgotten Body

This unique contribution to the integration of yoga, psychotherapy, and neuroscience provides an extensive set of practices for healing stress, anxiety, depression, and trauma... Amy deftly combines breathing, gestures, sounds, imagery, and meditation to address specific therapy issues such as mood, attachment, self esteem, and compassion. It is a pleasure to learn from master teacher, Amy Weintraub.

Patricia Gerbarg, MD, Assistant Professor in
Clinical Psychiatry, New York Medical College;
co-author, How to Use Herbs, Nutrients, & Yoga in Mental Health

Amy Weintraub is a leader, innovator, and an excellent teacher and writer. In her new book she brings therapists yogic tools to help emotional and physical healing and well-being.

Richard Fields, PhD,
Owner/Director, FACES Conferences

Yoga Skills
FOR Therapists

A Norton Professional Book

Copyright 2012 by Amy Weintraub

All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First Edition

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110

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Manufacturing by Quad Graphics, Fairfield
Book design by Carole Desnoes
Production manager: Leeann Graham

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Weintraub, Amy.
Yoga skills for therapists : effective Practices for mood management / Amy Weintraub.1st ed.
p. cm.
A Norton professional book.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-393-70717-5 (pbk.)
1. YogaTherapeutic use. I. Title.
RC489.M43W44 2012
616.89'165dc23 2011038056
ISBN: 978-0-393-70717-5 (pbk.)

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110
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W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London W1T 3QT

This book is dedicated to psychotherapists, yoga teachers,
and LifeForce Yoga practitioners everywhere, for all the ways
you empower and support transformation in the world.

It is my hope that this book might be a manifestation of the knowledge and compassion of all my teachers and students, and that as its writer, I have been a channel for their wisdom and understanding. After the more than 40 years that I have been meditating and the more than 20 years that I have been teaching yoga, I have many dedicated yoga practitioners, teachers, researchers, and therapists to thank. The philosophical foundation of my practice, my teaching, and this book are rooted in the wisdom of the two sages by whom, with grateful pranams, I have been inspired to write this book: Patanjali (2nd c. B.C.E.) and Shankaracharya (9th c. C.E.). I offer my thanks to the dedicated teachers in the Kripalu Yoga lineage, Richard Miller, PhD (iRest), Richard Schwartz, PhD (Internal Family Systems), and to the memory of Nitya Chaitanya Yatri (Advaita Vedanta).