Timothy Gordon - Mindful Yoga-Based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: Simple Postures and Practices to Help Clients Achieve Emotional Balance

As yoga and mindfulness practices take root in Western soil, theyre coming into conversation with the insights and techniques of contemporary psychology. This interaction is modifying both traditions in innumerable ways, and this book is helping to shape that conversation. In different ways, both modern psychology and ancient yoga seek to wake us up from the habits that block us from living lives that matter. This practical book helps us find our footing again.

Michael Stone , author of The Inner Tradition of Yoga

This book offers an enlightening perspective on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) using compassion and yoga principles. The exercises are both simple and empowering at the same time, allowing for a deep connection with clients experiences. This book is the essence of what it means to have an experiential practice.

Janina Scarlet, PhD , clinical psychologist at the Center for Stress and Anxiety Management, author of Superhero Therapy , and recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award for developing Superhero Therapy

Yoga plus ACThow can you possibly ask for a better combination to help you become more flexible as a person? Well, you could ask for such a book to be written by Timothy Gordon and Jessica Borushok. Superb! This book is better than Tantric sex!

D.J. Moran, PhD, BCBA-D , Pickslyde Consulting

This is a great book for mental health practitioners, yoga teachers, yoga therapists, and people who want to empower their health on all levels. The content is treated respectfully, and it offers guidelines and tips for people coming at it from various realms of practice. Highly accessible, organized, and at times humorous, the diversity of application and interest makes this a compelling read. There are so many practical, experience-based opportunities to apply the mindful yoga-based acceptance and commitment therapy (MYACT) protocol to improve ones own life, as well as the lives of clients/students!

Erin Byron, MA , registered psychotherapist, and author of Yoga for the Creative Soul

Whether you are a mental health care or yoga professional, Mindful Yoga-Based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is a unique, balanced blend of wisdom and valuable tools, for and from, both these fields. A great asset as a practical guide in professional trainings or continued education programs, while remaining equally accessible as a step-by-step guide for ones own personal use.

Helene Couvrette, C-IAYT, E-RYT500, president of MISTY - Montreal International Symposium on Therapeutic Yoga; and founder H~OM Yoga Health Center

Going way beyond a mere illness model, the authors bring the reader into intimate contact with the science of liberation at the heart of yoga, dharma, and ACT. This is a book for everybody and every body!

Dennis Tirch , founder of The Center for Compassion Focused Therapy, associate clinical professor at Mount Sinai, and coauthor of The ACT Practitioners Guide to the Science of Compassion

This book is immediately accessible and practical for blending yoga and ACT. Doing the work as outlined will bring the reader into a deeply felt understanding of ACT. Its such a brilliant move to blend yoga and ACT, youll wonder why you didnt think of it. Its also a reader-friendly exploration of the common roots of contextual behavioral science and yoga philosophy and practice.

Joanne Steinwachs, LCSW , licensed clinical social worker in private practice, and peer-reviewed ACT trainer

This book is a brilliant contribution not only to the contextual behavioral science literature, but also to the acknowledgement that there are other forms, besides language, to address human struggles. The authors did an incredible job integrating ACT, yoga practices, and a rounded approach to general well-being into a very creative, unique, and step-by-step process. This is certainly a timely book when we have failed to acknowledge the role of our body in our general well-being, and within the field of empirically supported treatments. This book will help all clinicians to expand a repertoire of interventions when working with all clients. A highly recommended book, whether you practice yoga or not!

Patricia E. Zurita Ona, PsyD , coauthor of Mind and Emotions , and author of Parenting a Troubled Teen and Escaping the Emotional Rollercoaster

Publishers Note

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

In consideration of evolving American English usage standards, and reflecting a commitment to equity for all genders, they, them, and other similar pronouns are used to denote singular persons.

Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books

Copyright 2019 by Timothy Gordon, Jessica Borushok, and Steve Ferrell

Context Press

An imprint of New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

5674 Shattuck Avenue

Oakland, CA 94609

www.newharbinger.com

Cover design by Amy Shoup

Interior design by Michele Waters-Kermes

Acquired by Elizabeth Hollis-Hansen

Edited by James Lainsbury

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file

For Michael Stone: Yours is a light that will never go out.

TG, JB, SF

Contents

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Introduction

Yoga is an ancient practice more than three thousand years old, and recently it has been the subject of significant empirical research, with good findings, especially for people who suffer from anxiety, stress, chronic pain, or depression. Even people suffering from severe mental health problems, such as schizophrenia, can benefit from this practice. However, health care professionals have been slow to adopt yogic practices, while yoga teachers who want to use yoga to help mental health populations are uncertain of which yogic practices and processes actually work. Adding to the confusion, the yoga community comprises a large range of styles, practices, and even spiritual or theoretical ideas, which makes learning the best practices challenging, to say the least. As a result, there is an understandable distance between the everyday evidence-based best practices of clinical health care professionals and yoga practitioners.

While there is a plethora of empirical support suggesting yoga can benefit mental health issues, researchers have placed little focus on understanding the specific yoga processes and practices that work. For example, research studies rarely distinguish what type of yoga is being looked at or which specific breathing techniques, mindfulness directions, or asanas (structural poses) account for any benefits, let alone do they incorporate mediational analysis to isolate the effective components of yoga. This has led to a cacophony of theories, opinions, and anecdotes about yoga with little grounding in science. And, frankly, this approach is dangerous. Health care professionals and yoga practitioners (us included) have been so excited by the evidence that we forgot to slow down and understand why or what works before rolling out claims that yoga can help those who suffer.

This is where this bookand, more specifically, mindful yoga-based acceptance and commitment therapy/training (or MYACT)comes in. In it, we will introduce you to the practices of yoga, acceptance and commitment therapy/training (ACT), and the whole health approach to the mind-body connection. Youll learn how to harness yogas rich wisdom tradition and practices through the lens of modern scientific advances for alleviating suffering. From the perspective that the body and the mind are linked, and that healing psychological suffering requires treating the whole person, MYACT helps therapists and yoga instructors guide clients toward emotional balance and wellness at all levelsphysical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual. It does this by melding philosophy with science, and by isolating only the practices that are backed by science, to effectively help those who struggle with painful experiences create a meaningful life.