Expired Movement, Gesture & Meditation: Playful Clinical Yoga Skills for Professionals who Work with Children (6 CEU’s)

BC Play Therapy Association holds workshops throughout the year to help advance the education of Play Therapy Practitioners and related professions. These usually revolve around a specialized speaker teaching a subject of importance to the advancement of play therapy as a therapeutic practice.

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 About our presenter

Joani Mortenson, MSW, RSW, E­RYT, RCYT, is an educator, therapist and yoga instructor in private practice in White Rock, BC. Joani is a Registered Social Worker with over 25 years of diverse experience in social care, and has a decade of teaching and research at the post­ secondary level. Joani is also an experienced yoga educator with specializations in settlement, restorative and children’s yoga. In the late 1990’s, Joani developed Child Wilderness Therapy and more recently, an Itty Bitty Forest Yoga Program to reflect her deep association with Nature as a therapeutic “third teacher” (Jung) and presence in her work. Her practice draws dialectically upon an intentional interweaving of early childhood education, nature and ecological theories, attachment and simplicity parenting precepts, Jung & mythology, Hakomi body ­based psychotherapy, narrative therapy, expressive arts, yoga philosophy, meditation and mindfulness based practices.

About the workshop

This workshop is informed by research and innovations in yoga, gesture, meditation, child development, early childhood education, and neuroscience. Playful therapeutic yoga skills will enhance play and expressive arts based therapy modalities because they are embodied, immersive and emergent. Therefore these skills can address a range of clinical mental health concerns such as self-­regulation, trauma processing and sensory integration. Presented in an experiential format, this workshop will allow professionals to actively experience some of the evidence ­based benefits of incorporating Yogic informed movement, gesture and meditation practices with children. The presenter will facilitate playful experiences drawing on a unique hybrid theoretical and methodological matrix, including use of song­, chants, moving meditation, puppet­ play, restorative postures, and therapeutic story­telling. These skills can be employed in a nature­-based, office, or classroom setting, making them invaluable for therapists, social workers, and teachers to help children to calm, centre and focus. Rich resources will be provided to support the assessment, incorporation and evaluation of these skills in practice.

Learning Objectives

• Embody and experience through personal practice the holistic value of yogic ­informed movement, gesture and meditation;
• Describe theoretical, philosophical and methodological underpinnings of “Clinical Yoga Skills for Children” (Handout included in educational package
• Identify physiological, neurological, psychological and spiritual benefits of “Clinical Yoga Skills for Children”;
• Provide rational for the inclusion of “Clinical Yoga Skills for Children” in practice (especially useful for professionals who work in agency and/or on teams);
• Use a variety of “Clinical Yoga Skills for Children” with ease and confidence immediately in practice;
• Develop a range of yogic practices to enhance self-­care as ethical practice

Who should attend

This workshop is open to professional who work with children.

Read more…Yoga and Children