Amy Weintraub on Yoga For Depression

MHA is  honored to share Amy Weintraub's response to our request asking if she would contribute to the Get On Your Mat For Mental Health blog. We are so honored to include her offering. If you are new to Amy Weintraub, scroll down to read more about her and her pioneering work and book, "Yoga For Depression".

The practice of yoga can help us stay connected with ourselves emotionally.  If we’re paying attention to our breathing and to sensation in the body as we practice, yoga becomes a portal into what we are truly feeling.  The practice allows us to witness what is arising in the body-mind, with less reactivity, so we are able to respond to life’s challenges without reacting to them.  

Yoga helps support overall emotional health.  First, there’s the cultivation of what the yogi’s call “witness consciousness.”  This sense of witnessing helps us realize that yes, we have emotions, but we are so much more than the current mood, so much more than the self-limiting beliefs we may have about ourselves or the world.  Yoga, including yogic breathing called pranayama, begins to clear the constrictions we may have around the every day challenges we face.  We feel more expansive and spacious within, and more connected to others without.  It’s not surprising that we have this subjective experience of reconnecting with ourselves and with others, because that’s exactly what’s happening bio-chemically.  Research has shown that we are lowering the stress hormone cortisol when we practice yoga, and we are raising GABA levels, a neurotransmitter that protects us from anxiety and depression.  We are also raising oxytocin levels, the ”bonding” hormone that allows us to feel more connected to others.  

Although there are specific poses that a beginner can do that can help us keep emotionally balanced and connected it’s hard to isolate poses out of the context of a breathing and centering practice.  I would recommend a class or an instructional DVD—some type of formal instruction for a beginner. But in general, a simple forward bend is calming.  Back-bending poses are more energizing.  A simple supported backbend, combined with deep yogic diaphragmatic breathing through the nostrils, extending the exhalation longer than the inhalation can both lift the mood and calm the central nervous system. 

In my own life, to stay balanced, wherever I am (and I travel quite a bit!) I practice every morning, usually at sunrise, and wherever I am, I try to be outside as the sun rises to practice some pranayama breathing and some standing, strengthening poses. Throughout the day, I may stop for a moment to shift the energy with a smile breath.  I begin by closing my eyes and breathing deeply into the bottom of the lungs.  Next, I drop my chin to my chest as I exhale. Then I lift the corners of my mouth, lift my head, inhale and open my eyes.   It’s a five-second lightening-up mood elevator. Smile breath creates a real paradigm shift in my mood.  Before I get out of bed, I start my morning with yoga nidra, which means Yogic sleep.  Yoga Nidra is a guided meditation that reminds me of who I truly am, beneath the current mood or the morning stiffness in my body.

Amy Weintraub, MFA, E-RYT 500, founding director of the LifeForce Yoga Healing Institute, the author of Yoga for Depression (Broadway Books, 2004) and Yoga Skills for Therapists: Effective Practices for Mood Management (W.W. Norton, 2012), has been a pioneer in the field of yoga and mental health for over twenty years.  She offers the LifeForce Yoga Practitioner Training for Depression and Anxiety to health and yoga professionals and offers workshops for every day practitioners. The LifeForce Yoga protocol is being used in residential treatment centers, hospitals and by health care providers around the world and is featured on the LifeForce Yoga® CD Series and the first DVD home Yoga practice series for mood management, the award-winning LifeForce Yoga® to Beat the Blues, Level 1 & Level 2. She is an invited speaker at conferences internationally and is involved in ongoing research on the effects of yoga on mood. She edits a bi-monthly newsletter that includes current research, news and media reviews on Yoga and mental health.

Amy leads workshops and professional trainings at academic and psychology conferences internationally at such venues as the Boston University Graduate School of Psychology, the University of Arizona Medical School, the Psychotherapy Networker Symposium, the Integrative Mental Health Conference, the Cape Cod Institute, Kripalu Center, Omega Institute, Sivananda Ashram, Yogaville, Esalen, Patanjali University in Haridwar, India and Yoga studios throughout the United States.

Amy’s recovery from depression began more than thirty years ago on her meditation cushion, but it wasn’t until she began a daily Hatha Yoga practice in 1988 after her first visit to Kripalu Center that her mood stabilized. In addition to her Hatha Yoga studies in the US and India, Amy has been trained in Advaita Vedanta Nondualism, iRest Yoga Nidra, psychology and Internal Family Systems Therapy. Richard Miller is her mentor.

Amy has won numerous literary prizes for her short fiction, including national prizes from Writer’s Digest Magazine, Explorations and Wind. Her novel-in-progress, and her film documentaries have received awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, San Francisco State University, and many other national competitions. She also edits books on spiritual psychology, including the much-praised Yoga and the Quest for the True Self by Stephen Cope (Bantam). She holds the Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing and Literature from the Bennington Writing Seminars, Bennington College and currently lives in Tucson.

How a Therapist Uses Yoga in Her Practice

I recall the day R visited my office, tucked away in the ground-floor level of the group home where he resided with several other boys, receiving intensive treatment for mental illness and trauma.  He arrived at my door, sullen, agitated and anxious after a day of difficult interactions with peers, staff, and teachers.  He had no intention to “talk” about his day, and he was not receptive to offers to utilize the therapy toys, stuffed animals, or sand tray that I kept on hand for non-verbal clients.  The only piece of information that he shared with me was that he was dreading the bed time routine as he has difficulty falling asleep.  Other than this, I was met with silence. 

I watched R sitting on the carpeted floor in my office, and decided to become creative.  I offered R some body positions that I hoped would help him find what he needs to induce sleep, and he began to imitate me as I moved through cat and cow, a bent-kneed, wide-legged, hanging rag-doll forward bend; tree pose; knees to chest; reclined supine twist; and finally ending with legs at the wall.  To my surprise, as we worked through the poses, he slowly engaged, began to giggle, and stated that he knows this is “yoga”, which he had learned during a previous psychiatric hospitalization.  He was eager to jump up and show off some other asanas he recalled. Out of the poses we practiced, he chose his favorite ones to practice in his room before bed time. 

I watched R leave my office seemingly calmer, his mood lighter, less anxious, and realized that the magic of yoga just added a powerful option into my bag of tried-and-true therapy tools.

By Wendy A. Terra, LCSW-R, a therapist in private practice in Westchester, NY.

The Experience of Yoga in the Body

By Betsy Kase, Owner/Director of Yoga Haven

Every yoga class at the studio begins with five to ten minutes of “centering”.  This time is for everyone in the room--including the teacher.  Most have rushed in to class from a very busy day.  All sorts of things have just happened (i.e: quick trip to the supermarket, dropped one of the kids off at school, last minute phone call, the traffic getting there was horrendous, and the Bronx River Parkway was closed and you are going to be late!).

The process of taking a seat and sitting quietly is a necessary step in the process of a yoga practice.  The teacher says, “Sit up tall, stretch your spine long, relax your belly and close your eyes.” She continues with something like, “Notice how the body feels right now, what is happening inside of you?”  As the student, I say to myself, “Why can’t I take a deep breath or why do my eyes keep fluttering? Why doesn’t my body respond quickly to the calmness within the yoga studio?”  As encouragement, the teacher continues, “Watch your body inhale and exhale without any effort.  Notice how the breath moves in the body.  Try not to pass judgment on yourself regarding what is happening right now.”  I think to myself, “How did she know I can’t take a deep breath. And I am the owner of this yoga studio?”  How CRAZY is this!

The teacher knows this because we all have these experiences.  She is going to lead us through this class encouraging us to keep focus throughout.   As we progress, the directions from the teacher become more interactive. We are instructed to take deep breaths into our body: “Consciously, take a deeper breath in and allow for the breath to move to all parts of your torso. As you exhale, consciously, allow the breath to leave, squeezing out the last bit of breath, by drawing your belly button back towards your spine.”   She continues with something like, “Allow the thoughts and events of the day to pass through you. Start the practice of coming to the present moment.”  In my head, the voice is saying “Don’t do that!  You have to keep thinking about what already happened today and how are you going to continue to obsess about it!”

The teacher here is the guide and her prompts and suggestions slowly quiet me a bit.  But now, I have to move.  Sitting is too hard, my body is getting achy and I am tired.  So the warm-ups begin.  Thank God!

As the class moves through the warm up, directions are given: When to breathe, when to monitor your body, etc.  My brain says something like, “Wow are you stiff!  When was the last time you did yoga?  Can’t you get to class more often?  After all these years, why does it still feel like we keep starting at the beginning again?”  I then say to myself, “This is a serious mind-trip!”  Gratefully, the teacher reminds me to breathe in and then out, and I allow myself to close my eyes and experience the sensation of the stretch.  Ok, now I am out of my crazy thoughts and into it. This is finally feeling good.

In yoga, the physical postures are called ASANAS.  Asanas are standing and balancing poses, backbend and forward bends, twists, hip-openers, and inversions. This part of every class lasts about 45 minutes.  Throughout the whole class the teacher continues to remind me where we are moving to, how to do it, what parts of my body to focus on….and don’t forget to breathe! During these 45 minutes, my mind probably goes on vacation 20-30 times.  I can’t even recall where I go, but the body moves and the mind has no idea how this is happening.  You know, it is like driving a car somewhere and you have no idea how you got there, but you did!  Between those “interludes”, there are times when I am focusing on my big toe, stretching my fingers, opening up the back of my knees, allowing my head to hang heavy along with 1000 other instructions that are said to keep me focused.  

Some days are easier. Some days are harder.  But, the longer I’ve practiced, I do find that there are increasingly stretches of time when I am able to sense my whole body, completely integrated and present. No pain, no stiffness, a great ability to breathe, a sense of ease, so much so, that I feel I might even be able to hold this pose forever.  A lightness comes and everything integrates…mind, body, breath.   Was that a little bit of full consciousness I might have been feeling?  Some may call it a connection with everything in the universe, or a total and complete awareness that brings every cell of your body into full alignment. Some even say they feel a palpable feeling of energy pulsing through the body. Who knows?  But I must say, I sense a fullness of experience reaching out to my fingers and toes and a slowing down of  thoughts moving through the mind. I am absolutely content.  There is a feeling that all is perfect.  Is this what my teachers from many moons ago spoke about?  I watched it on their faces as they practiced in front of me.  Teaching me not with their words, but with an intimate display of the essence of what practicing yoga is for them.  And that is…pure joy.

About Betsy:

Betsy Kase, Director/Owner of Yoga Haven has been practicing yoga since 1991. She began a consistent practice at Integral Yoga in New York City during a personally difficult time in her life. With encouragement from her teachers, she entered the yoga teacher training in 1995 with no real intention of teaching yoga! However, with her background in patient education in hemophilia, HIV/AIDS and reproductive technologies, teaching was second nature. Today, she is certified in Hatha Yoga and Prenatal Yoga. In 1995 Betsy moved to Westchester County where she began to teach full time in gyms and colleges, corporations and not-for profit organizations, as well as to private clients. While never intending to run her own business, Betsy always wanted to be involved with an organization that was based on holistic intentions and a sense of community.

In 1998, with the encouragement of her family and students she rented a small space in Tuckahoe, New York where she began holding yoga classes. Friends and family showed up to help renovate the space and over the opening weekend over 200 students attended; showing their support and encouragement for the first yoga center in their area. Over the last eleven years, Yoga Haven has grown to double its size. Yoga Haven offers over 50 classes per week, including multiple levels, prenatal and postnatal and restorative yoga, along with monthly workshops. Serving over 2000 students per month, Yoga Haven has over 22 teachers on staff and provides massage and acupuncture.  Betsy is thrilled with the community Yoga Haven provides, not only for the students and staff but, for herself as well. She has expanded her understanding of Yoga by studying a range of styles including Anusara, Ashtanga, Iyengar, Kripalu, Viniyoga and Jivamukti yoga leading to a teaching practice that combines flow, breath and alignment, with a sense of lightness and laughter. Her pleasure is directing and teaching Yoga Haven’s 200 hour teacher training yearly.