Our kids are anxious! How can we help? Use of Medical Therapeutic Yoga for Anxiety/Trauma in Youth

Course Description

Stress, Anxiety and Trauma are now common-place amongst our youth!  For pediatric therapists to truly help our kids we need to acknowledge and address the long-term effects of stress on their physical and mental well-being.  Medical Therapeutic Yoga offers an ideal approach to intervention – with excellent potential for short term and long-term benefits.  We are treating the physical body, as well as impacting self-regulation and mental health.  We can help our kids to tune in to their sensory selves (including interoception), as well as developing strategies for health enhancing self-regulation strategies.

In this course we will explore the definitions and effects of stress, anxiety and trauma.  We will explore the range of realities that lead our patients to experience stress, anxiety and trauma – and how this can affect a child’s development and participation. We will then explore the use of Yoga as a therapeutic strategy to deal with the physical, psychological, emotional needs of youth under stress.  A range of strategies will be explored – to meet the varied needs of children of different ages, with different learning styles, and facing different personal life-experiences.

The course will also delve into specific diagnoses that may exist in our therapy practices, and how yoga can be included in our treatment of these patients. The course will include some personal practice – to experience the affects felt within our own bodies/minds.

Course Objectives

At the end of this course, the participant will be able to:

• Identify definitions of stress, anxiety and trauma.
• Describe at least 2 ways that stress/anxiety/trauma affect the physical body.
• Explain the Polyvagal Theory
• Describe how chronic experiences of stress in childhood affect the developing nervous system – with long-term consequences including how an individual responds to perceived stress.
• Explain the mechanics of efficient/therapeutic breathwork.
• Identify 3 strategies to incorporate into a yoga practice to add therapeutic value for a youth experiencing stress/anxiety/trauma.
• Identify 3 yoga poses that help with calming/centering.
• Identify 3 yoga poses that help with energizing, and opening to joy.

• Prerequisites

  None

• Educational Level

  Basic

• Other

  Satisfactory completion of this course will require the participant to complete a 10 question post-test with a minimum passing score of 70%.