Cool! Yoga is being used with refugees being settled in the US.: http://sonoranchronicle.com/2010/07/14/how-yoga-helps-refugees/
Very interesting… I have just found CT’s refugee agency site. Wonder if they’d be interested in a little relaxation for their clients…
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So there is a whole giggling thing that is common among the female staff here. One visiting medical student says that they do it when they get nervous – sometimes in front of parents whose kids are dying.
Last night, a doctor and a few nurses were giggling their butts off during class. It’s fine-ish during the postures. I laugh along to a certain extent. I want my classes to be joyful and sometimes the poses are funny. But, not going to lie to you, it bugs me during shavasana.
While having drinks with a PT from Austria, I vented a bit. She had been in the class and totally noticed, said it’s the norm. I don’t want to be annoyed by it. I can’t stand holier-than-thou yoga teachers that make you feel like you are in church. I expect a certain amount of disruption.
I think what gets me is that some people are relaxed, eyes closed, breathing and others are disturbing them, laughing away. In their defense, this is all new to them. I think more than anything it shows that I need to be more patient – as I was in Mae Sot when cell phones ringing, laughter and staff leaving the room were the rule not the exception.
My expectations are too high and my patience is too low. I’m tired. I’m learning alot (as I have been doing every day for 11 months) but pushing myself to do it.
Today’s lecture on stress management through yoga to the staff doctors was great. About say 15 of the 25 docs in the room followed along as I showed them in-chair postures, breathing exercises. I lost a few during the guided visualization but most rebounded for the short progressive muscle relaxation.
I didn’t get too much feedback but the ‘thanks’ seemed sincere. A couple stayed after to ask about specific postures for pain.
It was a great experience. I learned alot about what I am doing and what I would like to do, while preparing for it.
And there was very little giggling.
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Just a little shout out to the Peace Café. It was a great place for kids…swings, toys, sandpit. Now it’s a great place for me.
I’m taking Yoga 3 mornings and Pilates 2 mornings a week while I am here. I am really enjoying both. The Yoga teacher is very nice, from the Netherlands and teaches Hatha/Ashtanga style. Its the perfect style for me and a huge, welcome departure from Iyengar.
I’ve got the time, too much time, so I am putting it toward learning from other teachers, getting stronger and hopefully a bit more centered.
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I am volunteering at Angkor Children’s Hospital in Siem Reap. The hospital, which provides free treatment for Khmer kids, has excellent facilities, especially compared to the Mae Tao Clinic. New buildings, ventilators, a proper OR, etc… The hospital is even equipped for heart surgeries, which are done by visiting teams from the West or Japan.
Like at Mae Tao, families come from far away and many stay on mats in the waiting area for days. There is a kitchen area for families to cook their food – and placards posted throughout the hospital that diagram a nutritious diet. Malnutrition is a big problem. The other day, I saw a little girl in the Emergency area that looked like those starving kids in Africa. Skin and bones. So incredibly sad. The kids are brought in by desperate parents with a host of issues from TB complications to Dengue Fever shock to serious burns and many other life-threatening ailments.
For my part, I teach one yoga class to kids with AIDs who are out-patients visiting the hospital for a follow-up. Yesterday’s class was about 20 kids and moms. All of them look substantially healthier than the children inside the hospital. They all stare at me wide-eyed and follow along very conscientiously. My impromptu translators, staffers who speak little English themselves, make the women laugh and I laugh along. It just feels really right to be sitting on the floor again, Asian faces staring at me with a mix of amusement and curiosity, sharing the moment. I’m not saving their kids or changing their worlds, but I am connecting to people who are scared, overwhelmed and exhausted by the hand that life has dealt them. It’s enough for me.
I am also teaching ‘Yoga for Stress Management’ to hospital staffers (nurses, doctors, aides). The hospital staff has to grapple with the stress of treating sick kids, working with desperate parents, and dealing with frequent, sometimes needless, death. The director of Medical Education wants to address this stress and yoga is a good fit. I am exposing the staff to postures, breathing, visualization and guided relaxation. Some will continue, others will not. But they are enjoying the benefits for the moment and hopefully will incorporate some techniques into their lives.
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Very cool. Yoga is used as mental health therapy at this children’s hospital, affiliated with the Univ Colorado Denver.
…yoga has proven to be an effective form of therapy in our modern world, which is why yoga therapy is an integral part of theCreative Arts Therapy Program at Children’s. A growing body of research supports yoga therapy as a means for decreasing anxiety, stress and depression, while increasing positive coping, self-induced feelings of relaxation, and powers of concentration and attention.
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Great article! So exciting to see how yoga can help this population.
…Sonia Sumar, a Chicago woman who offered certification in a yoga program for special-needs children. Sumar had developed the course during the early 1970s, after practicing yoga with her child, who has Down syndrome. Amazed at the difference yoga made in her daughter’s development, Sumar conducted research, started to teach other children with special needs and wrote the book, “Yoga for the Special Child.”
The concept made perfect sense to [Elissa] Karl [MSPT], a longtime yoga devotee. Soon after earning her certification last summer, she began working with Alexander Roeder [who has Down Syndrome].
“He had a lot of difficulties concentrating,” Karl says. “But in the past few months, he has been able to focus and finish sessions without getting lost, and he is able to follow instruction better. I am amazed at his increased attention span.”
The Benefits
In addition to teaching focus, concentration and relaxation techniques, yoga encourages physical activity through stretching and balancing. According to Sumar’s statistics, special-needs children who take yoga are able to sit up, crawl and walk months earlier than their non-yoga-practicing counterparts.
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Today I visited Siem Reap’s Rehabilitation Center. Here is their mission according to their website:
Our work in physical rehabilitation is well established, and although originally the centres provided prosthesis and orthosis to landmine and UXO survivors, there has been a gradual evolution of services to not only veterans but to all those who can benefit from a prosthesis, orthosis or mobility device…Now, less than half of our group of clients consists of people with amputations, instead a greater proportion of them are people with polio, cerebral palsy and club foot, 47% of clients being children.
I took a tour of the place with the operations manager and was impressed. The facility is a full service center for assessment, on-site custom prosthetic manufacture, in-patient accommodation (1-3 weeks), and mental health counselling. There was a special room for children to learn to use wheel chairs — made to order on site — and other walker-type equipment. Moms learn strengthening exercises to use with their babies at home.
I was hoping to volunteer there as a yoga instructor, adding to the daily exercises that they currently do. As we toured the facility I spoke of my work in Mae Sot and at Mae La. When he asked the specifics of the exercises, I jumped up (in a skirt) on an assessment table and showed him. I described the progressive relaxation and breathing techniques — and how they helped the Burmese patients. By the end he understood the benefits for mind and body. I had him.
But he didn’t manage to convince his boss. After about a 10 minute conference between the head guy and the ops manager, during which I inadvertantly made babies cry with my silly faces and chatted with a in-house physical therapist, he returned. The boss told me that he was sorry but “they already have one volunteer [a social worker] at the moment. It’s better not to have more than one.” He also implied that 5 months in Mae Sot wasn’t much experience. Hmmm…
Who knew it was so hard to volunteer? I was pretty lucky to get the gig in Mae Sot and the one here at Angkor Children’s Hospital as it turns out. I am not discouraged — there will be more opportunities later. And it was a great experience to see what is being done for Cambodia’s legion amputees.
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So my newest new plan is t0 enroll in a 2-week Thai massage course in Chaing Mai for the two weeks after my month at the Angor Children’s Hospital. My husband and kids are heading to Russia to see the grandparents there and I will remain in Thailand.
I am sooo excited to get two weeks alone to do this. I have wanted to learn about this amazing treatment since the first time I had Thai massage in 2005. Now, I’ll get the chance to learn things that will inform/expand/improve my yoga teaching. Exciting!
I have almost decided on ITM. It has a good reputation, seemingly well-organized and affordable. Also, I can take Levels I and II and later return for more if I choose to ultimately reach a professional level.
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My new friend/Guru and I were talking the other day and he told me to think about the term therapeutic yoga to describe what I am doing/hoping to do. This is right on.
I have been thinking of ‘yoga therapy’ since I was working with the Burmese refugees and had visited the International Assoc. of Yoga Therapists site a number of times:which lists schools that train yoga teachers (and others) in yoga therapy.
In fact while we were still on the Burma border, I found this program via the IAYT website. It is a yoga therapy program at the Anadana Seva Mission in Santa Rosa, CA that qualifies a yoga teacher for 500hr certification by the Yoga Alliance. I will need more experience but it seems like a great program.
I seem to have alot of interests…
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Yeah my first positive response in Cambodia! I was just asked to train staff at the Angor Children’s Hospital in yoga techniques for little patients!
I am also going to contact some of the organizations that were recommended by the hospital. Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center looks excellent. They are next on my list.
Here are some more Cambodian organizations that may take volunteers:
cwccpnp@cwcc.org.kh (Phnom Penh)
Other place for volunteer
http://independentvolunteer.org/index.php?n=ProjectsByCountry.Cambodia
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