Pain Care Yoga Retreat Filling Up

Salt Spring Island is beautiful in October. The trees are changing colour, the nights are cool and the days are warm. With such a beautiful venue as the Salt Spring Centre of Yoga – the sister centre to Mount Madonna in California – it’s no wonder the inaugural offering of Pain Care Yoga retreat is filling up fast.

Salt Spring Island is a small island east of Vancouver island in Canada. It is accessible by ferry from close to Victoria BC, or from just south of Vancouver, so people coming from afar typically fly into either of these airports. The trip is beautiful, with Orca pods often seen from the ferries. Once on the island, there are quaint villages, artisans, organics produce, and everything expected when surrounded by ocean. Cycling around the island is one of my favourite activities, especially early in the morning to catch the sunrise on pebbled beaches.

From October 11 to 14, yoga teachers, yoga therapists and health care professionals will be learning how to better integrate pain care and therapeutic yoga. So far, we have a great mix of practitioners, some staying in the centres rooms, some tenting, and some commuting on the island.

Each day will begin with a yoga practice, created to allow an experience of therapeutic yoga for people in pain. The yoga space is bright, with old hardwood floors and a wood-burning stove. It can be distracting to smell breakfast brewing just next door, but it is worth the wait, with the centre offering an organic yogic diet. After breakfast, the retreat turns to discussion of the morning practice, and then focuses on key yoga techniques to address the issues experienced by people with persistent pain. Participants will learn how to guide people to move and perform gentle yoga postures when faced with persistent pain, as well as learning which techniques are also helpful in the face of acute pain.

This retreat is one component of the Pain Care Yoga certificate process. More details of Pain Care and Advanced Pain Care Yoga certificates are available at www.lifeisnow.ca . There, under the retreats sections, you will find the registration process for the October 11-14 PCY retreat. Health care professionals, yoga teachers and yoga therapists are welcome. Optimally health care professionals will invite a yoga counterpart (and vice versa) from their community, thus improving the integration of pain care and therapeutic yoga.

[tags] Salt Spring Island, Salt Spring Centre of Yoga, retreat, pain care, therapeutic yoga, gentle postures, techniques, [/tags]