RESTORATIVE IMMERSION

Thursdays in January, February, March (2-4pm EST)
Price: $400 full program ($35 per session)
Early Bird Price: $300 thru 12/23

All hours bankable toward your Katonah Yoga® Certification.

The technique of restorative yoga is to embody formal forms (asanas) whose geometry over time allows for a therapeutic experience. Restoring anything implies that one is rehabilitating back to an original state of being or function.

The virtue of a restorative practice is found within time spent inside oneself, developing the finesse of being in the moment. The repertoire of restorative poses in the Katonah Yoga practice is conceived to manipulate our container so that it becomes more agile and durable, demanding that we organize it formally rather than habitually, which helps to set up the conditions to redirect a life. 

Join us this winter to explore the richness and deeply therapeutic nature of the Katonah restorative practice. Come either to have a restorative experience or to learn how to give someone else one.

** Please have the following props available for each session: blocks, blankets, sandbags, straps and a chair. **

RESTORATION IS REFORMATION NOT RELAXATION (Thursday January 5th)
with Abbie Galvin

Restoration is the work of returning something to its former state and relaxation is the state of freedom from tension or anxiety. Our goal is reformation; the act of improving or making changes for the better. Here we will introduce how the purpose of restorative yoga within the Katonah practice is the effort to forge a new frame of reference, via our structure, both physically and neurologically.

RESTORATIVE CHAIR SET UPS (Thursday January 12th)
with Ty Watson

When we bend over a chair we are released from holding poses with personal effort and habits. The structure of a chair supplants the strain of holding a posture with muscle, which shackles us to our compensatory skills. In this session we will explore the many restorative chair set ups that can support the stability of our structure, creating more space inside, giving rise to insight and repair.

RESTORATIVE BLOCK SET UPS (Thursday January 19th)
with Kyle Henry

We use props as boundaries for the flow of energy to move through the poses and as scaffolding to inform personal structure. In this way, personal effort is relinquished by dint of informed geometry. In this session we will explore the many restorative block set ups that foster better function for more deeply internal insights and a restful but keen mind, rather than a deserted one.

THE BODY AS A CONTAINER (Wednesday January 26th)
with Chase Connolly

Metaphorically, as we consider the body a container, when we change the container, what’s contained inside inevitably alters. In this session we will explore somatic embodiment, working with the brain and nervous system to relax into discomfort and feel into the structure of the poses to allow for the neurological pathways to reorient for more fluent application of the structure and folds.

GROUNDING PRACTICE (Thursday February 2nd)
with Abbie Galvin

A grounding practice establishes one’s bottom floor (pelvis) as the ground of one’s being. In this session we will move through a slow and low practice in the service of descending roots for the depth work in order to rise, ripen and ascend to emotional, spiritual and intellectual heights of maturation. We are rooted on this planet and as we grow we rise up on it, a grounding practice is like tilling our soil for the self to grow.

FLUENCY PRACTICE (Thursday February 9th)
with Ty Watson

Not all restorative practices are meant to be calming, some are designed to whip us up, generate heat and promote dexterity when we feel sluggish or stiff, making us more yielding in the body and alert in the mind. In this session we will move through a fluency practice in order to send a charge of energy flowing through our form, opening up potential and demanding pliancy from an uncompromising nature or a feeling of inertia.

ADVANCED SET UPS (Thursday February 16th)
with Abbie Galvin

A restorative practice is a bid to be with oneself, to attune to the creaking of a settling body like that of a settling house, to enter it, renovate it, restructure it, refit it, all in order for it to function better. In this session we will explore some of the advanced restorative set ups that offer huge therapeutic benefits, such as reverse namaste paired with arm vinyasa and shoulder stands, which is often referred to as the queen of yoga poses, for its myriad health benefits.

HOW TO END A RESTORATIVE CLASS (Thursday February 23rd)
with Cari Friedman

Ending a restorative class in a fish, a frog or a plow allows us to go deeper inside ourselves. When we fold ourselves into a vessel where the mind, the imagination and the breath can burrow, we enter a more transcendent state, beyond mere relaxation, where we can access our third nature. Rather than ending class reclining on our backs in a corpse pose, this instead offers us true rehabilitation, where we are held in containment, using the oceanic sound of our breath to soothe and recharge our kidneys, calm down our nervous system and lower our heart rate for a sincerely restorative experience.

MAGIC SQUARE, THE WRAPS + CROSS REFERENCING (Thursday March 2nd)
with Ty Watson

While the body, on the outside, may appear at rest in a restorative pose, one’s imagination is busy traversing its interior. If we can be more present with ourselves on the inside, life on the outside is enriched. And the more our outside lives are nourished, the more our interior is sated. Here we will explore various techniques to engage the imagination while the body is at rest in a restorative set up.

SOUND FOR RESTORATION (Thursday March 9th)
with Linsey Boisvert

Sound is a powerful tool that can be used to retune our bodies to higher vibrational frequencies and natural rhythms. When used in conjunction with restorative postures, sound can provide a “a way in” to our interior, enabling us to move deeper inside ourselves to traverse our inner landscapes. Sound can act to stimulate the alpha and theta brain waves associated with meditative states of stillness, helping to regulating our nervous system, immune system, hormones and sleep cycles.

PRANAYAMA IN THE POSES (Thursday March 16th)
with Chase Connolly

The use of the imagination is our best tool. Via the development of the imaginal space the practitioner can send the mind and the breath anywhere in the body, excavating areas of the corporeal previously untouched by consciousness. The ability to access the body more consciously situates the practitioner in their power. In this session we will explore the use of breath practices while set up in restorative postures in order to step into our role as the mediator of mind and breath.

TEACHING A THERAPEUTIC PRIVATE (Thursday March 23rd)
with Abbie Galvin

Teaching a private lesson is like entering someone else’s house in order to show them how to live in it more efficiently. As teachers, we must know how to wriggle in respectfully, ensuring the student feels safe, even though we are the guest and they are the host. In this session we will explore how to employ restorative postures and set ups within a therapeutic and dynamic private lesson.

HOW TO DEAL WITH INJURIES AND OTHER LIMITATIONS (Thursday March 30th)
with Abbie Galvin

Most injuries are the result of having set up unconscious patterns, both physically and emotionally, that are maladaptive. Injuries are opportunities in a wider exploration of restoration, homeostasis and longevity, to unearth that piece in each of us that is out of tune, disconnected, overworked or misaligned. Real and lasting change demands a new set of conditions, using formal techniques. In this session we will explore how to address injuries, pain, stiffness, aging and other limitations that may arise within a restorative practice.

Re-informing the body is never random, it is always technical!