The Deal with Injuries
with Abbie Galvin

Sunday, September 10th (3:30-6:30pm)
Price: $65 advance / $75 day of

As teachers who teach public classes, we never know who will walk into our yoga room. Students come to classes for all sorts of reasons; some come for community, others for a workout or for their health and well-being, while others come because they have been injured. It is important as a teacher to navigate this tricky terrain, to understand how to work with a body as a container with a specific design, whose structure can readily break down, malfunction or collapse; but can also be supported, manipulated, renovated and reformed.

One of the counterintuitive aspects of teaching is that when a student presents their pain, the source of that pain isn't the sight of it. Pain is like an alarm going off which has to be interpreted. Something is amiss, disorganized, misdirected. Much like a puzzle piece that finally pops out of a jigsaw puzzle because it doesn’t fit, the way to secure it is to reframe the puzzle rather than shoving the piece back in. Just like everything else in yoga, the more we practice, teach, use our vision, adjust, assist, and explore, the more use we are as teachers to students who need support and physical mentoring. The immersion in and repetition of skills and techniques which develop our repertoire of therapeutic tools is what promotes a more sophisticated teaching practice.

In this workshop, we will explore how to address a students' pain, injury, fear and fragility; for at some juncture, all of us will trip, stumble and fall.  Addressing physical complaints, foibles, frustrations and injuries - both real and imagined - enables us to make someone safe. Our job isn’t to fix anyone, but to teach them good rituals in the service of better function, radiant health, and joy and in its wake feel better.

Yoga is not medical, it is magical.