Somatic Practice in Yoga Therapy - by Jaime Stover Schmitt (Paperback)

About the Book

"This book shares a host of somatic practices that can readily be used in teaching, therapy, yoga practice and other avenues of personal exploration at the physical, energetic, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels"--

Book Synopsis

One value of yoga therapy is its ability to bring us to our senses-figuratively and literally. Inner body sensing and the knowing it evokes is a large part of how we become aware of what we need to attend to and work on in our growth as individuals. In Spanda (R) Yoga Movement Therapy-the yoga therapy method from which this work arises-embodiment practices are as vital to the process of self-understanding as they are to understanding anatomy, anatomical concepts, and physiological processes. This book shares a host of somatic practices that can readily be used in teaching, therapy, yoga practice and other avenues of personal exploration at the physical, energetic, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels. A wealth of illustrated step-by-step directions are given for somatic practice at each koshic level. The practices shared have been in use in clinical yoga therapy, in workshops and in classes for the past thirty years. They've resulted in greater knowledge, insight, and awareness of the body and the wisdom it can reveal.

Review Quotes

If you practice yoga in any form, especially if you share it as a healing modality, Somatic Practice in Yoga Therapy will be an indispensable resource for work with self and others on the journey. Dr. Schmitt is masterful at integrating multiple streams of wisdom into practical tools; such a gift!--Carrie Demers MD, Medical Director PureRejuv Wellness Center, Himalayan Institute

In Somatic Practice in Yoga Therapy: Explorations of Body, Movement, Mind, and Self, Jaime has synthesized for you her decades of practice and teaching of yoga therapy with her equal depth of study in major somatic approaches to healing. If you are interested in attaining more ease, knowledge, skill, and insight in your yoga practice and in guiding others with dynamic clarity, this is the book you have been searching for. It exists!--Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Developer of Body-Mind Centering(R)

Novel and innovative, Dr. Stover Schmitt has written an elegant experiential manual for those that want to feel closer to themselves somatically, utilize the body to move into deeper states of being, and encounter their own consciousness with the full force of their embodied life. A learning resource essential for students and teachers of Yoga Therapy and other somatic practices that will be a significant aid in the work of healing the health crises of the modern world.--Molly McManus C-IAYT, IAYT Board President and Director of Yoga North International SomaYoga Institute

Steeped in history and philosophy that makes the multiplicity of yogic journeys available to anyone interested, Somatic Practice in Yoga Therapy unfolds as a creative journey into awareness. It has a delicious focus on deepening your bodily awareness, becoming more effective as a mover, diving into your own personal growth, and finding rich spiritual pathways to unity.--Dr. Martha Eddy, Co-Author of Dynamic Embodiment of the Sun Salutation, Director of Dynamic Embodiment Somatic Movement Therapy Training

About the Author

As the founding director of Spanda (R) Yoga Movement Therapy's accredited yoga therapist and teacher trainings, Jaime Stover Schmitt EdD, CMA, SME, IDME, E-RYT500, C-IAYT is devoted to the education and mentoring of yoga therapists and teachers in somatic practice. She believes safe embodiment to be the ground for insight and positive change.

Dr. Schmitt holds certifications in a variety of hands-on and somatic practices. She began the practice of yoga at age five accompanying her mother to class-this well-suited her introspective nature. Discovering dance to be "traveling yoga poses" she earned her doctorate in Dance at Temple University in Philadelphia-a hotbed of somatic investigation at that time. This confluence inspired her to develop her own approach to the therapeutic use of yoga, movement, and hands-on technique. Throughout her thirty years of private practice, she refined her perspective recognizing Rudolph Ballentine, M.D., Joan Shivarpita Harrigan, Psy.D., H.H. Sri Swami Rama, and H.H. Sri Swami Chandrasekharanand Saraswati, along with Aileen Crow and Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen as her mentors in this endeavor.

Dr. Schmitt serves on the International Association of Yoga Therapists Accreditation Committee having also been a past board of director member of Yoga Alliance. A contributor to Yoga Journal, Yoga International, and A Moving Journal, she is the past editor-in-chief of The Journal of Authentic Movement and Somatic Inquiry. She's also written Yoga for Pregnancy (HI Press), Yogini's Kitchen: A Recipe Book of Healthy Vegetarian Cuisine, and Every Woman's Yoga (Prima/Random House), which has been translated into several languages.