Renae Stevens - Yoga, Art Therapy and Aerial Yoga Therapeutics

03/08/20 • 52 min

The Flow Artists Podcast by Garden of Yoga

What is the first image that comes to mind when you think of aerial yoga? Is it a thin young woman, lithely moving about in an aerial hammock, maybe dangling upside down in some weird pretzel shape that barely resembles anything with the name yoga attached to it? Is it something more akin to a circus performance, with tricks and flips and a silk fabric digging into god knows where? To borrow a phrase from Morpheus of the matrix films, what if I were to tell you, that everything you know about aerial yoga is wrong? Well perhaps not wrong, but just not the full picture. This is why we were so excited to speak with Renae Stevens for this episode. Renae is a senior yoga teacher with Yoga Australia, a certified yoga therapist and holds her master's degree in art therapy. In our opinion, she is the foremost aerial yoga teacher in Australia. She helped bring aerial yoga to Australia way back in 2011, being a senior trainer for antigravity - the organisation founded by Christopher Harrison. This episode is sponsored by Yoga Australia: https://www.yogaaustralia.org.au/ https://www.instagram.com/yogaaustralia/ Links Aerial Yoga Workshop: Break Free from Your Chair: https://www.gardenofyoga.com.au/workshops/aerial-yoga-workshop/ Aerial Yoga Therapeutics Foundations Training: https://www.gardenofyoga.com.au/workshops/aerial-therapeutics/ Renae's website: https://www.creativebodyflow.com/aerial-therapeutics/ The opinions expressed in this podcast do not reflect the view and opinions of the sponsor.

Previous Episode

Making Adjustments - Are Hands-on Assists OK? Pt 2

In the second part of our two-part special on hands-on assists, we go a little bit deeper! We hear how a trauma-informed context may change our approach to assists from Mei Lai Swan, then Amy Wheeler tells us about transference and countertransference and what role they might play when teaching yoga. We learn how culture, race and gender can change perceptions around touch from Jesal Parikh, Gail Parker, Michelle Cassandra Johnson, Tim Seutter and Anu Fox. Finally, we hear some conclusions from Leigh Blashki, Matthew Remski and Dominique Salerno. While creating this episode we gathered over 4 hours of audio, which will be available on our Patreon page for free! For more details go to: https://www.patreon.com/flowartistspodcast Links Dominique Salerno: https://australianyogaacademy.com/ Leigh Blashki: https://www.yogaaustralia.org.au/yoga_user/leigh-blashki/ Matthew Remski: http://matthewremski.com/ Jesal Parikh: https://www.yogawallanyc.com/ Tim Seutter: https://yogafire.tv/ Michelle Cassandra Johnson: https://www.michellecjohnson.com/ Gail Parker: https://www.drgailparker.com/ Anu Fox: https://www.yogaaustralia.org.au/yoga_user/anu-fox/ Queer and Trans Yoga: https://www.facebook.com/queerandtransyoga/ You can hear part 1 at: https://podcast.flowartists.com/episodes/making-adjustments-pt-1/ Thanks to Danielle Lara Woolley for the cover photo: https://www.instagram.com/this.wild.soul/

Next Episode

Dr Gail Parker - Restorative Yoga for Race-based Trauma

In this episode we speak to Dr Gail Parker. Gail Parker is a psychologist and a certified yoga therapist. She is a nationally and internationally renowned media personality, educator, author, and thought leader. Dr. Parker is the author of the upcoming book Restorative Yoga for Ethnic and Race-Based Stress and Trauma, and current president of the Black Yoga Teachers Alliance (BYTA) Board of Directors. Her broad expertise in behavioural health and wellness includes forty years as a practising psychotherapist. We speak to her about how she weaves together knowledge from these different fields in her book, the parallels between her psychology practice and restorative yoga teaching, and how she appeared on the Oprah show seven times! Dr. Parker is a lifelong practitioner of yoga and is well known for her pioneering efforts to blend psychology, yoga, and meditation as effective self-care strategies that can enhance emotional balance, and contribute to the overall health and well-being of practitioners. This episode is sponsored by Yoga Australia: https://www.yogaaustralia.org.au/ https://www.instagram.com/yogaaustralia/ Links Gail's Website: https://www.drgailparker.com/ Gail's Book: https://www.drgailparker.com/book The opinions expressed in this podcast do not reflect the view and opinions of the sponsor.