Recovery from anxiety and depression presents a formidable challenge for both clients and clinicians. Yoga and mindfulness facilitate clients’ movement through recovery and beyond - rewiring the brain to experience greater happiness. These tools encourage therapeutic presence and self-compassion, allowing for greater intimacy in the client/therapist relationship. Yoga and mindfulness provides clients with new experiences for the mind and the body. Cumulatively, these experiences create an alternative view and new neural pathways supporting clients in responding to distressing experiences rather than reacting to them. Experienced practitioners and those new to yoga and meditation will benefit from this workshop. Join Debra Alvis, licensed psychologist and therapeutic yoga educator, for this informative seminar recording and explore empirically supported approaches of yoga and mindfulness through lectures, small group work and gentle postures. You will learn brief, easily implemented, clinical interventions for regulating emotions, improving mood and cultivating positive thinking. In addition, you will review scientific evidence supporting these approaches in clear language designed to encourage and motivate clients. Learn why these practices are effective and how they work to treat anxiety and depression. Debra has over 20 years experience as a psychotherapist and has been a meditator and yoga practitioner for 25 years. She is a seasoned and engaging presenter. Through daily yoga and mindfulness, she lives what she teaches, crediting these practices with transformative personal growth and an ever deepening capacity for equanimity and compassion. Debra has served as
a clinical consultant for a research team investigating mindfulness and has trained hundreds of mental health professionals in the practices of yoga, mindfulness, and self-compassion. You will end this seminar recording with new, effective tools to improve clinical outcomes and to support
therapist renewal. OBJECTIVES
Describe how yoga and mindfulness support recovery from anxiety and depression
Apply compassion and nonviolence as clinical interventions
Demonstrate breathing practices to quiet the mind and impact mood
Implement interventions to encourage new neural pathways
Understand related scientific support OUTLINE Integrating Empirically Based Practices: Yoga and Mindfulness
Core elements of yoga and mindfulness
Effects on health and stress
Neuroscience – how contemplative practices rewire the brain
Day to day, moment to moment practice
Yoga and mindfulness as clinical interventions Yoga and Mindfulness: Clinical Interventions for the Mind and the Emotions
Compassion for self and others
Non-violence – recognizing and changing negative self-talk
Increasing positive emotions, decreasing negative impact of unpleasant emotions
Tools for working with intense emotions
Letting go of false identities; strengthening the ‘true self’
Mindful decision making through values clarification
Strategies for relapse prevention
Poetry as bibliotherapy - deepening understanding, building self-compassion Yoga: Clinical Interventions for the Physical Body
Gentle yoga sequences for anxiety and depression
Mantras for addressing anxiety and depression
Breathing practices to support a good mood
Breath and emotional regulation
Deep relaxation to decrease insomnia and anxiety
Cultivating the capacity to witness and concentrate – clinical applications Clinical Skills, Therapist Renewal
Yoga and mindfulness as self-care practices for clinicians
Practitioner strategies for deepening and maintaining non-judgmental presence
Language for seamless integration of strategies into health care sessions ABOUT DEBRA PREMASHAKTI ALVIS, Ph.D., RYT Debra Premashakti Alvis, Ph.D., RYT is a licensed psychologist and therapeutic yoga educator practicing in Athens, Georgia. She developed and currently leads the Mind Body Program at the University of Georgia. For many years, Debra trained psychotherapists with a focus on the integration of contemplative practice and has served as a clinical consultant on a research team investigating mindfulness. As a leader in the integration of yoga, mindfulness and psychotherapy, she has created a clinician’s training program in mindfulness. She also conducts a private practice of psychology providing counseling to individuals, couples and families and offers seminars in the United States and internationally. Debra has been engaged in contemplative practices for over 25 years studying yoga and mindfulness. She has worked extensively with the senior teachers of Integral Yoga earning over 500 hours of yogic studies and certification in numerous teacher training programs. Debra has also completed professional Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction training through the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Her wealth of clinical knowledge, research experience, and her deep understanding of yoga and mindfulness
transform into effective, easily applicable skills for mental health professionals. You will end this seminar recording feeling renewed and with powerful tools for helping clients. | 
