Wise Place Yoga

Introduction: Yoga is a pleasant and powerful way to help girls to develop a life-long, positive partnership with their bodies. Katie’s yoga classes boost confidence and promote positive body image through movement. These classes help girls ages 8-18 build strength, flexibility, and stability through yoga poses while learning breathing and medication techniques that can help reduce anxiety and stress. Katie incorporates creative activities from the Healthy Transitions for Girls® Curriculum into each yoga class. Girls learn skills to help them to: -Reframe negative belief systems and creates positive belief systems. -Strengthen relationships with parents -Use appropriate boundaries in peer relationships -Understand and manage emotions -Develop healthy femininity -Increase self-esteem -Learn coping skills -Build communication skills -Desire healthy eating, exercise, and other self-care practices -Use strategies for resisting harmful media messages Develop values such as empathy, respect, self-control, sexual abstinence, modesty, and spirituality Katie’s warmth and understanding of girls creates an atmosphere of safety and growth. She is a certified yoga instructor and has in-depth training in sports massage therapy and alternative health. Like you, I see an epidemic of adolescent girls, happy and vivacious in in primary grades, suffering with eating disorders, depression, anxiety, unhealthy dating relationships, risky sexual behaviors, “girl drama,” and bullying A recent study published in Translational Psychiatry reported that more than 36% of teenage girls in America are depressed or have suffered a recent major depressive episode (as comparted to 13% in boys). Helping girls develop a positive relationship with their bodies is one of the most powerful antidotes to the problems girls face today. My specialty is helping girls develop a healthy connection with their bodies through yoga and mindfulness. Girls develop resilience when they are taught these skills during the critical window of ages 8 to 14 when their bodies experience the changes of puberty. I have found that if girls do not feel safe in their bodies, they are unable to process their everyday day emotions. As you know, an inability to connect with and process emotions is at the heart of mental distress and illness. Yoga and mindfulness teach girls to be an observer of their emotional distress while decreasing arousal. Girls develop respect for the sexual feelings that arise during adolescence, instead of feeling ashamed or out of control. In my girls yoga groups, I also incorporate activities from Healthy Transitions for Girls, a strength- based curriculum to help girls develop positive body image. I love watching girls reconnect to inner resources through this mind-body-spirit approach