Yoga Therapy for CFS, Burnout & Long Covid – 9 Week Course

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"I followed all the recordings, and found this method of learning ....far exceeded my expectations. By setting a convenient time for watching the recordings and pacing them accordingly, and by stopping for a re-listen when I wanted to hear a comment once more, the benefit was immense. There is so much material here that I can apply to my own practice, and health, as well as extend to those who attend my classes. Grounded in the richness of yoga philosophy, applied to our lives as they are now."

Mair Jones, Attendee, Yoga Therapy for CFS, Burnout & Long Covid, May 2022

If you have already attended - An Introduction to Yoga Therapy for CFS, Burnout & Long Covid 4 week training you can book Part 2 HERE

Course Outline:

In this continued development training you will discover unique ways to harness energy for fatigue conditions such as exhaustion, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Burnout & Long Covid with the help of yoga therapy.  You will be guided through yoga practices Fiona & Sarah have developed over a career supporting people with CFS.  The content for each week will be released weekly.  30 hours recommended study time for the course.

Week 1: Prana and its relationship to yoga and our energy.

  • The five prānas
  • The importance of working with apāna in fatigue states
  • Granthis (restrictions) that can cause health problems. (obstacles that can stop prāna flowing)
  •  Examples of personal granthis
  • A brief overview of the panca maya (kosha)
  • Breath work and pranayama examples for helping fatigue and softening granthis
  • Using a bhavana in relation to prāna
  • Practice

Week 2: The Chakras and Fatigue

  • The çakras and fatigue
  • Fatigue and the çakras – mooladhara çakra
  •  The importance of creating a safe space
  • Teaching somatically
  • Practice with Fiona including nyāsa

Week 3: The Nervous System

  • How society views fatigue – the problems of the patriarchy
  • Definitions of fatigue including burnout and ME/CFS.  Are there differences with Long-Covid?
  • Symptoms and how these are relevant to yoga.
  • The various models of stress
  • The rational v emotional brain
  • Polyvagal theory
  • The mitochondria
  • Avoiding the push-crash pattern and dealing with relapse.
  • How fatigue affects a yoga practice
  • The importance of micro breaks and pacing
  • The role of trauma in chronic fatigue and how this affects teaching
  • Finding a resource
  • Practice with Sarah

Week 4: Fatigue & Long Covid

  • Long Covid Focus
  • Samskara and our shadow side
  • Facing our emotions and not disassociating – self-inquiry
  • Self-compassion, people pleasing and boundaries.
  • The major tools of yoga therapy including nyāsa, pranayama , deep relaxation and mantra
  • Welcoming fatigue and symptoms with acceptance as an opportunity for self-inquiry and spiritual investigation.
  • Practice with Fiona

Bonus Content: Learning Tips from Experience: Q&A Session and Practice with Fiona Agombar

Week 5: A deeper dive into Prana and the Relationship to Breath and our Energy

  • Introduction
  • Slow and low and pauses after the exhale
  • An update on Long Covid, symptoms and the breath
  • The breath – more teaching tools on how we teach for those with Long Covid and extreme fatigue states – less is more.
  • Coming out of the hyperventilation pattern and what this looks like
  • Nitric Oxide – how we can increase it, what it does.
  • How we decrease inflammation
  • The role of pronation in movement and breath for Long Covid
  • Offering choices
  • The five prānas – the great vayus – revision
  • The importance of working with apāna in fatigue states – revision
  • Understanding prana, samāna, udāna and vyāna and their relationship to energy flow and an example of each
  • What can help and what can harm regarding the breath
  • Breakout discussion on above, if time
  • Practice with Fiona/Sarah

Week 6: How Stress Manifests in the Student – Breath, Body, Mind, Speech

  • The pandemic and the effects on our nervous system
  • Fear, the pandemic and fatigue
  • The pandemic and mental health
  • The purusharta model and how we find security
  • How we can help our students to find a sense of safety and security
  • The importance of micro breaks and pacing (revision and update)
  • The importance of the teaching voice and language
  • Finding a resource
  • Practice

Week 7: Trauma, Co-regulation, Fatigue and the Yoga Teacher with guest Aneta Idczak

  • Update on polyvagal theory.
  • Knowing our baseline – recognising the three states of our nervous system.
  • Understanding self-regulation and the importance of co-regulation
  • The role of the teacher in co-regulation for the student
  • Connection and holding space
  • Giving the student agency – ideas on trauma informed yoga
  • Interview (15 minutes) with Aneta Idczak on what Trauma Informed means when teaching
  • Q and A session

Week 8: A Deeper look at the Chakras and Fatigue

  • A deeper explanation of the main chakras and fatigue
  • Fatigue and the importance of the first three chakras
  • Practices including nyāsa and bija mantra – showing how nyāsa can increase feelings of safety

 Week 9: Yoga Therapy and Fatigue

  • Overview of yoga therapy and fatigue
  • Definition of yoga therapy
  • Definition of yoga
  • Kriya yoga
  • Tapas and svadhyaya
  • Isvara pranidhana and how this relates to health
  • Sources of disease according to yoga
  • The klesa
  • Samyoga, attachment, identity etc.
  • The importance of mantra
  • The importance of choice in chanting

There is a significant amount of both recorded material and written content.  Please allow for a minimum of 6 hours per week for the online content.  Certification is provided on completion of all elements of the course.

In each week you will have the opportunity to take part in yoga practice and there will be space for questions.

 This online course is for yoga therapists, yoga teachers and other practitioners supporting people with CFS, Burnout & Long Covid.

There will be an opportunity to have your questions answered throughout the training.

If you have already taken part one of this training you can sign up for weeks 5-9 HERE

To attend the full 9 week self study training book HERE

Please be aware that although practices shared have been helpful to people experiencing Long Covid this is a relatively new condition and Fiona and Sarah are yoga professionals and not doctors.

Fiona Agombar

About the facilitator - Fiona Agombar

Fiona Agombar is an author and yoga therapist in the Viniyoga Tradition. She is accredited as an advanced teacher with the British Wheel of Yoga (BWY). Fiona is passionate about changing attitudes to those with fatigue conditions and describes herself as a Rest Activist. She specialises in teaching yoga for  CFS/ME, Burnout, stress and long-Covid and has set up teaching modules on stress and fatigue for Yoga Campus together with CPD training for the BWY.  Fiona was a key speaker for Global Yoga Therapy Day in August 2020 and a speaker at the Wellness After Covid Symposium in May 2021.  In March 2021 she contributed to the British Council of Yoga Therapy on guidelines for teaching those with long-Covid. She runs successful training for teachers on Burnout, CFS and Long-Covid with Sarah Ryan through Yoga Teachers Forum. Fiona has referrals for long-Covid from a major teaching hospital in the UK. She is the author of Beat Fatigue with Yoga (Cherry Red Books) and Yoga Therapy for Stress, Burnout and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Singing Dragon).  Fiona is currently writing a book on Long Covid with Nadyne McKie.

www.fionaagombar.co.uk

 

sarah and wind

About the facilitator - Sarah Ryan

Sarah has been practising yoga for many years. I discovered it through a television programme and immediately loved it. While my children were small I was able to go to very few seminars, but I read and practised when I could. Eventually I was able to do a teacher training course with the UK governing body for yoga, the British Wheel, and I then became a BWY Diploma Course Tutor, training BWY teachers.

I currently teach in the tradition of Krishnamacharya, often called Viniyoga, a Sanskrit word which means ‘appropriate application’ – this tradition recognises that everyone is a unique individual, and what is right for one person is not right for the next, and that the practice that is right for you at one stage of your life is not right at another.Yoga is very important to me and an integral part of my life. It has helped me become stronger – less anxious, less fearful of what others might say or think. It has helped me through difficult times, giving me a constant support and nourishment. It has helped me connect more with others, with the world of nature, with myself and with the Divine. Practising it makes me feel better, physically, mentally and spiritually. It feels like my path. I love to share the enormity of its potential with others, whether in a local class, teaching one to one, teaching seminars or retreats, or through skype sessions.