From Pain to Possibility
PODCAST with Susi Hately
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Podcast: Episode 165: Reducing Persistent Pain by Integrating Yoga Therapy, Physical Therapy & Podiatry with Ros Tobe
When the pain goes down, what is there now? Arriving at a new state within your body is a learning experience. Monitoring and refining your understanding of the body becomes a tool that helps you to achieve your goals and manage pain.
Podcast: Episode 164: When It Is Difficult to Feel – Tips, Ideas and Suggestions with Ruth Ann Penney and Kim Marion, OT
As therapists, we often have to help our clients find language to express what they are experiencing in their bodies. We shift between sensory avenues to find methods of communication that encourage understanding of the feeling while tailoring this sensory language to each client’s felt experience.
Podcast: Episode 163: 4 Common Questions About Practice: How Often, For What Duration, What Time of Day, How Many Repetitions
The desire of completing a practice “correctly” or as a “to-do” sometimes distracts my clients from the actual work wanting to take place within their bodies. Time and time again I’ve found that a 4-minute practice can have a better impact than a 30-minute practice shoehorned into your schedule.
Podcast: Episode 162: Bracing Patterns & When To Reduce Them For Reducing and Eradicating Pain
Bracing patterns are a key factor in a person’s recovery process. You can make many gains related to movement, but if your bracing patterns don’t resolve or reduce significantly, the pain won’t stay away or go away sustainably.
Podcast: Episode 160: The 3 Phases of Recovery: Getting Out Of Pain -> Transition -> Strengthening
We’re diving into a brand-new miniseries that will cover the concepts and tools I use to help people reduce and get out of pain. The clients I see most often have persistent symptoms, have had them for a while, and have made some gains with what they have tried but the gains aren’t sustainable.
Podcast: Episode 158: Exploring Your Feet Part 5 – Your Feet: You Can Wear Sexy Boots and Have Happy Feet
If you spend any length of time exploring trainings and listening to experts who are doing corrective exercises with feet, almost all of them will tell you about footwear, and how it is problematic for feet. And I don’t disagree. But there are times when sexy footwear is in order, so how do you work with that?
Podcast: Episode 157: Exploring Your Feet Part 4 – Your Feet: Tibia-Fibula-Foot-Hip Relationship
The idea of this miniseries is to highlight something that I find tends to be missing out there in the world of rehabilitation, corrective exercise, and yoga therapy. There is a lot of great information on the foot itself and the lower part of the limb, but this starts to fizzle off when we look at the whole kinetic chain. So in this episode, I’m digging deeper into the tibia and fibula relationship and their relationship with the foot before walking you through a practice to bring this to life.
Podcast: Episode 156: Exploring Your Feet Part 3 – Your Feet: Is Overpronation a Bad Thing?
According to many sources on the internet, overpronation is a bad thing. There are endless problems that can arise as a result of overpronation, and a lot of it is correlated. But there are also people who have overpronation that don’t experience any of these issues.
Podcast: Episode 155: Exploring Your Feet Part 2 – Your Feet: Healing Your Feet Beyond Foot Mechanics
Over the past year, lots of clients have come to see me for feet issues. We’ve discovered in the working with their feet that there are all sorts of other patterning issues we need to resolve further up the chain. So this week, I’m launching a new miniseries dedicated to the feet.
Podcast: Episode 154: Exploring Your Feet Part 1 – Your Feet-Hip Connection: An Embodied Practice
Over the past year, lots of clients have come to see me for feet issues. We’ve discovered in the working with their feet that there are all sorts of other patterning issues we need to resolve further up the chain. So this week, I’m launching a new miniseries dedicated to the feet.
Podcast: Episode 153: Upleveling Corrective Exercise with Yoga Therapy
I work a lot with clients who have been given corrective exercise techniques as part of their rehabilitation program, and I train health professionals who have professional training in the application of these corrective exercises.
Podcast: Episode 152: Exploring Your Breath Part 10 – Mechanics of Breathing: Your Collarbones, Ribs and Your Breath
We’re finishing up the Exploring Your Breath miniseries this week, where I’ve been helping you become quiet and really listen and recognize some of the layers of yourself that may have been niggling or have arisen and got your attention.
Podcast: Episode 151: Exploring Your Breath Part 9 – Mechanics of Breathing: The Relationship of Your Psoas and Breathing
The Psoas isn’t a muscle we typically talk about, but we want to help it be the powerful muscle that it is and reduce compensatory patterning through the body. Doing this can enable muscle tissue and the breath to do what they’re meant to do.
Podcast: Episode 150: Exploring Your Breath Part 8 – Mechanics of Breathing: The Relationship of Your Quadratus Lumborum and Breathing
Lots of people have QL issues because, as a compensator for other pain, it tries to enable a person to do what they need to do to get on with things and live their greatest lives. This episode is geared toward people who know that the QL is involved in the persistence of pain, but also toward those who may not know but are curious about it. It is a place for you to explore.
Podcast: Episode 149: Exploring Your Breath Part 7 – Mechanics of Breathing: Sleep Apnea, Grinding, and Clenching with My Dentist Dr. Larry Stanleigh
I am delighted to have my dentist with me today, Dr. Larry Stanleigh. He is a trainer in the Mechanics of Breathing course and helps people get well, stay well, and live optimized lives. We work together regularly because, as a dentist, he can see that there’s a lot more going on in somebody’s health than simply what he sees in the mouth.
Podcast: Episode 148: Exploring Your Breath Part 6 – Mechanics of Breathing: A Gentle Practice 3
Very rarely do we think about the impact of breathing on our body, how it affects all of our body parts and how it can impact the way our body functions and the way the breath can come in. But as we learn to recognize what’s contributing to the way our body functions, changes can be made and our breathing can improve. The result is that it can have a profound impact on how you live.
Podcast: Episode 147: Exploring Your Breath Part 5 – Mechanics of Breathing: A Gentle Practice 2
We’re doing some twisting and movement to get a sense of the body movement and breathing before bringing them together and seeing what happens as you explore the relationship between the movement and breath.
Podcast: Episode 146: Exploring Your Breath Part 4 – Mechanics of Breathing: A Gentle Practice 1
When we really pay attention to the way we are breathing, we are able to connect back to the body, downregulate and get curious about what arises for us. When we recognize this, we become aware of things we weren’t otherwise aware of, and this can have a huge impact on our healing process.
Podcast: Episode 145: Exploring Your Breath Part 3 – Breathing to Relieve Migraines
I have had great success working with people with migraines and I have seen some amazing results from my clients. I use practices like breathing and movement to help them tune in to their awareness and look at the link between other circumstances and the migraines they experience.
Podcast: Episode 144: Exploring Your Breath Part 2 – Core Training and Your Breath
As I help clients improve their breathing and connection to the core, they are always shocked to find that their pain goes down as their breathing improves. So this week, I’m showing you how to pay closer attention to your own relationship between the breath and the core.
Podcast: Episode 143: Exploring Your Breath Part 1 – Considerations for Improving Your Exhalation
We’ve reached the time of year where a lot of people become more stressed, there is a lot going on around us, we may feel a lot of pressure, and there are interactions with other people we might not enjoy our time with. This can be stressful and impact our breathing in a range of ways.
Podcast: Episode 142: Exploring the Hamstrings
When people come to see me, it is really common for them to have pain. When this pain is with the SI joints or the back, a major complaint will be about the hamstrings. For so many people, the hamstrings can create a lot of grief, or a lot of grief is placed on them.
Podcast: Episode 141: Beyond My Biomechanical Knowledge, Here is One Key Thing I Do to Help My Clients
We know that beliefs matter. We know that in the context of beliefs, what we think about can have an impact on our healing trajectory. Our beliefs reinforce or influence the habitual patterns we have and are so significant in recovery and healing.
Podcast: Episode 140: Your Age Doesn’t Matter – 2 Stories of Recovery – Sue & Carolyn
We are bombarded by society with messages that we become more and more decrepit as we get older. Sure, we’re not 20 anymore, but too many people think that they just have to survive the older decades. Suffering is not just a given, change can happen, and it is entirely possible for tissue to change after the age of 60.
Podcast: Episode 139: Exploring Your Neck (Part 5)
So often, where the pain is is not the problem, it’s an expression of the problem that needs to be addressed. If we want longer lasting results, we need to look at and understand the relationship between what’s being expressed and what’s really going on.
Podcast: Episode 138: Exploring Your Neck (Part 4)
We’re continuing our miniseries on exploring the neck this week, and today we’re examining the relationship between the pelvis and the neck. This is such a fun exploration and I’m excited to show you how to discover the relationship for yourself this week.
Podcast: Episode 137: Exploring Your Neck (Part 3)
Over almost 30 years of working with people with neck pain, I have found that when I can help clean up some of the compensatory patterns around the shoulder girdle, a lot of neck pain clears up as well. I’m taking you through your own exploration of the shoulder girdle function this week, and showing you why tuning into this area can change so much in your neck.
Podcast: Episode 136: Exploring Your Neck (Part 2)
Utilizing the power of touch to explore the tissue around your neck will help you gain a deeper understanding of the areas that are contributing to what you’re feeling in your neck itself, and I’m showing you how to get started understanding your sensations and symptoms in this episode.
Podcast: Episode 133: Nadi Shodana: 2 Practices for a Calm Clear Mind
In episode 116, I introduced the concept of Nadi Shodana as an alternate nostril breathing exercise and showed you why it is such an effective way of taking your brain to a quieter place and improving your overall health and wellbeing.
Podcast: Episode 132: Key Insights From My Clients Going Through Menopause
So often when we read about perimenopause or menopause, the first words that come to mind are symptoms. But symptoms are aligned with conditions or diseases where something is wrong and needs fixing, and there is another way to think about the sensations that come along with menopause.
Podcast: Episode 131: Private Sessions Series: How They Work
I have been teaching private sessions way before I got into yoga, and I receive a lot of questions about these sessions from trainees or health professionals interested in training with me, as well as clientele who are interested in how I do my work.
Podcast: Episode 130: Ayurveda and Menopause – Making the Transition
Mona Warner is an Ayurvedic practitioner, Ayurvedic yoga therapist, and yoga teacher trainer. For the last few decades, her work has been steeped in the studies of Vedic sciences and she uses this to help people get to where they need to be in life. She joins me this week to share how Ayurveda can make the menopausal transition easier.
Podcast: Episode 129: How I Use Massage Balls To Reduce & Eradicate Pain and Increase Strength
A lot of people out there are using the massage ball as a release. They utilize the ball between yoga or training sessions to free up some tissue and provide some relief so that they can keep going. But what if I told you that you could have more sustainable change and not have to use the massage tool at all?
Podcast: Episode 128: How To Improve Your Range of Motion with Ease and Not Force
When people come to see me, two things are often present: pain and compensation. So often people are pushing themselves forcefully to try to make progress, not getting it and wondering why. When looking at improving range, we need to do so with ease, not force.
Podcast: Episode 127: Knees: Climbing and Descending Stairs More Easily
A lot of the time when you Google the motion of walking up stairs or an incline and then down again, a lot of the conversation is around the Hamstrings, Glutes, Quads, and Calves. Muscles that cause flection and extension are going to be the top of mind, because that’s the primary movement that’s being done. But most of the clients that come to see me are doing that work and still not getting out of pain.
Podcast: Episode 126: Key Factors for Reducing Back Pain
Paying close attention to what’s going on in the body when they are experiencing back pain can help you guide your clients very effectively in supporting themselves in their recovery. And there are four key factors that I focus on when I help clients reduce and eradicate said pain.
Podcast: Episode 125: Massage Therapists Integrating Yoga Therapy with Carissa Alexander, Deanna McDevitt, and Lesley Ann Wernsdorfer
I’ve got a special treat for you today, especially if you are a massage therapist or other health professional. I have students from my Yoga Therapy Certification Program joining me to talk more about the integration of yoga therapy into their massage businesses.
Podcast: Episode 124: Why Focusing on Better Posture Does Not Improve Pain
Posture is an expression. It is an embodiment of our structure, and it is the safest, most secure place we know ourselves to be. There are several aspects that can impact the way we experience ourselves in our posture, and I’m sharing more of them this week.
Podcast: Episode 123: From Covid Shutdown to $100K as a Yoga Therapist
I am tickled pink for this episode, as I have one of my grads from the Yoga Therapy Certification Program, Pat Parsons, with me to share her journey as a yoga therapist. Pat is talking about her journey towards $100K, why it is absolutely possible to earn a decent living in the profession, plus some other great tips from her own experiences.
Podcast: Episode 121: Meditation Series Part 3: Active Meditations
So often, when we think about meditation, we think about sitting quietly, coming back to the breath, and noticing when the mind goes off and bringing it back. But it can feel constricting and unappealing to many people and can add more tension as opposed to releasing it.
Podcast: Episode 120: Meditation Series Part 2: Zen Disease
In a culture like ours, we’re not rewarded for slowing down and allowing our thoughts to flow. It can be difficult to quieten the brain when you first start out. But meditation can be a tremendous tool for pain management, as well as pain reduction and pain eradication, and this week’s guest is here to dive deeper into it.
Podcast: Episode 119: Meditation Series Part 1: Getting Past Mind Chatter
When I am outside of my practice and people get to know what I do, invariably someone will bring up the concept of meditation. They tell me that they have tried it, but all that happens is they think about everything they need to do. Their minds swirl, they become frustrated, and they stop.
Podcast: Episode 118: How to Relieve and Resolve Quadratus Lumborum Pain
The Quadratus Lumborum – also known as the QL – is one of the top 5 muscle groups that people seek my help about. These people have stretched their QL in all the ways, done all the bridges, and retrained their core, but have not been able to crack the code on how to detrain it.
Podcast: Episode 117: How To Get the Most Out of Your Therapeutic Movement Program
When somebody knows innately that something could be different and are frustrated that they can’t make the gains they want to make, I can help. I pull together a lot of things people do and see the patterns that exist, before providing interventions to address these and help them move to the next level.
Podcast: Episode 115: Being Curious – A Yoga Nidra “Inspired” Practice
Our culture has not honored the body for decades. We have been cognitively based, and logic supersedes somatic intelligence. But we must get in touch with the language of our body and bring it up into our cognitive processing in order to get better and truly reveal our human potential.
Podcast: Episode 114: (Re) Building Trust With Your Body
For a long time, we have honored our brain function over our body intelligence. We have not been paying attention to our bodies, and we have not been valuing them. But it is possible to rebuild trust with your body by recognizing the dissociation between your brain and body, and building a bridge of connection.
Podcast: Episode 112: : Key Conversations About Pain: When the Pain is Gone, Am I Fixed?
Many people believe that if they are feeling better, that the pain is gone and job is complete. They think they are over the hump and can get back to the things they were doing before because they’re fixed and good to go. However, when it comes to chronic pain, it’s not that simple.
Podcast: Episode 111: Biomechanics of Healing: How Not To Chase Symptoms
When it comes to reducing pain, it’s important for us to always remember that where the pain is felt is not necessarily the problem. Where the pain is felt is merely an expression of the problem. It lets us know about limitations and dysfunctions, and recognizing the presence of these things allows us to stop chasing a symptom.
Podcast: Episode 110: 3 Part Breathing: Calm, Clear, Grounded
You might find that parts of this technique might work all the time or at certain parts of the day, and you get to choose how and when you use it. Whether you want to regulate or just need a pick-me-up, this technique will bring about a calmness that has clarity and groundedness.
Podcast: Episode 109: Sex and Menopause: You Are Not Broken with Dr. Kelly Casperson
Dr. Kelly Casperson and I discuss how women are underserved in the area of their sexuality and the fear and resistance many women feel in terms of painful sex. We talk about menopause therapy, the effect of low estrogen on our bodies, and some questions to ask yourself around these topics.
Podcast: Episode 107: Conversations with Graduates – Changing Gait Patterns in An 11 Year Old, Helping Women Embody Post-Partum: with Kris Inglis and Jennifer Vanderland
In previous episodes, we’ve heard from students who are currently undertaking the certification program as well as students who have recently completed the program, but this week’s guests are joining us several years after graduating from the program to update us on where they’re at now.
Podcast: Episode 106: FB Live – The Knee Isn’t Really The Knee – Exploring the Biomechanics of Healing From Knee Replacements
When it comes to recovering from a knee replacement, managing osteoarthritis, or anything else knee-related, something I love to share with my clients when I work with them is that the knee is not really a knee. Usually, the response is confusion, but stick with me.
Podcast: Episode 105: The Connection Between Your Head, Breath and Your State of Being
Tension in the head can often be blamed on a poked head forward position, caused by constantly being on our phones. But I have seen this in clients before there were phones, and the reality is that people can experience this for all sorts of reasons.
Podcast: Episode 104: The Art of Observation: The Surprising Key for Reducing and Eradicating Pain
It has nothing to do with anatomy, meditation, or biomechanics, nor is it knowing all the yoga techniques, stretches, processes, or templates. It isn’t contraindications around exercises or techniques that are good or not, it is the ability to truly see what’s going on in a client or yourself. It is the art of observation.
Podcast: Episode 103: Your Age Doesn’t Matter – Arthritis When Moving Hurts
When pain is present it can cloud our inner wisdom. When we make decisions in spite of pain, these decisions are laced with anticipation and uncertainty and don’t come from a real sense of confidence. But pain doesn’t have to be a part of your experience.
Podcast: Episode 102: Feeling Is Necessary for Healing – One Key Component That Most People Miss
You can’t just think your way to healing, you have to feel your way there. This is something so many people miss, but naming and acknowledging your feelings will enable you to change habitual patterns and make progress in your recovery.
Podcast: Episode 101: Listening To Your Body
There is a commonly used line in the fitness and wellness industries: listen to your body. The line comes from a good place; it’s meant to be helpful to clients. But what I find more often is that it is doing a disservice because clients don’t know how to listen to their bodies.
Podcast: Episode 100: FB Live – Why Your Age Doesn’t Matter
For a while now, I have been so fortunate to work with people who are older than me. And from my experience working with them, here’s the thing I know to be true: your age does not matter. It does not affect your ability to become well, get out of pain, reduce compensation patterns or get back to the life you want to live.
Podcast: Episode 99: Yoga Therapy and Concussion: Completing a Yoga Therapy Certification with a Brain Injury
Concussion is expressed differently and uniquely depending on the person, but something that is the same among everyone is that recovery is possible. You can absolutely do a higher learning process while having a brain injury, and today’s guest serves as an example of what’s possible.
Podcast: Episode 93: The Power of the Lower Glutes
About 8 months ago I was reading some research and evidence around the lower glute fibers and how important they were for people with osteoarthritis in the knee or hip as well as those recovering from knee or hip surgery. And I’m excited to share more information about these with you this week.
Podcast: Episode 92: It Depends
We live in a culture that honors formal evidence and rules. And rules do make things easier at times. But what I have found over almost 30 years of helping people reduce and eradicate pain is that rules don’t apply to a lot of people. There are two really important words that matter more: it depends.
Podcast: Episode 91: The Power of Curiosity and Listening to Your Body
Hear a remarkable description of my client’s journey of listening to her body and seeing the possibilities instead of problems. Discover how she has become a friend of her body and hear why she is a great example of the power of curiosity and listening.
Podcast: Episode 90: The Evolution of the Yoga Therapist
So many trainees start their training and find the technical work is stressful, confusing, and mysterious. But as they practice and gain more awareness of the concepts I teach, they move to the next phases on their journey and really start to make progress.
Podcast: Episode 89: Kneeling Post-Total Knee Replacement
The inability or fear of kneeling has an incredible impact on general activities and the ways we live our lives. Whether there has been a replacement or surgery or not, there is a lot in our bodies and brains that can shift if we give ourselves the correct stimulus. We can change our muscular patterns.
Podcast: Episode 88: Core Stability and Pain Eradication
A lot of people believe that core stability and pain are very separate entities. But our core isn’t something that holds or duct tapes us together, rather it enables us to become responsive. I see core and pain reduction as very closely correlated.
Podcast: Episode 87: 4 Keys for Retraining Better Walking Post Hip or Knee Surgery
Prior to surgery, it is not uncommon to have a limp for more than just one reason. Many people have this belief that once they have surgery, everything will change because the structural issues will have gone away. But this is not the case; there needs to be movement retraining.
Podcast: Episode 86: What to Do When There is Multiple or No Diagnosis: What Next?
Receiving a diagnosis for me is not the end all be all. It does not guide specifically what I do next with somebody. And this week, I’m digging into a really significant, important topic: what happens when you or your client has multiple diagnoses and you’re not sure which one it is, or what happens when there is no diagnosis at all.
Podcast: Episode 84: Your Age Does Not Matter: Case Study & Improving Shoulders Improves Your Knees
When we have pain and we don’t want to experience it, we have ways we try to get out of it. We either try to pull ourselves up and out or contort ourselves or do things so that we don’t have to feel as much. This is what I found with a client I’m discussing in today’s episode.
Podcast: Episode 83: Inclusivity, Unconscious Bias and How to Have the Hard Conversations with Misty Kuefler, Rachel Ishiguro, Lory Newmyer
This week, I am heading in a direction that some listeners may find surprising. I’m delving deeper into the realm of inclusivity. I have experienced fascinating exploration into my unconscious biases, and there have been three people who have been integral in opening my eyes to this work, so I’m bringing them on to the show to discuss the experience further.
Podcast: Episode 82: Healing Depression: An Interview with Certification Graduate Austin Chason
Austin Chason is one of my yoga therapy certification graduates and has experienced depression throughout his life. He joins me this week to share his story and experience of it and highlight what’s possible when you start thinking about it differently. He believes it is less about making depression OK and more about being OK with depression.
Podcast: Episode 81: Integrating Massage Therapy and Yoga Therapy with Heather Green and Stacey Kilps
Heather Green and Stacey Kilips are both massage therapists and trainees in the final stretch of their certification with me. They are here to share their experiences with clients who return again and again with the same issue, and to talk about supporting these folks to get off the table.
Podcast: Episode 80: Breathing to Downregulate
Partaking in the exercises I have been sharing will help you connect more deeply to your breathing and explore how breathing can impact your health, wellbeing, and emotional state. So I hope you’ll accept this new year’s present I’m giving to you this week.
Podcast: Episode 79: Merry Christmas 2021
As festive and magical as the holiday season can be, it can also be really hard. A lot of people find themselves having to attend events they don’t want to go to and seeing people they wouldn’t choose to see at other times of the year. It leaves them feeling disconnected.
Podcast: Episode 78: Should You Push Your Client Through Pain When They Are Recovering From Knee or Hip Surgery?
Pain is a very natural physiological phenomenon. And sometimes it is just part of the recovery process. And something I’ve found is that every single one of my clients is told that they need to move through their pain, that it’s just the nature of the game.
Podcast: Episode 76: Breathing and Movement to Settle and Calm
I have specifically taught breath exercises before on episodes 22 and 26, and both of them were highly downloaded and received a lot of feedback, especially around this time of year, so in advance of the holiday season, I figured I would do another one this week.
Podcast: Episode 75: Ayurveda in December
As the amount of sun access we get reduces, many of us are already feeling a sense of slumber and dormancy. But the stillness of the coming season can be oppressive for some, and we try to maintain the light that we would get naturally from the sun in other ways.
Podcast: Episode 72: Why People Don’t Heal and How They Can
So often in our world, it’s all about managing symptoms and fixing things. But the process of recovery and healing is not one of fixing, but one of feeling. Try as you might, pushing aside symptoms or trying to fix them will only last so long. They will keep coming back until you are willing to feel.
Podcast: Episode 70: Plantar Fasciitis
Given that my clientele is increasingly over the age of 60, with many in their 70s, I’m finding that Plantar Fasciitis is an issue more and more people are coming to me with. Whether they’ve had it for a long period of time, or it is a recurring issue showing up for any number of reasons, it is becoming increasingly common.
Podcast: Episode 69: Fall Digestive Reset
You might recall when I had Mona Warner on the show to discuss the Spring Digestive Reset, and I’m delighted to welcome her back this week to talk some more. We’re digging further into how Ayurveda has been such an integral part of her learning and teaching and the fundamentals of the fall digestive reset.
Podcast: Episode 68: If I Am So Smart, Why Am I Still In Pain?
Your brain is powerful, and when you tap into what it’s actually capable of, your entire life can change. To do this, you have to recognize the brain’s brilliance and learn how to use it as a tool to blend the cognitive amazingness with the mind-blowing awesomeness of the body.
Podcast: Episode 64: A Feminine Perspective on Money & Power
When you begin to change the way you see money and power and step into this from a feminine perspective, so much can change in your life. Remarkable things happen when women really learn about money in connection with themselves. So this week, I’m continuing the conversation I started last week around money and power.
Podcast: Episode 63: Women, Yoga and Money
Money and business can come across as confusing, difficult, and overwhelming, but if you take the time to learn and grow the necessary skills, you will be amazed at how much clarity you will gain and how much of an impact you can make. People purchase from you when they know, like, and trust you, but first, you have to believe this yourself.
Podcast: Episode 62: The Psoas
Many people have issues with the psoas, and these are usually longstanding, providing only short bouts of relief. They think these issues can be tricky to resolve, but I don’t think it has to be this way. So this week, I’m digging into the key missing element that will help your psoas release work last longer and allow you to get to where you want to be with more sustainable results.
Podcast: Episode 60: The Yoga Therapy Certification Program: An Interview with Students Rachel and Lory
This week, I am delighted to be interviewing Rachel Ishiguro and Lory Newmyer. They started their training on the Yoga Therapy Certification Program back in January, and are joining me this week to share their experiences of the program and how it has helped them in their yoga businesses.
Podcast: Episode 59: Yoga Nidra
There is often a conversation going on under our level of awareness, and Yoga Nidra is a tool that can take you there. It is said that just one hour of Yoga Nidra can be as effective as three hours of regular sleep, and it can help you connect more curiously with your body and make significant changes in your life.
Podcast: Episode 58: How To Trust Your Inner Authority
When we are in a power over relationship, there is an assumption that someone else knows more, knows better, or has all the answers and we must do what that person says. It is evident in the culture we live in, where we defer to medical experts for help.
Podcast: Episode 57: Yellow Lights
Clients tend to come to me when their pain is so severe when their pain is the equivalent to a red light. Their issues have expanded from physical pain to all sorts of other issues, but if they knew how to recognize the yellow lights, it wouldn’t need to get to this point.
Podcast: Episode 55: Kintsugi and The Art of Repair
Kintsugi is the art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. The idea is not to disguise or hide the damage, but rather to embrace and highlight it, creating something beautiful and artful out of it.
Podcast: Episode 53: Persistent Pain, Feeling and Beliefs
When it comes to experiencing pain, some people feel it and want to get rid of it as quickly as possible. They want to get back to their life and the status quo and do everything they can to fix the problem and push the pain away. For others, they realize that where the pain is is not the problem. They know that the problem lies under their level of awareness and that if they could just find someone to help them uncover what they’re unaware of, they have the opportunity to evolve.
Podcast: Episode 51: What Gets In the Way
There is a long-held belief in our culture that pain means something is broken. The medical model in the west believes at its foundation that if there’s a problem, we have to fix it. But I view it differently; it’s less about fixing the problem and more about acknowledging and addressing the compensation.
Podcast: Episode 49: States of Being and Success
My genius lies in helping other people feel and connect into their states of being and in doing so, I help them reduce and eradicate pain. So when they are in their business world, they can channel their own genius in a way that’s powerful, serving themselves as well as serving the people they are meant to serve.
Podcast: Episode 47: Healing and Human Potential
We are not taught to be deliberate with our noticing, it’s a skill we get to develop. But noticing how you feel is fundamental to building presence and being more connected with your mind and body. It can help you be more deliberate about what you want and desire.
Podcast: Episode 46: Digestive Reset
Mona Warner is a warm and joyful educator, practicing both yoga and Ayurveda. She works at the Janati Yoga Studio in Kingston, Ontario, where she strives to guide others down the path of health, happiness, and wellbeing every day. She joins me to talk about how Ayurveda has been such a huge part of her learning and teaching and the fundamentals of the digestive reset.
Podcast: Episode 45: Abhyanga
I used to consider abhyanga as quite self-indulgent and incredibly messy. I thought it was ridiculous to warm oil oneself and sit there with it for 5-20 minutes, and I couldn’t get past how doing this to myself would be of benefit. But then I tried it out and was stunned by its effectiveness.
Podcast: Episode 44: Listening
Listening is such a powerful tool, and in many ways, it’s so simple. Yet, it’s something that many people in the yoga and healthcare world overdo, and we lose the juice of it in an attempt to get it right. To be in the space of someone who is truly listening is an extremely powerful experience. But how do you know that the other person feels heard and validated? What do you need to do to truly listen?
Podcast: Episode 43: Evidence, Healing and Human Potential
You are your own best detective. Your job is to gather data and to see what is working and not working for you. When you recognize this evidence, you will develop greater awareness and further clarity and be in a position to take the best step forward based on that data.
Podcast: Episode 42: Results
I have always had a results-oriented perspective that has worked well for me in many of my life endeavors. However, when I started to train other health professionals, I found that I wasn’t getting the results I wanted, and this perspective wasn’t playing out effectively. Part of what I had to realize was that the only thing I can truly control in any relationship with a client or a trainee is me. My results are focused on what I can teach people and not what they end up doing.
Podcast: Episode 41: Responsibility
In the past, I’ve taken more responsibility for my clients’ results than I should have because I tied a lot of my self-concept to the results they were getting. But knowing what you’re responsible for and what your client is responsible for can help your clients get better results.
Podcast: Episode 38: Sacroiliac Joints
All physical activity can cause injuries and issues in the body, and when it comes to the practice of yoga, the sacroiliac joints are the ones that commonly feel the strain. This week, we’re digging into the sacroiliac joints – more commonly known as the SI joints – and why there are such issues with them in the practice of yoga.
Podcast: Episode 37: Dialoging with a Symptom
About 30 years ago, I was in the throes of chronic pain from athletic injuries. I had tried a lot of things and was limited in what else I could try. I was taught this process and it has hugely benefitted me to this day, so I wanted to share it with you this week.
Podcast: Episode 36: Hypermobility MD Linda Bluestein
This week as we discuss the link between hypermobility and mental health, and learn how to take a non-judgmental approach to hypermobility as a yoga practitioner. We talk at length about Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes (EDS), the mind-body connection, and how we, as yoga teachers, can work more effectively with hypermobile students.
Podcast: Episode 35: Injury and Illness as Opportunity
If you have been diagnosed with an injury or illness, you may believe that there is only one way of dealing with it. But sometimes, new realities are possible – things that you haven’t considered – and they could be the answer to living with these conditions more effectively.
Podcast: Episode 34: Hypermobility with Amy
Fellow Yoga Teacher and client of mine, Amy, joins me this week to share her journey and unique perspective of having a Hypermobility Disorder. She shares how what began as a life sentence transformed into something much more supportive, powerful, and freeing and how she uses her experience to guide her teaching practice.
Podcast: Episode 33: Home Exercise Programs
I get asked a lot by health professionals and yoga teachers how I get my clients to do their homework or the exercises I give them to help them get better. They struggle to get their clients to do their part – so why do people not do things that they know will benefit them?
Podcast: Episode 32: Integrating Yoga and Medicine
Blending the worlds of yoga and medicine has been a fascinating journey. Awareness and presence are such valuable tools for practitioners, and when we incorporate these into medicine, we can really listen to the client and provide them with what they need.
Podcast: Episode 31: How Not to Wreck Your Hips in Yoga
Talking about the hips is a contentious issue in yoga. There have been reports of people having hip replacements, attributing the injuries they had from yoga as the catalyst for these replacements. But by understanding and being more aware of our bodies, things can really shift – yoga doesn’t have to have the reputation of being a hip-wrecker!
Podcast: Episode 30: Making 1:1 Zoom Work
Whether you’re a yoga teacher, therapist, or health professional, you’re likely aware that telehealth sessions are increasing in frequency. Our ability to do them really well is becoming more of an opportunity, and it’s important to recognize how great online teaching can be.
Podcast: Episode 28: Setting Goals
In the world of yoga, some people may find striving and ambition somewhat misaligned with the practice and believe that it can pull away from the sense of presence, but I don’t believe that to be the case. For me, goal setting is an opportunity to connect and live out your best talent, gifts, and skills.
Podcast: Episode 27: Merry Christmas
As you know, taking time to breathe and connect with your body is so important, and it’s such a wonderful thing to do amidst the hustle and bustle that the festive season can often bring.
It’s time to get comfortable and begin to connect with your body. I’m walking you through a relaxing breathing exercise and body scan that you can enjoy when you have a spare moment over the holidays.
Podcast: Episode 23: Yoga and Physiotherapy with Kristie Norquay
The effects that the combination of yoga and physiotherapy treatment can have upon clients, why mental and emotional health is part of the physical experience and why psychosocial aspects play a huge role in a person’s progress and healing.
Podcast: Episode 19: Breathing Through the Pelvic Floor
Exploration of the pelvic floor, with a specific focus on a technique called Pelvic Floor Breathing or Orifice Breathing. Today, Susi explores this sacred, powerful exercise, teaching you why it’s beneficial while walking you through the exercise.
Podcast: Episode 18: Understanding Movement for Reducing Pain
“I’ve found that when I can effectively teach my clients about their movements first, before getting into muscle conversation, the faster they get better.” In this episode of From Pain to Possibility. Susi discusses the idea of movement and understanding movement as an approach to helping a client reduce their pain.
Podcast: Episode 17: Diastasis Recovery
Listen, as Susi digs into the diastasis recti and uses her own personal experience to highlight some core teaching concepts that she uses when working with women who are recovering. Susi is dividing this episode into three specific time periods, early, mid, and later, and how she used her principles inside of those particular periods on this episode of From Pain to Possibility.
Podcast: Episode 16: The Treasures of Triangle
Why is the triangle pose blamed for issues in the spine, SI joints, and knees? Listen, as Susi explores why it’s blamed and why on the flip side that the triangle is an exceptional position, especially when someone has recovered from SI joint issues, plus more in this episode of From Pain to Possibility.
Susi explores the triangle pose and describes what she has seen when people do a traditional way of moving into the pose versus how she prefers to see it done. Susi has found that her students are very surprised at how limited their hip movement is when teaching her way.Consider this idea of being grounded and light simultaneously, solid and stable, the ability to be agile. All of these characteristics apply to a psoas that is responsive, alive, and turned on. There is a whole new level of quiet power that can be experienced.