Workshops

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Yoga for Scoliosis and Back Care: Addressing Discomfort in the Asymmetric Body with Deborah Wolk
In-Studio & Online!

March 8-9
Saturday 9-11:30 am & 2:30-4:30pm
Sunday 10am-12:30pm & 2-4pm
Full Workshop: $195/$180*

One Day Only: $105/$95*
One AM Session Only: $65/$60*
One PM Session Only: $50/$55*
*Early Bird if registered by February 24

Everyone has asymmetry in the body: the body needs to compensate for individual patterns. Join Deborah Wolk for an investigation into what is creating your physical discomfort using a therapeutic and holistic approach through yoga. 

Even a small amount of asymmetry may cause pain, injury, disorientation, and/or general discomfort. To bring relief and better understanding how our yoga practice can help, these are some of the questions we will be working through in this workshop: How does one address these issues through yoga? Does the degree, location, shape of the asymmetry or scoliotic curve matter when approaching practice? Can asymmetry arise anywhere in the body? What postures and modifications will help you understand better which patterns are causing your pain?

The workshop will be divided into four sessions and explores the anatomy and integration of limbs and yoga practice.

Saturday, 9-11:30 am: Focus on lower trunk including pelvis, lumbar, low thoracic

Saturday, 2:30-4:30pm: Focus on upper trunk including neck and shoulders, mid-low thoracic

Sunday, 10:00am-12:30pm: Focus on the limbs

Sunday 2-4pm: Integrating everything 

Students are encouraged to sign up for the full workshop, as sessions will build on each other. Students can attend in-studio or online. All sessions will be recorded and available to review for two weeks.

Students of all levels are welcome. All asymmetric bodies are welcome including non-scoliosis and those with spinal fusions. Yoga teachers and body workers are also encouraged to attend.

Deborah Wolk, C-IAYT, has been teaching and working with students with back issues, scoliosis, and other injuries for over 20 years. Her yoga practice working with her own scoliosis informs the work she does to help others. Deborah’s teachings are based in the principles of Iyengar style yoga and Body Mind Centering (BMC) techniques. She is warm and funny and her teachings are subtle yet explained at a level everyone can understand. Deborah teaches workshops, retreats, and teacher trainings on Back Care & Scoliosis in New York City, across the US, and around the world, and has a thriving private practice.

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Workshops with Jen Gorman
In-Studio Only

April 26-27
One Workshop: $60*/$65
Two Workshops: $110*/$120
All Three Workshops: $160*/$175
*Early Bird if Registered by April 14

Yoga for People with Spinal Fusions – Standing Poses!

Saturday April 26th 9:30am-12pm 

Standing poses can offer pleasurable movement experiences that encourage confidence, agency, and empowerment. These poses also improve strength, mobility, balance, and posture while centering the mind. During this workshop, Jen will teach:

  • How to choose the standing poses that best serve those of us with spinal fusions
  • How to modify some of these poses with various props 
  • A framework for working with our fusions that can be applied to other yoga poses and movement modalities

Please feel free to bring paper and a pencil/pen to take notes.  

This workshop is intended for people (and their friends/family) with spinal fusions as well as clinicians and wellness practitioners who work with these clients. Prior experience with yoga is helpful but all levels may participate.  

Please register in advance.  Workshop size limited to 12.

Calming the Curves

Saturday April 26th 2pm-4:30pm 

Living with a back care condition like a spinal fusion or scoliosis can cause stress, physiological changes, and trigger our sympathetic nervous system into a flight or fight response. This workshop will focus on rest and relaxation to create a sense of calm. Jen will offer:

  • Supported, modified, restorative yoga poses
  • Neural glides for the upper and lower extremities
  • Various breathing and mindfulness techniques
  • A Yoga Nidra guided meditation

Please feel free to bring paper and pen/pencil to take notes.  

This workshop is intended for people (and their friends/family) with spinal fusions and/or scoliosis as well as clinicians and wellness practitioners who work with these clients.  Prior experience with yoga is helpful but all levels may participate.  

Please register in advance.  Workshop size limited to 12.

Deepening the Practice – An Intermediate Workshop for People with Spinal Fusions and Scoliosis

Sunday April 27th 9:30am-12pm

This workshop will offer an opportunity to use the rope wall to enhance axial elongation in various poses.  Jen will teach a selection of more complex standing poses, introduce ways to conceptualize backbends (without actually bending the back), and then offer a few modified poses that are commonly considered backbends. The class will finish with inversions that tend to work well for people with spinal fusions and scoliosis. 

Please feel free to bring paper and pen/pencil to take notes.  

This intermediate workshop is for people (and their friends/family) with spinal fusions and/or scoliosis as well as clinicians and wellness practitioners who work with these clients.   A mature yoga practice or prior study with Jen is needed.  This workshop is not for people who are new to yoga.  If you have questions about whether this workshop will work for you, please contact jen@scoliosisandbackcare.com.

Please register in advance.  Workshop size limited to 12.

Single workshops – 2 CEs with Yoga Alliance for Registered Yoga Teachers
Two workshops – 5 CEs with Yoga Alliance for Registered Yoga Teachers
All three workshops – 7 CEs with Yoga Alliance for Registered Yoga Teachers

Jen Gorman is a scoliosis and spinal fusion patient, advocate, and teacher.  Jen was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of eleven. Less than a year later she underwent spinal fusion surgery where bone from her right iliac crest fused her thoracic vertebrae (T3-T10) secured by a Harington rod. Jen danced professionally in high school and then attended the University of Notre Dame where she studied accounting. She became a Certified Public Accountant and then quickly returned to dancing professionally. Although these experiences differed significantly physically, her back was sensitive regardless of whether she sat all day or danced all day.  She frequently experienced a certain level of discomfort and pain.
Jen began practicing yoga to balance her body from the many hours of dancing. She discovered that yoga combined with other methods of cross training allowed her to manage and all together avoid pain.  Eventually, she found her way into a yoga for scoliosis class and then a yoga for spinal fusions class in New York City.  These classes brought to light an even deeper understanding of her body as well as the effects of scoliosis and her spinal fusion.
Jen has studied yoga with and assisted classes for Elise Miller Browning, Allison West, and Deborah Wolk. She is a Teacher Trainer with Elise Miller Browning’s Yoga for Scoliosis Program and also holds the following certifications: NASM Certified Personal Trainer, Functional Movement Systems I and II, as well as TRX Suspension. Learn more about Jen at www.scoliosisandbackcare.com or email her at info@scoliosisandbackcare.com.

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WORKSHOP PRE-REGISTRATION & CANCELLATION POLICY

It is strongly recommended that you pre-register for workshops. If you pre-register for a workshop, you must cancel either 1 week or 48 hours in advance (depending on the workshop), in order to be refunded for that workshop less a 20% administrative fee. Cancellation deadlines can be found below the workshop descriptions above.

Please cancel via email (info@samamkayabackcare.com) or call 646.964.5772. Even if we receive the message later, we will go by the time stamp and refund your money if appropriate. If you are ill or there is an immediate family medical emergency, we will of course waive the fee. However, please email us as early as possible, and before the workshop begins, to waive the fee or arrange a credit.

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