Hands-On Assists & Assisted Stretching Workshop with Lauren Fields

Enhance your value as an instructor, and offer a more in-depth experience for your students. Learn to target and customize an assist, enhancing the student's understanding of the shape, as well as easing their tension and offering relaxation. 

 Classes will be taught in groups of 3 to assist workshop students in providing each other with real-time practice and feedback in a more intimate manner. Groups will be rotated so everyone can work with a variety of bodies, needs, and sensitivities.

This workshop will provide 5 continuing education units (CEUs) for Yoga Alliance requirements. Certificates of completion will be handed out upon full, in-person participation. 

LOCATION: NOW Yoga SE division 

DATES: Saturdays (October 21st, 2023)

TIME: 12pm-6pm

COST: $188 total (non-refundable)

REQUIREMENTS: If you want to receive CEUs with Yoga Alliance, you must be a registered yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance. This is going to be a class that requires physical contact; please do not participate if you are not comfortable with  giving and receiving physical touch. 

Skills acquired during training:

• 3 styles of assists which can be incorporated into private or group classes 

• Reasons why hands-on assists add value and enhance the experience of the students

• How hands on assists can speed up the healing process. 

• Types of Assists:

  • Assisted Psoas release

  • Assisted QL release

  • Assisted head, neck, and shoulder release

  • Assists to ease lower back pain

  • Assists to ease neck pain

  • Assists to prevent rotator cuff injuries and shoulder pain

  • Assists for students with prior injuries to the 9 main joint complexes

Anatomy discussed:

• Discuss the fascial network of the body, and how thoughts and feelings impact the formation of soft tissue   

• Learn how to identify tilts, rotation, and shifts in a student's anatomy and customize an assist for the specific needs of the student 

Applied anatomy and safety:

• High risk shapes and how to keep students safe in them

• Discuss verbal cues in postures, and how to cue the posture relative to the students anatomy

• Determine the type of postures that are best coupled with hands-on assists 

• Become familar with muscle shape, and how to glide with the function of the muscle. Learn the shape of the muscle, or muscle group that is being stretched or tractioned. 

A more detailed look on how the workshop will be taught:

• Lecture, demonstration of 3 types of assists, visual aids (projector), and in-person practice 

• The workshop will be designed with a hands-on approach, the opportunity to practice on as many bodies as possible. In groups of 3, everyone will have an opportunity to give and receive the assists that are discussed.

  • ·One person will give the assist, one person will observe, and one person will receive.

  • The giver and observer will assess the student that will be receiving the manual assist. They will record their ideas on the best approach. Receiver will record their experience of the assist, and how it felt for them.

• Within each group, students will record their experience of the assist, and any questions following the assist.

  • They will discuss these questions within the group and choose 2 final questions to bring to the entire classroom, so everyone can benefit and learn.

  • We will answer these questions between rotations. We will work only with one type of assist at a time, prior to moving onto the next one.