Counseling and Yoga Therapy Services

Health is a continuum.
The old model of health was often conceptualized in absolute terms: a person was either healthy or sick. But we know from our own experience that health and illness are not absolutes! They exist along a continuum with imbalances at every level. Many of us, considered to be in “good health,” are still without the vital, vibrant and enthusiastic excitement about life associated with optimum health at the “realizing your highest potential” end of the wellness continuum.

There are lots of folks, medically speaking, who are not really “sick” but who still suffer pain with headaches, musculoskeletal pains, irritability, mood wings, insomnia, digestive disturbances, high blood pressure and the number one killer, extended stress. These conditions are no picnic. And they can lead to worse, more acute conditions.

Over the years, I have worked with people at all levels of the above-described continuum; in in the workplace, in clinical mental health agencies, in my private counseling practice, in skilled nursing settings and with hospice.

And as a midlife woman, I have experienced all of the stops along that continuum. I have survived cancer, severe injuries, a disabling assault, and a major concussion that left me unable to read for six months or walk without a cane. I have drowned and come back from that near death experience for more life. And I am here to tell you that I don’t just want to “not be ill.” I want to feel centered, calm, energized, glowing, engaged in life, joyful and fit. I am glad to have “survived cancer” but I want more from life than survival. Call me greedy, but I want for us all to experience the juiciness of life.

So, let’s take a different approach to your health and well-being and focus on prevention, maintenance and thriving.

  

Susan Topf, Yoga Teacher and CLYL demonstrates Laughter Yoga Therapy poses

 

Focus on Wellness
It is my goal as a trained Psychotherapist and Counselor, Certified Integrative Yoga Therapy Teacher and Yoga Therapist, to assist and support you in adopting and adapting a free-wheeling yoga practice to move you toward vibrant wellness and balance of mind, body, spirit and emotions.

I am not offering a cure. I meet and greet you where you are. I will not make demands. You need not change you diet, hairstyle or religion. Yoga is a hugely tolerant and diverse practice.

I am offering individualized attention, vibrant support, the diversity of yoga and years of counseling experience. We will focus on your strengths to enable you to begin where you are and move toward living your life with ease and joy. I am working on that too in my own practice. We are all a work in progress. Unless, of course, we are not progressing.

• Are you interested in in seeking to maintain and improve your health and prevent illness?
• Do you wish to age well and engage in new healthy adventures?
• Have you come through cancer treatment and now are ready to do more than survive?
• Are you ready to restore some peace of mind, freedom from pain and joy into your life?
• Did you practice yoga in the past and want a new take on it that fits with your current body?
• Are you ready to begin a yoga practice?
• Do you want to add some creativity to your practice?
• Do you know that you are stressed out and worry about it, but feel frozen and stuck about doing something?

The answer is Yes. Yoga Therapy can help.

Private Counseling, Coaching and Yoga Therapy Sessions
In my new Petaluma Office/Studio $85 per session. Series of Four Sessions just $295. A Crystal Bowl Sound Healing and Laughter Yoga may be included in your session. No additional fee. Private Sessions in Your Home: $105 and up.

You may also opt to include these services to boost your healing and yoga practice:

• Private Coaching Session for Creating a Home-Altar for Wellness: We will visit in your home and gather your items to create and dedicate a beautiful Home Altar. I will provide materials, resources, art supplies and coaching on how to interact with your Home Altar. You will select power items to boost your healing. $185
• Customized Aromatherapy for Chakra Balancing Session: We will dedicate a counseling session to balancing your chakras exploring your energy centers. Does your heart need a lift? Does your power chakra need an adjustment? Do you need some healing with self-talk and your throat chakra? A blend of organic essential oils in a glass mister customized for you. $105

Please read the posting about my Home Altar Workshop, August 2009, with Dr. Lissa Rankin, at Clear Center of Health in Mill Valley.

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Legs Up the Wall Pose (Viparita Karani) 
with Breath Awareness and Gentle Laughter

photo by Susan Topf, CLYL

Dorothy Morgan, CMT, CLYL and Herbalist  and Carmela demonstrate this wonderfully restorative yoga pose to which we added deep belly-breathing, smiles and gentle laughter. If you feel tired in the afternoon, put your feet up the wall, smile and breathe deeply with one hand above your heart and one hand on your belly. Do this for two minutes. AAAAH.   Next, focus on sending joy into your belly, your heart  and your chest and practice laughing in this pose for one minute!  AHA!  Better than a nap! You will feel refreshed and energized. 

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Why I Laugh by  Dalai Lama

I am a Professional Laugher. I have been confronted with many difficulties throughout the course of my life, and my country is going through a critical period. But I laugh often, and my laughter is contagious. When people ask me how I find the strength to laugh now, I reply that I am a professional laugher. Laughing is a characteristic of the Tibetans, who are different in this from the Japanese or the Indians. They are very cheerful, like the Italians, rather than a little reserved, like the Germans or the English. 

My cheerfulness also comes from my family. I come from a small village, not a big city, and our way of life is more jovial. We are always amusing ourselves, teasing each other, joking. It’s our habit. 

To that is added, as I often say, the responsibility of being realistic. Of course problems are there. But thinking only of the negative aspect doesn’t help to find solutions and it destroys peace of mind. Everything, though, is relative. You can see the positive side of even the worst tragedies if you adopt a holistic perspective. If you take the negative as absolute and definitive, however, you increase your worries and anxiety, whereas by broadening the way you look at a problem you understand what is bad about it, but you accept it. This attitude comes to me, from my practice and from Buddhist philosophy, which help me enormously . . . 

Unfortunately, so long as things are going well, we think we can get along by ourselves. However, as our situation and health decline, we soon realize how wrong we were. That is when we understand who really helps us. To prepare ourselves for such a time, by making true friends who are useful when we need them most, we must cultivate altruism. 

As for me, I always want more friends. I love smiles, and my wish is to see more smiles, real smiles, for there are many kinds—sarcastic, artificial, or diplomatic. 

Full Article: The Dalai Lama on Laughter and Compassion http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-10-24/dalai-lama-on-laughter-and-compassion/