Yoga Therapy Services

Private Sessions in Your Home or My Yoga Therapy Office

It is my goal as a highly-trained Psychotherapist, Certified Integrative Yoga Therapy Teacher, iRest Integrative Restoration Yoga Nidra Instructor and Registered Yoga Teacher to support you in adopting and adapting a customized yoga practice to move you toward vibrant wellness, peace of mind, balanced emotions and joyful equanimity. We will create a practice to suit your needs.

I meet and greet you where you are. Making healthful changes can be challenging. Margaret Mead, the 20th century anthropologist, said it was “easier for a person to change their religion than their diet.” You need not change your diet or your religion to practice yoga. Yoga is a hugely tolerant and diverse practice!

I offer individualized attention, vibrant support and the diversity of many branches of yoga practice based on years of counseling and yoga therapy 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 and freedom from pain.

Boost your confidence and yoga practice while making positive changes with my support, knowledge and articulate coaching.

I teach at local yoga studios in Sayulita, Mexico, at Yoga Retreat Centers in the Puerto Vallarta area and offer private sessions and groups for diverse clientele.

Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, I taught at yoga teacher trainings, in leading yoga studios, in healthcare settings, at several hospital programs, for spas, in eldercare communities, in the workplace, at retreats and at conferences throughout the US, in France and Mexico. I have studied with some of the leading Yoga Masters of our time.

Are you interested in in seeking to maintain and improve your health and prevent illness?
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 to create a practice that suits you now?
Are you healing from an injury or surgery or medical condition that requires special attention at this time?
Would you like to experience Yoga Nidra, Yin Yoga, Joyful Laughter Yoga or Meditative Practices to diversify your yoga practice?

My Yoga Classes and Workshops are a creative and sophisticated blend of hatha yoga, yoga nidra, mudras and inspirational themes accompanied by crystal singing bowls and . . .

Invite you to cultivate a healing relationship with yourself
Accommodate diverse fitness levels and injuries
Offer mixed-level options for all ages
Focus on moving slowly with the breath
Gently educate and guide with articulated verbal cues
Include influences from Hatha Yoga, Yin Yoga, Pranayama, Hasya Yoga and iRest Yoga Nidra
Provide richly rewarding closing relaxation (savasana) with crystal bowls, Tibetan bowls or chimes.

Services include yoga for individuals and groups featuring:

Gentle Yoga
Slow Hatha
Yoga Nidra Meditation
Hasya (Laughter) Yoga
Yoga for Stress-Relief
Yoga and Meditation for Pain Relief
Laughing Through Your Chakras
Yoga for Older Adults
Yoga for Total Beginners
Yoga Customized for Athletes
Chair Yoga

iRest Yoga Nidra Meditation Classes

Integrative Restoration, iRest, Yoga Nidra is an ancient yogic practice that incorporates psychological tools to increase well-being and a sense of mastery in your life. Meditation in general, and iRest Yoga Nidra specifically, is designed to restore your body, mind, and senses to their natural functioning by laying down new neural synapses to your brain. Your attention becomes free from distraction and dissatisfaction and is able to recognize your inner essence. Even as life continues to bring ease and difficulty and everything in between, Yoga Nidra allows the opportunity to set your intention, practice holding opposites and experience a refreshingly deep sense of equanimity. Integrative Restoration, or iRest for short, is a Yoga Nidra protocol created by Dr. Richard Miller, Ph.D and Master Yoga Teacher. www.irest.us I studied with Richard Miller in the San Francisco Bay Area and honor his teachings.

Research studies show iRest as an evidence-based program. The practice has proven benefits for healing people through PTSD, depression, insomnia, chronic pain, anxiety, stress-related disorders and chemical dependency as well for the establishment of joy and a sense of well-being in daily life. Integrative Restoration, or iRest for short, has been proven to be so effective in medical-based research it has been approved by the US Department of Defense Task Force as a tier one approach for work with chronic pain. And, it was also approved in 2009 by the US Army Surgeon General as a treatment protocol for returning vets.

Lie down and set your intention. Join us for this deeply relaxing class where you will be guided through a series of powerfully healing yoga meditations while lying comfortably on a yoga mat with bolsters and blankets. Practice skills to assist you in experiencing a sense of mastery when dealing with life’s challenging situations. Learn tools to heal unresolved issues, pain, traumas and wounds present in the body, mind and senses.

Class opens with a short opening discussion. You will actively set your own intention and participate in making the practice your own. It is your journey.

Beginners welcome. Diverse fitness levels accommodated. Chairs available if you are not comfortable lying on the mat. Dress in comfortable clothes, no asana (yoga poses) involved.

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Private Yoga Nidra Meditation Sessions : A Deliciously Healing Journey

I am a Psychotherapist, Certified Integrative Yoga Therapist and Level One iRest Yoga Nidra Instructor. I trained with Richard Miller, the founder of iRest, and have taught iRest Yoga Nidra with groups and individuals dealing with major life transitions, chronic pain, depression, anxiety, cancer recovery, dementia, grief and PTSD.

Clients seeking an “inner holiday”, deeper joy, inner peace and enhanced creativity find iRest Yoga Nidra to be an amazingly effective practice.

We can customize iRest Yoga Nidra in private sessions where you may lie down on a comfy daybed, use a yoga mat with bolsters or sit in a chair. Sliding scale is available.

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Carmela Carlyle offers iRest Yoga Nidra Meditation Workshops in Sayulita, Mexico for individuals, workshops, private groups in their homes and visiting Yoga Retreat Groups.

Here are samples of recent iRest workshops offered during the winter of 2012-2013 at Hotelito Los Suenos Yoga Retreat Center which were fully-booked and received very positive client feedback.

Workshops and Private sessions can be customized to address chronic pain, depression, anxiety, PTSD, chemical dependency, healing from surgery or injury.
Sessions can also be customized for enhanced equanimity, peace, creativity and joy!

iRest Yoga Nidra is an especially effective tool for helping us to change old habits and belief systems during adult life transitions
Yoga and Meditation practitioners seeking to deepen their understanding of this ancient yoga practice and enjoy the exploration of the koshas.

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iRest Yoga Nidra Research and Programs

Current, Upcoming and Planned iRest Yoga Nidra Research sponsored by Richard Miller, Ph.D Psychologist, Founder of iRest, Integrative Yoga Nidra, Master Yogi and Founder of the International Yoga Therapy Association

Please check back here on a regular basis as we will post posters and published research regarding iRest Yoga Nidra as it comes available to the public. It takes time for each completed research project to be collated and written up, and accepted for publication.

iRest Yoga Nidra Research Completed:

Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions, Volume 12, Issue 3, 2012: (Evaluation of Meditation in the Treatment of Chemical Dependency) View Abstract Here

Long Beach VA: (iRest Yoga Nidra: A Pilot Study to Treat Women Veterans)

Ohio University: Department of Experimental Health Psychology: (The Effect of Meditation on Cortisol: A Comparison of Meditation Techniques to a Control Group) View Poster Here

Johns Hopkins Bayview Brain Injury Clinic (Mindfulness Based Group Therapy using iRest) View results here

John F. Kennedy University: Feasibility Study of Integrative Restoration (iRest) Yoga Nidra on Combat-Related PTSD (Veterans) View results here

Walter Reed Army Medical Center (Active duty service members: PTSD)  View results here

Miami FL VA (PTSD in veterans)

Brooke Army Medical Center: (Compassion Fatigue and Insomnia with Health Care Workers ) View poster here

COTS (Homelessness: Anxiety, Well-being)  View summary here; View poster here

New York (Chemical Dependency: Relapse Prevention). Results not yet published.

Evergreen College (College Students: Well-Being).  Results not yet published.

Boise State University (Stress, Multiple Sclerosis, and Cancer) View results here

Boise State University (Decreased Stress and Negative Mood in School Counselors) View results here

iRest Yoga Nidra Research Underway:

Brooke Army Medical Center (Couples & Resiliency)
North Chicago VA (Veterans: PTSD)
Washington, DC VA (Traumatic Brain Injury, Chronic Pain, PTSD)
University of Missouri (College Students: Well-Being) View poster here

iRest Yoga Nidra Research in Discussion:

GABA Levels, Depression and TBI
Cortisol Levels and Stress
Chemical Dependency
Multiple Sclerosis
Cancer
Chronic Pain
Insomnia/Sleep Issues

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General Yoga Nidra Research Articles

Please check back on a regular basis as we will post new articles of published research regarding Yoga Nidra.

Effect of yoga-nidra on blood glucose level in diabetic patients. View abstract here.
Indian J Physiol Pharmacol. 2012 Apr-Jun;56(2):161-7.
PMID: 19810584 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Effect of Yoga Nidra on physiological variables in patients of menstrual disturbances of reproductive age group. View abstract here.
Indian J Physiol Pharmacol. 2009 Jan-Mar;53(1):97-101.
PMID: 23387245 [PubMed - in process]

Yoga Nidra as a complementary treatment of anxiety and depressive symptoms in patients with menstrual disorder. View results here.
Int J Yoga. 2012 Jan-Jun; 5(1): 52–56.
doi: 10.4103/0973-6131.91715
PMCID: PMC3276934
Copyright : © International Journal of Yoga

Yoga nidra and its impact on student’s well being. View summary here.
By Dr. Kamakhya Kumar. Published in Yoga Mimansa Journal Vol. 36 No. 1

A study of the improvement of Physical and Mental Health through Yoga nidra. View summary here.
By Dr. Kamakhya Kumar. Published in Dev Sanskriti Journal Vol. 4 Year 4

Effect of Yoga nidra on hypertension & other psychological co-relates. View summary here.
By Dr. Kamakhya Kumar. Published in Yoga the Science Journal Vol. 3 Issue 7

Action Shot of Yoga Nidra

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Customized Family Yoga Sessions

Treat your family to interactive and fun yoga during your vacation!

Valley of the Moon Pose

Mother and Daughter Yoga

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Chair Yoga Delivers the Benefits of Yoga

The yoga mat may be a “magic carpet ride” for some of us, but it might feel more like “having the rug pulled out from under you” for others. As a Yoga Therapist, I very much want everyone to have access to the healing benefits of yoga and so I have developed and taught several Chair and Wheelchair Yoga Classes over the years. Some of the classes are done completely seated for people who cannot stand on their own at all, some have been for folks who can use the chair for supported balance poses and “Downward Dog” pose with hands on the seat of the chair. Beautiful “Sun Salutations” can be adapted for a chair yoga practice and a vigorous workout is quite accessible. Core-strengthening is a key goal for many people and we can do that seated too.

Chair Yoga is not only effective for people with so-called disabilities. I like teaching “Desk Stretch Yoga” for people in the workplace who do a lot of computer work. I hesitate to call the classes “Yoga for the Working Wounded”, but sometimes when I looked at the stiff shoulders, tightened jaws and pained look on their faces, the title did cross my mind. So much good yoga can be done while seated at work! Our wrists, lower backs, hips, shoulder, necks and jaws respond quite gratefully to yoga in the workplace chair.

I believe that Seated Yoga can be wonderfully effective way for beginners to focus on the really important part of yoga, pranayama, yogic breathing. Learning to extend the exhale and move with one’s breath while getting the feel for “inhaling up and exhaling down” is a vital part of the Yoga practice which can be learned while seated. Practicing beginning meditation as part of my Chair Yoga classes is also another key part of the yoga practice that lends itself well to being seated. So, there really are some advantages to the chair practice.

When I offer Laughter Yoga at professional conferences in auditoriums the audience is always seated and that has given me an opportunity to really get them moving and breathing deeply while seated. Of course, I do aim to bring them up to standing, waving their arms and laughing and shaking hands with each other, but I have learned to adapt the practice, even for the very able-bodied, to get the benefits while sitting on their bums.

So, if you have been considering “trying yoga”, or if you “used to practice yoga on the mat years ago” and worry that your current body might not like being on the floor, consider the many benefits of a Chair Yoga practice.