How can yoga therapy help kids, teens, and their families? 

We’ve all seen the seemingly exponential uptick in mental health issues in kids and teens. It is not easy to be a human being, and perhaps even harder to be a young human being these days. Kids and teens (and their families) deserve someone in their corner who can meet them where they’re at, hold space for what they’re going through, and provide them with guidance and tools to navigate their lives. A yoga therapist provides this support using yogic practices–movement, breath, meditation–tailored to the individual’s specific needs. 

Cami has been working with children and families in childcare and educational settings for over a decade, and has extensive training and teaching experience in yoga for kids of all ages and their families. Cami understands personally the healing power and potential of the yoga practice, and wishes she’d had the therapeutic support of a yoga practice when she was navigating her own struggles during her childhood. Cami also understands the toll childhood mental illness can take on an entire family, and thus the importance of supporting the entire family unit.

Certainly anyone and everyone, as we all likely have something going on that could use our care. Every yoga therapist has a different set of interests, and a different wheelhouse, but has received extensive training in how to therapeutically address many different kinds of disease/illness with yoga. Yoga therapy can help with alleviating chronic pain, physical rehabilitation from injury, addressing symptoms of illness or disease, including some neurological conditions and mental illnesses. Most yoga therapists tend to specialize in one area.

Yoga therapy can support your child if they are struggling with:

• Depression, anxiety

• Self-harm and/or suicidality

• Trauma, PTSD and C-PTSD

• ADHD or Autism Spectrum Disorder

• OCD, addiction, or harmful habits/patterns of behavior

• Eating disorders and/or body dysmorphic disorder 

• Emotional or behavioral dysregulation

• Negative, limiting, and/or self-sabotaging beliefs/behaviors and low self-esteem

• Puberty, menarche/menstruation, and/or pelvic floor dysfunction

• Bullying, social anxiety, or other social issues

• Gender dysphoria, transitioning, and/or accepting sexuality & gender identity

Cami’s approach to yoga therapy for mental health stems from training both in yoga and psychology/neuroscience, with the purpose of combining these approaches to support total well-being. Though deemed “mental” illness, many researchers have made very clear the deep connection between the physical and mental well-being, which is why a somatic approach to mental health is not only beneficial, but necessary. As Cami often says, “you can’t heal from the neck up.” Regardless of diagnoses, Cami’s modality of offering is always trauma-sensitive; to learn more about what trauma-informed yoga is, click here.