Presenting My Research at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton

Living and Breathing Deeply Through Yoga, my presentation on using yoga to help with diagnoses of anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and mood disorders.

        I was asked to present my research at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, a hospital in my community. I agreed and was excited to present, as a graduate student studying social work, I had the privilege of completing some of my practicum hours at St. Joe's. I was approached to present not to my usual group of academics and clinicians, this would be a little more challenging: I was a guest of Mood Menders, an outpatient support program for people afflicted with a diagnoses of bipolar disorder and depression mood disorders. I knew of the group, they've been around for a long time and attracted large numbers of not just individuals who have experienced these diagnoses but their supports from friends, families and healthcare members attend as well. I wanted to approach the group with the professionalism of my academic presentations but I felt they weren't interested in the research, I suspected they would want more practical information; I saw this as an opportunity. I am a social worker, a graduate student and a yoga teacher. These are all "hats" that I wear at different times although they do tend to merge during these presentations, I wondered if this presentation would be the place for me to get the audience more involved, share my passion as a clinician with them.

I had one problem in preparing this presentation, the room was suspected to be almost full and it's an auditorium with seats and desks that are bolted to the floor; there was essentially no space to do yoga. I had an idea, seated sun salutations.

Seated Sun Salutations at St. Joe's in Hamilton, ON as part of Yoga for Anxiety & Depression

The idea worked perfectly, I had the almost packed room breathing, sweeping their arms, lifting their gaze, rooting through their sit bones, pushing through the crowns of their heads and meditating without ever getting out of their seats. The best part wasn't even the success of getting a group of new people to try yoga and allowing me to share my passion with them, it was the response I received afterwards. I was overwhelmed with a line-up of people who wanted to talk to me, learn more about my research and sign-up for a treatment group yoga class with me.

As exciting as presenting to Mood Menders was, I will be off to Turkey shortly to give a paper I wrote, Theorizing Yoga as a Mindfulness Skill at the World Conference on Psychology Counselling & Guidance. I will update soon with pictures and share my experience of the conference.

Tim.