This past August, I had the pleasure of attending a week long training at the Providence Renewal Centre in Edmonton, Alberta that offered a proven way of facilitating deep healing. Yoga Nidra is an ancient meditative practice that takes the practitioner into forgotten places within, for the purposes of deep rest, renewal and healing. Traditionally Yoga Nidra has been offered by Yoga teachers as part of a Yoga class or as a stand alone practice. But things have changed. Over the course of this week long training, I was in the presence of 40 Yoga teachers, Yoga therapists, counsellors and psychotherapists. The training, led by Master Yoga Teacher and Clinical Psychologist, Richard Miller, Ph.D, was nothing short of superb. Richard has taken a beautiful healing practice, Yoga Nidra, and made it even better. iRest is both comprehensive in design and broad in application. It can work with an individual’s beliefs or emotional experience in the moment for example, and help to dissolve any blockage that may be in the way of experiencing the peace and harmony within. This enhanced Yoga Nidra practice is being used successfully in the treatment of a number of conditions, from chronic pain to homelessness. I’m particularly excited about its promise in the treatment of addiction and psychological trauma. In fact, iRest, or Integrative Restoration, is actively being researched by the US Military with service men and women returning from combat. The research has been looking at the role of iRest in the treatment of psychological trauma. So far the research indicates iRest has a noticeable and lasting effect on quelling the symptoms of post traumatic stress in this traumatized population. Just think what this practice could do for you and me? As for addiction, Richard shared he has used iRest successfully with his clients in an inpatient setting so far.
Overall, this was an excellent training experience. It deepened and broadened the Yoga and psychotherapy work that I do. Now I have an additional and proven way that is rooted in the Yoga tradition and researched by modern science of meeting people in the moment who are struggling with the effects of psychological trauma, and of paving the psychological way for their return to the Harmony within.
