Mind & Body Practices
We use gentle yoga therapy poses, breathing, mindfulness meditation (MBSR), and visualization techniques to ease stress and promote a greater sense of calm and well-being.
Our programs safely address the side effects of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation treatment. These mind/body exercises can also be helpful for those with lymphedema, neuropathy, and osteoporosis.
Research has shown these practices can help to ease and/or improve side effects, such as:
BOLSTER & BRIDGE: THE AUDIO COMPANION©
Our user-friendly audio immersion program includes many of the same calming practices as our onsite and Zoom classes, and helps to provide comfort and company during treatment.
It begins with 4 overall concepts (The 4 Bolsters), that provide mind/body support for stress relief while undergoing treatment. The second segment of The Audio Companion (The 4 Bridges), offers meditations, visualizations, and breath work (mind/body tools) to guide you through the specific phases of treatment and healing:
- Pre/Post surgery
- Chemo and/or radiation
- Waiting for test results
- My Dr. says “See you in 3 months” – What now?
The program can be listened to at home, in the hospital, in waiting rooms, or the treatment center on a smart phone, tablet, or computer. It provides tips, concepts, self-care practices, and deep relaxations from a mind/body perspective. It helps to address common stressors that can come along with a cancer diagnosis.
ON-SITE (IN PERSON) AND ZOOM CLASSES
We offer our program in different formats of weekly classes and/or workshops. We can also customize the format to your specific needs. We conduct both private sessions in your home, and group classes in hospitals, treatment centers, and anywhere cancer survivorship programs are held. We now offer these classes on Zoom since the onset of COVID19.
YOGA BOLSTER
(Gentle & Restorative)
These classes are designed for patients who are currently in (or have recently undergone) chemotherapy and/or radiation treatment. In addition, participants must be a minimum of 8 weeks post-op and with their doctor’s approval. We also recommend this program for those who are looking for a more relaxing experience or are working with other chronic health issues. We focus on gentle movement to keep muscles and joints supple, breath work to relax the central nervous system, and meditation to reduce stress and anxiety. The physical sequences are conducted primarily in chairs and in relaxing supine positions. We also do some balance work using the wall and yoga props. These practices help to bring a greater sense of comfort to the mind and body, while soothing side effects of treatment
YOGA BRIDGE
(Stamina & Conditioning)
These classes are designed for those 6 months or more post-treatment and with some yoga experience (i.e. Yoga Bolster classes). We begin to incorporate more standing postures modified to the needs of the individual. We focus on gently building strength, balance, and flexibility back into the body with practices to gradually boost stamina. We also use mindfulness meditation to build a greater sense of emotional peace and to rebuild greater confidence in connecting back to everyday activities.
CRYSTAL SOUND YOGA
The pure, peaceful sound waves of crystal bowls were first used in ancient Egypt. Their restorative vibrations engage the relaxation reflex, disrupt the pain reflex, and ease our central nervous system to create a deep sense of well-being. By opening up our bodies with specific yoga poses we then fully absorb these restorative sounds, releasing “stuck energy” in the mind and body. Join us for this deeply relaxing, meditative experience (with Shannon Mcinteer – Crystal sound bowl practitioner).
Thank you for your kind words!
“Patients with cancer often experience physical pain, fatigue, demoralization, and distress. Alison Crowley’s gentle yoga approach to our patients has been profoundly instrumental in helping our patients cope with both the physical and emotional resiliency needed to persevere through the cancer experience. I believe her work has made a very meaningful impact in the lives of our patients and am very grateful for the service.”
Arash Asher, MD – Director of the Cancer Rehabilitation and Survivorship Program at Cedars-Sinai’s Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Center of Los Angeles, CA
“Alison’s Yoga Therapy, for many of my patients, has literally been a godsend. It has allowed women to start the process of reclaiming their bodies after cancer treatment, moreover, within a safe, understanding community.”
May Lin Tao, MD, MSPH – Valley Radiotherapy Medical Associates Center for Radiation Therapy of Beverly Hills, CA
“As a cancer survivor and a psychoanalyst, I’m very aware of the benefits of harnessing the body-mind connection for healing and well-being. I’ve benefited enormously from working with and learning from Alison Crowley. She is a highly gifted and knowledgeable yoga teacher, whose delightful sense of humor and deep compassion are wonderful accompaniments to her wisdom about the body and her keen attunement to what each individual needs. I’m very grateful for the devotion, joy, and impeccable ethics she brings to her healing work.”
Sharon Heath – Jungian Analyst and author of “The Fleur Trilogy”
“The side effects of the breast cancer drugs rendered me so stiff and in pain that it was literally hard to move. I am convinced I would be in a wheelchair if it weren’t for yoga. Yoga also gave me tools to cope with physical and mental challenges outside of class. Alison is a terrific teacher. Her depth of knowledge about yoga is amazing and informs her teaching. She creates a room where you are safe, encouraged, and made whole.”
Linda – Bolster & Bridge student
“Yoga therapy with Alison is saving my life, one class and one moment at a time. If I didn’t have access to Alison’s classes at least twice/week, I would lose heart. I am living with Stage IV breast cancer, thanks to the physical, mental and emotional benefits of the free-for-cancer survivors small class setting of Alison’s brand of yoga therapy. I feel loved, respected, improved, supported and strengthened in my cancer journey. My chemotherapy treatments may not be working yet, but I am ever so hopeful that things will turn around every time I see Alison’s kind face and her encouraging words and yoga life-view. I have taken yoga classes and private instruction in my life before cancer, but yoga therapy is so much more. It is life-giving. It is life-saving.”
Kathy – Bolster & Bridge student
“I began seriously practicing yoga when I was twenty nine, and except for two prolonged interludes when I incurred serious spinal injuries. I later learned were caused by my “trained and experienced” instructors continually using me to model prolonged and improper asanas and who discounted or did not know enough to acknowledge my physical complaints. So when I say that Alison Crowley is beyond remarkable, I want you to know that I know! Today, alone, she cautioned the group against the same numerous holds that were demanded of me for decades.
Alison is extraordinarily gifted, intuitive, attentive, and indefatigably kind! Not only does she possess an outlandish depth of knowledge and effectively impart that knowledge in both a practical and personable manner, she follows each individual’s malady (ofttimes multiple maladies!), recognizing each person’s needs (even unspoken) and attends to each, in a truly caring manner and with a generous spirit. One might expect it would take away from the hour en toto, but it adds to the cohesion; we all benefit and recognize how best to carry, to hold oneself, as we deepen our own practice and increase our care for our community, at large. And then of course, there is the spiritual, the poetic side of this being!!”
Liz – Bolster & Bridge student
Alison Crowley (C-IAYT) – Founder & Certified Yoga Therapist
Phone: (323) 253-6717
Email: CLICK HERE
