231 How Trauma-Informed Yoga Can Be Integrated Ethically & Effectively: Coaching Episode With Kelly Henry

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This special coaching episode brings in Kelly Henry, a licensed social worker and a graduate for my Yoga Basics course, who shares her successes and where she is needing support with her integration of yoga into therapy sessions. In this episode, you'll walk away with more clarity and practical tips that can guide you to help you offer yoga in an ethical and effective way.

On today's episode of Yoga in the Therapy Room podcast, stay tuned.

So. Whether you're here to expand your skills, enhance your self care, or both, you are in the right place. Join me on this journey to help you be one step closer to bringing Yoga into your therapy room.

Welcome to Yoga In the Therapy Room Podcast, the Nontraditional Therapist guide to Integrating Yoga into your therapy practice. I'm Chris McDonald here to guide you. We are shifting gears at yoga in the therapy room here and now, including coaching episodes where I have a listener on as a guest and answer a question for them so I walk them through whatever it is they're struggling with.

She is proud owner and operator of soltherapy.org Kelly's core philosophy evolves around self-empowerment, firmly believing that everyone is entitled to the highest quality of life. Complimenting her established practices. Kelly recently obtained certification in yoga with the aim of integrating mindfulness and meditation techniques into her conventional psychotherapeutic approaches.

The question she has today is one, I know so many of you listening are also sitting with how to bring that wisdom of yoga into clinical work in a way that honors both ethical guidelines and the deeply embodied healing process our clients deserve. Welcome to the Yoga in the Therapy Room podcast. Kelly.

Thank you. It's wonderful to be here. Very excited. I'm so happy. Yeah. I'm happy to have you and see you again. Yes. Since you took my yoga basics course. Well, let's start with how did you first discover yoga?

Lo and behold, it was life changing for me. Just noticing how using my breath and using different parts of my body could help improve my overall mental and physical health.

Chris McDonald: Yeah, I love that. Sometimes it's like a surprise how, how much it can benefit when we don't even realize it. Absolutely. So how do you bring yoga into your therapy room?

Kelly Henry: So I have what I call, we, um, the business is soul therapy and it is an integration of mental health, psychotherapy and yoga. I have a yoga room here actually. And so we do different groups that incorporate yoga poses to help with moving energy, managing the nervous system, or just simple when the clients come in to the session just doing, beginning the therapy with a a breath work.

Chris McDonald: When you say shaking meditation, so what does that mean?

Kelly Henry: So basically just kind of movement. They can. Start with standing and just coming up to the toes and then the toes to the heels, maybe shaking the hands out, just really loosening up the body, maybe standing in place or even just kind of walking around in a circle, but just noticing their, their body and being aware of their surroundings and, and reinforcing this as a safe place you can be vulnerable and to get rid of any extra energy that's not wanted there.

Chris McDonald: No, I so appreciate that. I think that. There's always a, a good place to start with many clients who feel rushed or stressed just to start the session and yeah, no, I appreciate you sharing that. Are you a mental health therapist interested in bringing yoga into your therapy room, but feel uncertain where to start?

It's the perfect tool for anyone wanting to blend yoga into therapy in a safe and impactful way. Step into the therapy room with confidence and transform your sessions today. Go to HC podcast.org/. Build confidence. That's HC podcast.org/build Confidence. What is the area that you wanted help with today?

You know, when is it an appropriate time? As I said, sometimes in the beginning I do that, but maybe some examples of, you know, at what point in therapy do you say, let's pause and let's try to do this or that.

Chris McDonald: That's my favorite time in therapy when I can say, let's pause. Mm-hmm. And let's move on to some yoga.

No, I love that. 'cause there's so many parts to this and of course this is a longer conversation than we have to get really deep into this. But I'll do my best to work through this in this coaching episode to go through it. So, because it sounds like maybe some of the ethics is your question, how to help maybe reluctant clients.

Kelly Henry: Yeah, like ethically, how can we encourage or support and it stay within our perimeters of services that we provide?

Can we do this? And what can we do and what does this look like? And of course, this is my inspiration for creating my Yoga Basics course, but I think it starts with intention. Yoga is about awareness and intention. And I love what you said about the movement with, um, shaking and you said it was a shaking meditation.

That is what they needed in that moment. And the intention is what does the client need? What is the client wanting in this moment? And we don't always have the answer to that. Some clients, it's much more difficult to sort out and figure out what they need. So sometimes it can be What would be helpful for you in the session today?

And then when they start with you, then you can say, remember, we talked about this before. How would that feel to use that in session right now? That we could bring some movement, breath, or meditation? Where are you today? And it also helps with that interoception, which is that knowing the internal of self, what's going on inside of them, of what they are needing.

So are they feeling on that polyvagal ladder more fight or flight response? Like you said, the shaking energy, is there something they need to release for that sympathetic activation, or are they more shut down? Is their window of tolerance closed and they're just not feeling their body? So maybe a body scan could be in order at that moment.

And sometimes it is that collaboration with a client. You know, I'm noticing that you're having trouble connecting to words today. I'm wondering if you can share too, if it would be helpful to maybe that we could do some energetic practice today. What would that feel like for you? And just see what they say.

Kelly Henry: Yes, it does. And, and I like that, um, because I do mention it often in the initial assessment with people when they're. Excited about it and then I just haven't felt the comfort moving forward with, Hey, remember when, but I like how you said that, remember? Yeah. In your initial visit when we talked about it, can this be a time that we try that?

I really, I like that a lot because, yeah, I'd said it at the initial assessment, but then I just never felt like, okay, when do I plug it in now? So thank you for that.

Chris McDonald: So we're reminding, yeah, reminding them of that. But I think we gotta rewind too that the kind of yoga we're integrating is not fit yoga. So let's make that clear with clients upfront.

Let's do a flow or let's do sun salutations. But there's so much more to it. And I think clients, they may not know what, what you can offer, and they're not psychic. So we do have to be upfront with them to say, Hey, here are some practices that we could try today, or would this be something you'd wanna try?

If they really, if they feel like they got a lot of benefit out of grounding to start em. Their practice today with you, their, their session or maybe in the middle of session. I know you said that sometimes it's hard. How do we pull that in? Right. Um, but I think it goes back to understanding that this is always an option for them.

I think that intention is, is this something you're bringing in because you like yoga as a therapist and it helped you feel good? Right. That's. Good, but no, this, we have to bring it in as part of what they want. This is about them, and I think that that's an important shift we do have to make as far as the ethics of yoga, is to make sure that we are very clear with informed consent, with our written form.

Consent is ready to go. Just like when you bring IFS or EMDR, brainspotting, whatever modalities you bring, you need it in your informed consent. And to be crystal clear on what that is, so they have it in the written form, but also verbal. Two. And with yoga it's a little bit different. We need informed consent every single time that we bring it in there so that it's clear.

'cause there's days that they may not be up for it. And that's keeping it trauma informed. Yeah, because if they say yes initially and then the next time you meet and they're just like, I just don't wanna do this. They may be reluctant 'cause they don't want to. But they're afraid to say something. Right.

Language. So if we wanna keep it trauma informed, we have to say, you know, this is an option. You can, or you can, even as you're doing the practice, you can do it this way with lifting arm up. Or if you wanna bring the arm out to the side in front. So giving choices when we teach practices is another part of being trauma informed with invitational language.

So they always have a choice that client autonomy. Does that make sense for that? It does,

Kelly Henry: it does. It really does.

Is we have to look at scope of competence, which is more of the ethical question, right? And that's where we, that brings in the training, the skills, the experiences that we have, the supervision. Because if you went to a yoga class many times in the last year, I. And you start bringing it in your therapy room, but you don't have the training, you don't have the skills.

You are not in your scope of competence to bring yoga into your therapy room. So we do need to get some training. The other piece that I think is, is true for the ethics part, are you doing yoga? Are you embodying these practices? I don't think that ethically you should be bringing this in your therapy room unless you are doing the practices first.

Kelly Henry: I, I definitely do. I teach yoga classes. It's part of soul therapy. Um, we offer evening classes and then also, um, wonderful. I attend the class. Yep.

I teach clients about the polyvagal ladder and we talk about it regularly. Where are you on the ladder today? Are you down the ladder in that sympathetic, that fight or flight? Are you more shut down? Or are you on the ventral vagal energy? And really tying that in in your informed consent to counseling theory too is gonna protect yourself and your board so that they know, oh, okay, so this is how she's integrating.

And one of the things I've done with my yoga basics course too, is tying it in with other counseling theories like DBT with distress tolerance as a perfect way to combine modalities together with. Getting into a difficult pose like Warrior one or two, or chair pose, and then coming back to safety, teaching clients about safe poses, which could be seated.

So teaching that as well. But titrating, just like we've learned, many of us have learned about trauma that we have to titrate right from difficult sensations to open that window of tolerance. With yoga, we can push at the edges. That's the beauty of all this is, is we can bring them into the more difficult pose and just encourage them through it.

But then come back to safety and maybe extend the time a little longer in that pose and come back to safety. So that could be one way. With DBT, we can integrate with almost any counseling theory, even CBT. Well, as you say that, what do you notice in your body as you say, this thought of, I can't do this, maybe you feel more tensing or tightness, what would it feel like if you said instead, I can think of this in a different way and maybe I can do this.

How does that feel? And even to do a movement to correspond with that,

Kelly Henry: that's helpful to hear those things. The tolerance. Yeah, for sure, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. I like that a lot.

It ties in perfectly with teaching the inner resourcing and with brain spotting too, because we can. Set it up so that they're in a commerce space before we do the resource spot with some yoga practices, some asana, breath work, meditation, whatever it takes, and then at the end, before they leave, bringing in those practices again.

So allowing that time and space.

Kelly Henry: Yeah. I actually do, um, EMDR also, and that is exactly right in the resourcing, we do a lot of. Scanning your body. I'm noticing

Chris McDonald: body scans are, that's yoga.

Kelly Henry: Yep. Yep. Yeah.

Chris McDonald: Yeah. And the languaging is just so important, just to encourage them to go at their own pace, take their time, and offering part of the informed consent is they can opt out at any time and just reminding them, you know, this is.

So I'm gonna offer this and you don't wanna do this today, so let's practice saying no. Just like you role play with clients for other things, right? Sometimes we have to push our clients a little more to practice that, to stand up to, to get firm in their boundaries even with us.

Kelly Henry: Well, thank you. That's very helpful.

Chris McDonald: And a couple other things too. I was thinking, 'cause I know you said about helping them with a, with a emotional regulation piece too. So any of these practices, including the body scans, we can use some of these questions to say like, what do you notice in your body? After that, that interoception. Any practice we give, we can ask these kinds of questions.

Sometimes I look for those moments too, or some clients that talk a lot. Okay. Can I stop you right there? Hello? Is it gonna be beneficial? The question is, is it gonna be beneficial for them to keep going on and on, on, on, on, right? I don't think so. In a lot of cases, I think sometimes we have to stop them.

What do you notice in your body as you say that? Let's just pause for a moment. They're like four topics down and you're, you're still trying to process and help them through the first one, right? So this allows things to slow down, allows them to connect internally. Oh wait. I'm noticed. My shoulders are getting really tense.

But that's something you can reflect on them too. You know, I notice your shoulders are, are getting really tense. What would it feel like right now if we did a yoga practice and did some breathing with that to help release that tension? How does that feel for you and if they agree to it? Inhale, bring your shoulders up, breathing in.

Exhale, bringing shoulders out with a sound. Letting that go. Just an example. That makes sense. I guess it does

Chris McDonald: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Because I think that therapists are, it's simpler to sometimes think about bringing it in the beginning, but, but it's okay in the middle.

If we notice they're becoming dysregulated, that they're really having a hard time, that's a perfect prime opportunity to say, Hey, would it be okay if we brought this in now? And it doesn't have to be fancy words, it can just be, here's the invitation.

Kelly Henry: Chris, do you find yourself doing just co-regulating throughout the practice too?

Chris McDonald: Yes. Noticing

Kelly Henry: if you, you check your breath.

Chris McDonald: I'm, we're on the same page. Yes. Yes. I was just thinking that, because the other thing I think that therapists don't always do is if you've ever sat with a client in a session, you start to get, I'm starting to feel ungrounded. I feel like I'm floating and I don't feel, and just reflecting that back to the client to say, Hey, I'm noticing this.

'cause that can help people to check into their bodies as well. Does that answer the que? I know that was a lot in that question.

Kelly Henry: I did, I did put a lot into the question, so, yes. Which is great.

Chris McDonald: It was great. Yes.

Kelly Henry: Yes, definitely. Um, you know, the ethics. Part and then just to be effective and delivering both services to them, being trauma informed.

Yes. So I appreciate that. Good reminders, right?

Chris McDonald: Yes. Yeah, for sure. Well, I thank you so much, Kelly, for coming on the podcast today.

Kelly Henry: Yes. Thank you for having me. And thank you again for the class. Yeah, for this, the training because it really, I have incorporated it. Um, like I said, I created a binder with the information that you provided for me.

Excellent.

Chris McDonald: Hmm.

Chris McDonald: Awesome. So what's the best way for listeners to find you to learn more about you?

Kelly Henry: Um, I do have a website. It is soul therapy.org and as I said, we're located in Zanesville. On that website, it, it shows the services that we provide. And like I said, I do offer yoga classes and different varieties of workshops and all of those things are listed there.

Chris McDonald: So exciting. Yeah. And thanks again.

Thank you. That wraps up another episode of Yoga the Therapy Room podcast. Thank you listeners for being here today. If this episode got you thinking about how you can integrate yoga into your sessions ethically, I invite you to check out my newly released all online Yoga Basics course for therapists.

Plus, as an added bonus, you get two 30 minute individual consultations with me to tailor what you learn to your unique practice. This course gives you the tools and the confidence to integrate yoga in a way that is safe, grounded, and aligned. Let's bring the healing power of yoga into your therapy room.

Enrollment is open for a limited time. Go to HC podcast.org/spring launch. That's HC podcast.org/spring launch. And once again, this is Chris McDonald sending each one of you much light and love. Until next time, take care. Thanks for listening to today's episode. The information in this podcast is for general informational and educational purposes only.

Always check with your doctor to see if it's safe for you. If you need a professional, please find the right one for you.