Training in
Yoga-Psychotherapy
The training consists of four parts and one week of self-experience and can be attended as an annual training or during two years. Subsequently, three immersion days take place each year, which can be attended as often as desired. The individual parts of the YoPT can also be completed several times for further deepening.
The training begins with an introductory day that lays the theoretical foundations of Yoga-Psychoterhapy and serves to gain a first impression (a zoom conversation is possible for interested persons from abroad).
PART ONE (Winter) teaches the most important yoga tools (breathing techniques, hand positions, postures, the mirror neural way of working, trifocal processing. We build yoga resources for working with depression, anxiety, problem solving and shock trauma. PART ONE is taught in two modules and lays the foundation – integrating the body into psychotherapy. The content is about building resources, teaching self-awareness, self-awareness and self-compassion and affirming one’s basic needs and how they are perceived in the body.
PART TWO (Spring) is dedicated to healing deep childhood wounds using the yoga resource and transforming defence patterns stored in the body and mind. We use YoPT to dissolve dysfunctional beliefs, transform ego-states, as well as for deep healing work for the “inner child” (limbic system). This module is dedicated to “cleaning up”.
PART THREE (Summer) incorporates the spirituality of yoga into psychotherapy. We expand the yoga tools to work with “hypno-yoga” and “body meditation” and integrate yogic and western “virtues” and heart qualities into our work, which opens the way to the unconscious “potential”, the so-called “superconscious” that lies dormant in every human being. This offers the possibility to work on issues of the future differently than just rationally, but to include intuition and creativity and to prepare a “spiritual” resource for the deep trauma work of PART FOUR.
PART FOUR (Autumn) uses all the earlier parts of YoPT (the “sattvic” body resource, the healing of the “inner child” using the developmental resource and the “spiritual” resource of opened potential) to facilitate deep trauma work. We learn to work with patients who suffer not only from dysfunctional ego-states but from actual unconscious dissociations due to early childhood experiences of violence and/or neglect.
Self-experience in YoPT is the final module of the training, which gives us the opportunity to build up our own “sadhana” (self-practice) that we can integrate into everyday life as a personal resource for our profession. Here we experience YoPT as a path for our own personal growth. The week can be attended at the end or also between the training blocks and can also be booked several times.
Introductory Day to Yoga-Psychotherapy
Introduction and preview of Yoga-Psychotherapy YoPT®
Yoga Psychotherapy (YoPT®) begins with an introductory day so that you can decide if the training is something for you. The workshop teaches the first “yoga tools” for your own practice and introduces the mirror-neural way of working.
In the morning we learn to build up a first yoga resource and to integrate it into our psychotherapeutic work. The afternoon is dedicated to practising in dyads and gives an overview of the whole training. (Those who would have to travel from abroad can also join via zoom for the theory in the morning).
I look forward to meeting you!
The parts of YoPT®
PART ONE - Bodywork YoPT
«Growing up»
PART ONE lays the foundations of yoga psychotherapy and teaches a set of breathing techniques, body positions and hand postures from yoga. The focus is on integrating the “yogic tools” into one’s own psychotherapeutic work, mirror neural processing and building up the “sattvic yoga resource” to solve problems.
PART ONE is dedicated to the “Growing up” of our patients: “Growing up” means to be able to regulate oneself emotionally and to take responsibility for oneself from a resource state.
PART TWO - Healing Work YoPT
«Cleaning up»
In PART TWO we use the yoga resource to transform protective structures, make ego states conscious and heal the “inner child” with yoga tools. We use the “chakra theory” and connect it with developmental needs, defence patterns, ego states and Porges’ polyvagal theory.
PART TWO is dedicated to “cleaning up“, the shadow work, the dissolving of disfunctional, old patterns that hinder development and create problems again and again. This requires a deep healing of the “inner child”.
PART THREE - Spirituality YoPT
«Waking up»
PART THREE uses the spiritual qualities of yoga by incorporating meditative techniques into bodywork (“hypno-yoga”), intuitive work with deepened visualisation and the building of “transpersonal resources”. We dedicate ourselves to the future potential of our patients, deep transformations, farewell to the old and departure into the new on a different level than is possible through conversation alone. To this end, we integrate the supra-personal “heart qualities” of the Western and Eastern traditions into the bodywork and open the “transpersonal field” or the spiritual dimension of yoga.
The “spiritual resource” not only serves the potential and future work, but is also the most important resource for the deep trauma work in PART FOUR.
PART THREE is dedicated to “Waking up“, the yogic spirituality anchored in the body as a therapeutic tool.
PART FOUR - Trauma-YoPT
«Integration»
PART FOUR builds on the previous three parts of YoPT by combining the “sattvic resource” from PART ONE, the “chakra resource” from PART TWO and the “spiritual resource” from PART THREE to offer deep trauma work for developmental trauma, early childhood dissociations and long-standing personality disorders.
We deal with emotional and mental dissociations caused by neglect, abuse, violence and attachment disorders that lead to serious psychological sequelae. In the combination of gentle yogic bodywork, most intensive resource work and careful confrontation, i.e. awareness work and dissolving projection and transference, dissociated, previously unbearable feelings can be mindfully allowed and dissolved step by step.
PART FOUR is the trauma work of YoPT.
Advanced courses
YoPT Self-Experience Retreat
Experience YoPT® - the development of one's own "sadhana" (Self-practice)
Every year, the YoPT offers a retreat in group self-experience that can be attended repeatedly. Each time, a different focus of YoPT is in the centre: the yoga practice, meditation, mindfulness, own transformation, potential unfolding, working with the “Great Heart”, with one’s own creativity, opening of the “transpersonal consciousness” etc.
The retreat takes place in beautiful places in nature and combines rest, relaxation and self-experience in YoPT. We build up our own “sadhana” (practice) which accompanies us into everyday life. The path of yoga is without end – it is the maturing process of the human being, which becomes more and more differentiated, rich and comprehensive as we grow older.
In addition to self-practice, the retreat is also dedicated to socialising and networking with colleagues and can be attended instead of the self-experience classes required for certification.
Immersion Days in Yoga-Psychotherapy
Updates, supervision, intervision and networking with colleagues - stay on the cutting edge of YoPT®!
The YoPT offers three immersion days each year, which provide the opportunity to deepen or update one’s knowledge, meet with colleagues to clarify questions, share knowledge and follow the further development of the YoPT method.
The immersion days have a thematic focus, each oriented towards one of the FOUR PARTS of YoPT. If certification is sought, 6 immersion days should be attended.
Twice a year, following the immersion day, the general meeting of the YoPT Association takes place. One immersion day per year is free of charge for YoPT association members.