Yoga Tree Workshops and Retreats

Hatha Fundamentals
with Susanne Hutchinson
Tuesdays, September 24-October 29, 4:00 pm-5:00 pm
$75 for the series/or drop-in for $15

Hatha Fundamentals is a six-session series designed to give the beginner or returning student a solid foundation in basic poses, breathing techniques and philosophy.

This series is the perfect place to begin, or to reawaken and resume your practice. A series of slower-paced, informative classes will provide you with a strong foundation in the practice of Yoga, preparing you to proceed with confidence to other classes.

This course includes brief historical and philosophical background of Yoga, study and practice of the fundamental Yoga postures including correct body positioning and alignment for your body, understanding props and how to use them, and detailed instruction on how to combine breath and movement.

Class limited to 12 persons to enhance individualized instruction.

Exploring Somatic Movement ​
with Jill Aldridge, HSEC
Thursdays, October 3-24, 4:00-5:00pm
$60 for the series or drop-in for $18

In this 4-week series you’ll learn core somatic movements to easily release physical tension and improve posture. By focusing awareness on the internal sensations of movement and how your body moves, you’ll be exercising your body and your brain for increased range of motion, ease, and balance. While traditional exercise can be vigorous and goal oriented, Somatics is about the process of movement and engaging the brain’s intelligence in sensing and controlling muscles. This greatly improves muscle function and releases the unnecessary holding that leads to tension, pain, and stiffness without stretching. At the end of each class you’ll feel more relaxed, supple, and flexible.
 
About Jill Aldridge, HSEC:
Jill is a Hanna Somatic Exercise Coach and Clinical Somatic practitioner with certifications in massage therapy, body-mind coaching, brain and sensory integration, and meditation. She teachers classes and offers hands-on sessions in the greater Seattle area.

Slow Your Roll
Myofascial Release ​
with Colleen Bell
November 2, 1:00-3:30pm
$40 preregistered/$45 at the door

Are you feeling burned out? Overwhelmed? Anxious? Over stressed?

This extended practice is for you! Balance out your daily activity overload by slowing down and unwinding tension, using Yoga Tuneup balls and restorative postures.

We’ll focus on unraveling excess stress and tension in the physical body. Give  yourself permission to unwind & let go, relaxing the mind and breath.

Self Myofascial Release works with the fascia (connective tissue). This self massage get us out of pain and helps us be more present in our bodies.

Post roll out, the body is ready to soften into some restorative postures, activating the parasympathetic nervous system (rest & digest) to bring balance.

Give yourself the gift of healing self care.

Yoga Tuneup balls will be provided for this workshop (and will be available for purchase after).

Regrowing Our Wings
Yoga for Healing Trauma ​
with Deborah King and Jennifer Kollasch
November 10, 1:00-3:00pm
$45 preregistered/$50 at the door

with Deborah King, E-RYT 500
and Jennifer Kollasch, MA, LMHC, DDMHS
 
Trauma is an injury, in relation to an event or life situation, that overwhelms the nervous system, altering the way we relate to ourselves, and the world. It is not a story that simply happened in the past; it creates an imprint of fear held in the body, creating a chronic and ongoing set of adaptive responses that continue to tax our entire systems. This imprint can show up in many ways, and may appear to be only in the mind. However, research shows us that trauma is a physical experience and is held in the body, directly affecting a person’s thinking and how they show up in the world. For healing to occur, reconnecting to our bodies, their instincts, and their resources of feeling and wisdom can be crucial.

Yoga can be a wonderful tool in the healing process. The practice of yoga can allow us to create a safe space within ourselves to reconnect the parts of us that may feel severed or lost. As this reconnection occurs, yoga can teach us to calm our nervous systems with breath, physical poses, and meditation; and to gradually undo the chronic tension, pain, and emotional and physical responses resulting from the trauma’s imprint. Yoga also teaches us that we are already whole, and that our identity is not the experiences we go through, but the self that can touch on peace, self-understanding, and joy regardless of our circumstances.

In this workshop, Deborah King (E-RYT 200, RYT 500: Yoga Alliance; Advanced Teacher of Yoga Therapy: Kripalu School of Integrative Yoga Therapy) will lead a gentle practice created around tools for addressing triggers and symptoms of trauma and PTSD, while integrating information about the way the body and the nervous system hold and process trauma. No experience is necessary, and all are welcome.

About Jennifer Kollasch: Professionally, I graduated from Antioch University Seattle, a CACREP accredited university with my Masters in Mental Health Counseling. I am a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) in Washington State and a Developmental Disabilities Mental Health Specialist (DDMHS). I am trained in Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Emotion Freedom Technique (EFT or tapping) and Reiki levels I and II. Aside from my private practice I co-lead a quarterly workshop, Re-Growing Our Wings: Yoga for Healing Trauma, with Deborah King, veteran yoga instructor and healer.

Mechanics of Twists:
Supporting a Supple Spine ​
with Amanda Mitchell
November 16, 1:00-4:00pm
$45 preregistered/$50 at the door

For many of us, contorting into uncomfortable shapes in yoga class is not the goal – we don’t all want to be human pretzels. However, harnessing the spine’s mobility to twist offers numerous benefits for deep breathing, side bends, and better posture overall. Over-twisting or forcing the spinal joints, on the other hand, can lead to degeneration and instability.
 
In this class, we’ll isolate our capacity for safe movement in the spine, learn to harness our shoulders in support of that goal, and refine both our basic twists and pretezly postures so they support a lifetime of practice.
 
Come to class ready to move, think, take notes, and explore. Modifications will be offered and discussed throughout class.
 
This workshop may not be appropriate for those with severe degeneration of the spine. Those with low back pain, though, may likely benefit.

Reiki Level 2 Attunement ​
with Linda Oshins
November 23-24, 1:00-5:00pm both days
$250

In this class, you will receive the Reiki Level 2 attunement and learn the three Level 2 symbols and how to use them. These symbols allow you to send healing energy through time and space, and they support the deepening of all aspects of your healing work. During our time together, we will have ample opportunity to practice giving and receiving Reiki and to explore and talk about how we perceive energy. Many people don’t completely trust their impressions or know how to interpret them; in this class we will talk about how to find the answers to the questions that arise for us in healing sessions.
 
You may join this class if you have already been Reiki Level 1 attuned, no matter where or when you received that attunement.
​About Linda:
Linda Oshins has been holding Reiki training sessions for over 20 years. These include attunements, but also sessions on personally exploring the map of the energy body; developing intuitive ways of knowing about energy through the use of metaphoric language; and Reiki as a spiritual practice. She also leads Reiki shares and takes clients for private healing sessions.

Collective Grief ​
with Alyssa Pizarro
December 8, 1:00-5:00pm
$60 preregistered/$65 at the door

Objective: To create a container for grieving the collective pain (no counseling or resolutions) using the tools of breath, meditation and the movement of our bodies and our energy.


What we will do: We offer an honest space to speak about collective loss and grief; so where there are death cafes, and grief conversations taking place in our culture, this grief workshop will offer space and quiet meditation with energy work and yogic movement to process the collective human pain we are all experiencing. We will create a space where we can gather in community to embrace our human grief with the opportunity to show up as you are right now. In the world, the collective pain is creating a human culture of numbing, anger and/ or overwhelm. Much like individual grief, when faced with grief and loss we often feel that we need to either push feelings down, ignore or deny how we feel (sometimes for ourselves just to make it through the day), and sometimes for others. This space of acknowledging collective grief and loss is an offering to sit with yourself and others who although their grief or loss might look different, they “get” it.


What we are not: a therapy; I am not a therapist. If you are currently seeing a therapist or mental health provider regarding this grief/loss, please consult with them before attending. Triggering is real and while I want to offer a safe space, some topics might bring up feelings. I want YOU to feel you have all the support you need, so if there are any questions around this, feel free to reach out to me directly.


About Alyssa: I am an energy worker and yoga instructor with a social justice lens. I have volunteered in Respite and as a yoga instructor in spaces with grief and loss for 5+ years and have taken death doula courses with Ashley Benem and multiple trauma informed yoga teacher trainings. I have seen people stuck in grief throughout their lives and holding it in their bodies. I can see it, because I am too this person. For the past four years I have felt stuck in a state of suffering, I can’t watch the news and I have felt deep sadness. My yoga practice, energy worker and community continue to help support me. It is this experience that inspires me to invite people into this same space. This will be a place for people who are looking to show up unapologetically and be in support and in community. The intention behind this workshop comes from a place of acknowledging our humanity and as yoga teaches us, what effects one of us, affects all of us. How do we learn to hold this and to rather than react, move this energy so we can be healthier and make decisions from love, not reaction? This is our yoga, and this is what the Collective Grief workshop will face.

Winter Solstice Celebration
90 Lunar Salutations​
with Jessica Jobaris
December 20, 6:00-9:00pm
$40 preregistered/$45 at the door

During the Winter Solstice, we are navigating the longest and darkest night of the year. It is the time when the earth has maximum tilt away from the sun. In these long dark nights, we have greater access to our unconscious, our inner deep waters.


In this workshop, we will take a deep dive within, through several Lunar Salutation flow sequences, to physically align with the darkness. We will find the inward gaze/pratyahara to navigate these inner waters, to honor and integrate them, through meditations peppered between the Lunar Salutations. Through reflective writing practices, we will create new goals and intentions. Intentions are the starting point of any dream; what makes the unconscious, conscious. Our intentions, born from our hearts desires, are the stepping stones that lead us like a compass toward our goals. By setting and refining our intentions and goals at the Winter Solstice, we can lay the framework for our plans, building a path that lights the way through the darkness and guides us towards our brightest future.


We will tap the unlimited reservoir of our creative power in this workshop through the asanas, writing and drawing practices. Let's take a deep dive together, and cultivate our heart's desire in welcoming environment and community!

iRest® Immersion ​
with Jennifer Cabanero
January 31-February 2, 2020
$295 Early Bird by November 30/$350 after November 30

At SpiritView Retreat Center
14505 264th St. E, Graham, WA 98338*
*Please note this is a day-use retreat center. If needing accommodations, there are a number of hotels available in nearby Puyallup. 
 
Friday, Jan 31-Sunday, Feb 2
Friday, 11-6 (Registration begins at 10)
Saturday, 9-6
Sunday, 9-5
 
Come join us for this iRest® Yoga Nidra Immersion event where you will learn the principles and practice of iRest Yoga Nidra meditation and experience the variety of ways iRest can be used on and off the mat to foster a greater sense of freedom, synchronicity, authenticity, and creativity in your daily life.

About iRest Yoga Nidra
iRest Yoga Nidra is a research-based meditation, relaxation and healing protocol. The practice of iRest enables you to deeply calm your nervous system, integrate difficult thoughts & emotions, and offers a portal for awakening to your essential nature. iRest meditation is both an excellent personal practice as well as adjunctive practice for healthcare & healing professionals.
Developed over 48 years by Richard Miller, iRest promotes health, healing, and awakening by recovering and nourishing your innate ground of indestructible wholeness and well-being. iRest is endorsed by the US Army Surgeon General and Defense Centers of Excellence as a complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).

Through experiential practice and dynamic dialogue you will:
  • Learn the 10-Step iRest Protocol to enhance your personal meditation practice
  • Explore how to integrate the practices of iRest into daily life
  • Foster well-being and resiliency from stress & anxiety
  • Experience BodySensing in movement
  • Practice BreathSensing for resiliency, increased energy and relaxation
  • Learn to skilfully meet difficult emotions and beliefs in daily life
  • Access an inner resource of well-being, ease, security and peace
  • Awaken to your essential wholeness

This iRest immersion workshop is open to newcomers, experienced meditators, and iRest practitioners who wish to experience the fullness that iRest has to offer for health, healing, resiliency, well-being, awakening, and the wholeness of being.
This iRest Yoga Nidra Immersion fulfills the short retreat requirement of the iRest Certification Program.

The Alchemy of Emotions:
The Yogic Practice of Rasa
with Anne Douglas
May 15-17, 2020
$225 Early Bird by April 15/$250 after April 15

The Alchemy of Emotions 
​The Yogic Practice of “Rasa”
Friday, 6:30-8:30
Saturday, 1:00-4:00
Sunday, 1:00-4:00
 
Whole weekend - $225 Early Bird by April 15/$250 after April 15
Friday Night only - $65

Emotions are your SUPERPOWER!  Learn how to harness the alchemical power of your emotions by mastering the subtle yet powerful energetics of the emotional body.  The ancient teachings of Yoga inform us of the 9 rasas, or essential emotional energies, that also correlate with the 5 elements and the 3 gunas that are the fundamental building blocks to creation.  

Modern neuroscience informs us that emotions are like "rocket fuel" for building new neural pathways in our brain for healthy behaviour.  Emotional energies can be positively influenced to establish radiant health and well being, in body, mind and spirit.  

During this workshop you will learn and experience:

  • How to practice Yoga Asana with positive, health inducing emotions
  • Pranayama designed to quickly release negative emotions
  • iRest® Yoga Nidra for building new neural pathways in your brain that create the life of your dreams
  • A profound yogic model for integrating emotions daily
  • The bliss inducing yoga practice of Tandava

Anne Douglas is a master teacher, with 30 years of teaching yoga and meditation behind her.  She has been teaching yogic philosophy, teacher trainings, workshops and retreats since 1989, and is a certified IAYT yoga therapist.  She is the creator of the “iRest Daily” meditation program, has over 3 million listens to her meditations on the “Simple Habit” app and is the past Director of Trainers for the iRest Institute.  Anne’s boundless enthusiasm, depth of wisdom and gentle humour create fertile ground for inspired learning.

iRest® Yoga Nidra Silent Retreat
at Aldermarsh on Whidbey Island
with Jennifer Cabanero
June 26-28, 2020
$600 Early Bird by June 5/$625 after June 5

Aldermarsh Retreat Center on Whidbey Island
6436 Maxwelton Rd.
Clinton, WA 98236
 
*Price includes shared lodging and delicious, vegetarian meals. No refunds after June 12. Refunds prior to June 12 are subject to a $50 administrative fee.
  
Silent retreat is a chance to connect with ourselves at a deeper level. With fewer distractions we become tuned in to our inner life, our hopes, and our dreams. We also become aware of the beliefs that we have about ourselves and the world around us.
With time, as the stream of thoughts begin to slow down, we experience mini-moments of true calm and peace. In this way, silent retreat can yield fresh perspective, and bring clarity to our state of mind. Coming out of silence, there is often a renewed sense of gratitude for ourselves and for life just as it is.


The ancient non-dual teachings behind iRest Yoga Nidra help us to reconnect with our essential nature; the part of ourselves that is grounded, whole and unchanging no matter what occurs in our lives. Retreat is a precious time that we can set aside to dedicate our selves to nourishing our inherent wholeness.


This retreat offers the perfect combination of guided iRest meditation, body-sensing movement, breath-sensing, sitting, walking, and co-meditation. It is through practicing meditation in movement, stillness, and with others that we experience first hand how these teachings come alive for us as a practice of life.


This retreat is open to students of all levels who wish to sample the fullness iRest offers for health, healing, and wholeness of being. Come prepared to explore stillness, movement, laughter, and delight.
 

The Yoga Tree | 4250 Fremont Avenue N. | Seattle, WA 98103
​(206) 545 - 0316

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