Mindful Yoga for Chronic Pain

I help people living with persistent pain relieve symptoms and reconnect with ease using mindfulness and gentle yoga.

What is Mindful Yoga?

Mindful Yoga is an evidence-based program specifically designed to be accessible and therapeutic for people living with chronic pain.

The 8 Week Mindful Yoga for Chronic Pain course is an intentional blend of ancient wisdom and modern pain science and includes a gentle movement practice as well as meditation, breath exercises, yoga-based coping strategies, and the application of mindfulness to daily life.

Mindful Yoga was developed by James Carson, PhD, and Kimberly Carson, MPH, of Mindful Yoga Works at the Comprehensive Pain Center at the Duke University Medical Center and has demonstrated significant clinical symptom improvement in clinical trials with various patient groups suffering from chronic pain, including fibromyalgia, cancer, and low back pain.

Hi, I’m Molly.

I first experienced Mindful Yoga as a pain patient myself in 2018. The program was unlike anything else I encountered in my healing journey and provided me with enormous physical, emotional, and mental relief. Shortly after completing the course, I began training and mentorship with Jim and Kimberly Carson in order to share it with others.

Education & Training

MA, Education, Stanford University

200 HR Yoga Certification, Yoga Farm Ithaca

200 HR Yoga Certification, Alaya Yoga School

Certified Meditation Teacher, Mindful Yoga Works

Certified in Pelvic Floor Yoga, Leslie Howard

Extensive personal experience with chronic pain

When was the last time you felt at ease in your body?

For people living with chronic pain conditions, physical and emotional ease can be elusive or even nonexistent.

Pain, tension, and limitations develop into a cycle of reduced activity. When we hurt, we stop doing the things we love. Over time, we lose strength and can feel isolated from friends, family, and what matters most.

For some, it can feel like life as you once knew it is slipping away, creating painful feelings of grief, sadness, and loss of identity.

Mindful Yoga combines gentle, mindful movement and yoga-based coping skills, designed to get you moving again and reconnected with a sense of ease in your body.

A Safe and Accessible Program

Unlike the “pretzel-position” yoga you may be picturing in your mind, we utilize a movement practice that has specifically been created for people living with chronic pain. This includes options for a seated practice if you are unable to practice standing or get up and down from the floor.

While developing strength and balance, the Mindful Yoga movement practice most importantly serves as a canvas for honing mindful awareness while in motion.

Mindful Yoga is accessible to anyone who is suffering with persistent pain. All that is needed is breath and attention.

Establishing a Mindfulness Practice

Many people have had mindfulness recommended by their physician, but don’t know where to start. They turn to apps and other impersonal resources, quickly finding that starting a mindfulness practice by yourself can be intimidating.

A mindfulness-based approach to chronic pain focuses on moment-to-moment, non-judgmental attention to sensations, emotions, and the inner narratives that color our experience of discomfort.

In this way we can unwind habitual patterns of guarding, resistance, and pain.

In this program, you will receive guidance and support in creating a personal mindfulness practice that is accessible, sustainable, and portable.

Its benefits can literally go anywhere with you because it is within you!

A Return to Well Being

Mindful Yoga for Chronic Pain can positively support the processes of Western medicine and also foster a return to well-being in and of itself.

The transformational practices and strategies that you will learn stimulate the body’s natural relaxation response. This helps to quiet a chronically stressed nervous system, which the science of neurobiology tells us is critical to finding relief from chronic pain.

Researched at Duke University Medical Center and Oregon Health Sciences University, Mindful Yoga for Chronic Pain is an evidence-based program that has demonstrated symptoms relief including improvements in pain, reduced fatigue, and improvements in mood.

Mindful Yoga also supports the development of stress resilience and shows us that peace is possible - that a life with challenges can still be full and happy.

In this program, you will experience:

  • A basic introduction to how pain works in the body

  • Breath exercises that support the nervous system and stimulate the body’s natural relaxation response

  • A gentle movement practice specifically designed to be accessible to people living with chronic pain

  • A compassionate coach who understands what you are going through

You will learn how to:

  • Practice mindfulness meditation

  • Apply mindfulness to everyday living

  • Navigate waves of pain, stress, emotion, and fatigue

  • Develop a kinder relationship with your body and relate to its sensations in a more skillful way

Program Format

1.5 HOURS PER WEEK FOR 8 WEEKS

1.5 hours of live instruction time once per week on Zoom

MOVEMENT, MEDITATION, AND BREATH

Meditation, gentle movement, breath exercises, and presentations on yoga-based coping strategies.

AUDIO & VIDEO RECORDINGS

Weekly content for home practice between classes, including 8 audio meditations and 4 guided movement videos

INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTION

1:1 instruction allows for personalization and privacy

COST

Program rate is $800. Payment plans available.

  • "It was magic. I feel like the course was therapeutic both emotionally and physically. "

    Kristin G.

  • "Before the mindful yoga program, as an out-of-shape aging runner, I felt really beat up. I found an inner strength that has me training again. I have already recommended this program to my rheumatologist."

    Andy Clark

  • "I learned to reconnect with a sense of ease in my body and unlearned the tendency to pay attention to inner narratives that contribute to daily discomfort. I've found that I am less anxious and am better able to cope with pain flares."

    Lindsay R.

  • "I don't think this course is just for chronic pain but for anyone interested in a new way of living a fuller life. "

    Vickie Montgomery

Getting Started

To make sure this is the right program for you, please schedule a free 30 minute consultation call. I look forward to meeting you and learning about your unique needs.

Or, if you know you’re ready to get started, hit the button to register.