Self­-Assessment and Treatment using Therapeutic Yoga and Massage

Self­-Assessment and Treatment using Therapeutic Yoga and Massage

with Rhianna Sanford

Sunday, May 19
10am-5pm

6 CE’s - $150**

**10% discount for TLC faculty/alumni**

ONLINE REGISTRATION CLOSED! WALK-INS WELCOME!

Items to bring/wear for this workshop include:
  • Tuition in full
  • Note-taking Supplies
  • Zafu or Meditation cushion
  • Blanket
  • Floor/Yoga Mat
  • Loose, Comfortable Clothing
  • A light sweater or jacket is recommended as temperatures in meeting areas are sometimes difficult to control

About the Workshop:

There is nothing more important to a therapist than self-care.  How can you care for others, if you are in pain or limited by unnecessary tension?  How  can you feel better and better the longer you do massage?

In this course you will learn how Massage and Yoga Therapy enable you  to assess imbalances within your own body.  You will learn more about the cycle of pain and tension that lives within the layers of our whole self, not just the  physical body. At its core, self­-assessment is the process of knowing and  directing the soft tissue and nervous system network through mindfulness. Using Mukunda Stiles’s, “Joint Freeing Series”, from Structural Yoga Therapy, and his  apprentice Maria Mendola’s Functional Yoga Therapy model, massage therapist and yoga therapist, Rhianna Sanford, will help you build a baseline for proper  joint function and range of motion, as well as a daily practice for rehabilitating  limitations.

You will learn how to assess dysfunction within your range of motion  and movement patterns, and build a protocol for treating your own limitations  through self-­massage and release work using the Yoga Therapy model and  bodywork modalities.  This will give you new techniques and a deeper  awareness of kinesthetic principles making your daily practice adaptable to your  needs. These techniques are foundational, for not only building your own daily  practice, but for creating home care routines for your clients to complement your  massage therapy treatment plans. Yoga Therapy is the broader study of Yoga and its many lineages to  specifically apply the practice to the individual, versus the other way around. It is a non-­dogmatic, multidimensional approach to personalizing your daily practice  of connection and mindful living.

This class will focus on bringing us out of the habits of our movement  patterns, to a place of observation and curiosity, where we can address our  limiting beliefs around tension, pain, and discomfort, thereby creating the  necessary individual changes within the bodymind. Before reshaping ourselves,  we must first observe, understand what is in conflict, and know the proper tools  to respond to those stressors, versus reacting. Your practice is a lifelong growth  process that moves from the smallest most insignificant areas to the biggest  most important and far­reaching decisions of life. Why not feel good in the  process?

Learning Objectives:

 Students will learn body mapping/documenting/charting skills through self-evaluation and assessment techniques and how to identify areas of weakness versus strength.

 Students will be able to target their chief complaints through self-evaluation using a systematic joint freeing series, guided movements, stretching, yoga postures, self-myofascial release, active release, and PNF stretching techniques.

 Students will have a good working understanding of how to plan daily self-care routines of practice for lasting results and freedom in the body that will not only benefit them personally, but translate over to their clients as well, building the tools of their trade.

 Brief introduction to Yoga Therapy, the history and theory of assessment techniques (Mukunda Stiles/Joint Freeing Series and Maria Mendola/Functional Yoga Therapy), the broader study of Yoga and how these techniques are applied in the bodywork community as a rehabilitation method that compliments Massage Therapy.

About the Instructor:


Rhianna Sanford studied Massage and Bodywork at The Lauterstein­Conway Massage School  earning her state license in 2004. She continued advancing her studies, completing her  National Certification in Massage and Bodywork in 2006, finally receiving her Board  Certification in Massage and Bodywork in 2013.  She has also completed her Bachelor’s  Degree in Massage Therapy through Siena Heights University in 2018 graduating with  honors.  During her teens, Rhianna started practicing Yoga as a personal journey to  wellness and healing, which grew into a comprehensive and therapeutic way of life. She  completed her first yoga teacher training in 2003 and began teaching group yoga classes. In 2012 she began studying Yoga Therapy with Integrative Yoga Therapy (IYT),  completing her Professional Yoga Therapy (PYT) accreditation that year, and is now  certified through the International Association of Yoga Therapist (C­IAYT) since 2017.  She continues to advance her studies through the somatics of healing, kinesthetics, and  integrative wellness techniques using the Yoga Therapy model within her Massage  Therapy practice.  Rhianna is a native Texan, raised in the hill country near Garner State  Park, transplanting to Austin in 1998.  She is a mother of three, and owns and operates  her private practice, Namaste Therapies, in South Austin.