Y4A Classes & Teacher Training
Classes are designed for people living with limb loss, limb difference, or limb limitation, or those recovering from limb injury or surgery. Teacher training is designed for those wishing to learn to teach yoga to those with limb loss, limb difference, or limb limitation.
"Y4A YTT was an incredibly unique and valuable experience. Both Lucy and Heather are not only experts in the area but are also compassionate teachers who emphasize improving one’s understanding of amputees’ experiences to become an effective teacher. As an amputee myself, I feel incredibly fortunate and grateful that this special training exists. Y4A YTT provides both a way to promote and expand disability awareness and an avenue for promoting wellness and health within the amputee community."
~ Eileen G
Believe in Possibility
Y4A Yoga for Amputees believes in empowering amputees to celebrate their unique contributions to the world, and in celebrating the possibility and human potential to thrive in life, no matter the challenges.
Weekly Online Classes
Designed specifically for people living with limb loss, limb difference, or limb limitation, including those recovering from limb injury, surgery, or other conditions that limit limb function. Yoga poses and actions will be adapted to include those with and without prosthetics. Appropriate for all levels.
Virtual (Zoom) Only
FREE Accessible/Amputee Yoga
co-taught with Heather Thamer and Lucy Lomax
Thursdays 1:00-1:45
Y4A Yoga for Amputees Teacher Training
at Yoga Center of Columbia (Zoom Only)
2023 Winter Session: Feb. 2, 9, 16, 23, & Mar. 2, 9, 16, 23 - COMPLETED
Y4A Yoga for Amputees, is an international yoga program that helps amputees reclaim their wholeness after limb loss using the healing art of yoga. Y4A Yoga for Amputees was founded by below the knee (BK) amputee, Certified Yoga Therapist, C-IAYT, and Registered Yoga Teacher, RYT 500, Marsha Therese Danzig. Tragically, Marsha passed away in January 2022.
Marsha left a vast body of work in the form of books, videos, online offerings, articles, and more, all designed to teach amputees yoga and meditation. She also trained yoga teachers to teach yoga to amputees. In building on the foundation she created and sustained, Y4A teachers Lucy Lomax and Heather Thamer will be helping continue Marsha’s work by offering yoga teacher training events, hybrid and online, for yoga teachers and yoga therapists, medical professionals, and other amputee support personnel, interested in teaching to those with limb loss, limb limitation, or limb difference.
Training qualifies as continuing education for yoga teachers registered with Yoga Alliance at the RYT200 and RYT300 levels.
At the end of this training you will:
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Be able to differentiate types of amputation
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Learn how to adapt yoga & breathing techniques for above knee, below knee, and upper extremity amputees
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Learn what muscles groups are affected
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Be able to demonstrate and teach warm-ups and asana to amputees
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Gain tools to help amputees develop strong core muscles, essential for walking with a prosthesis, for balance, and for using crutches or a wheelchair.
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Gain greater understanding of the psycho-emotional issues associated with amputation, and how yoga-based tools can help heal psycho-emotional wounds
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Teach yoga & meditation techniques for phantom pain & associated pain due to limb loss
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Help amputees “ step forward” into the rest of their lives, integrated, whole, healthy.
What you will learn in Y4A Training:
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Observation skills for range of motion
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How to safely adapt poses for above knee, below knee, and upper-extremity amputees by applying the Yoga for Amputees protocol
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Basic physical, psychological, and emotional effects of amputation
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Dealing with grief
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Pain and trauma management through yoga
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Meditative exercises to support amputees’ physical & mental healing
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Training manual, listing on Y4A website as a Y4A teacher, continuing education units for Registered Yoga Teachers.