What is it that you really offer in a Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy Session or group experience?
I mean, really, what is it? What sets you apart in what you do or who you are?
Think about the process of knowing yourself that you had to pass through in order to arrive with certificate in hand ready to step out into the world, offering what you learned. It is a rigorous learning path, and it certainly isn’t all about acquiring skills to share with your prospective clients. No, because in addition to developing competence in techniques, you also have to explore who you are. And this means more than looking into your motivation to become a PRYT practitioner; it means going deeper into what drew you to this path and what gets in the way of learning how to be with this work.
I have often talked to students about how PRYT teaches you life skills, not simply techniques to use with clients. The reason is that you cannot dig deeply into the core of you without it having an impact on how you live your life, the work you do, your relationships, even the way you breathe. It’s not a matter only of seeing what’s there, but learning how to handle what you find. No matter the amount of therapy or spiritual work you might have done before entering this path, you will experience some level of transformation. When you finish, you will have a different relationship with yourself. All the students I know who have completed this training will tell you that they experience themselves and their lives differently than when they began their journey towards certification.
Most students enter the training with the idea of wanting to help people, and often these are students who already have some connection to teaching or providing some form of therapy. You might wonder why there is a need to explore such a motivation. It’s not that it isn’t an honorable intention. The quality of helping is what needs to be clarified. The key is that the help cannot be about meeting our own hidden needs; it must be offered in a way that the client is supported in helping himself and given choices about how and what to do. The helping must be done with mindfulness. Only when a practitioner’s own intention is clear and he is able to be fully present without judgment or agenda can he really be in a position to offer an invitation to help. Having that level of awareness means that you are more often on to yourself than not – simple as that!
So, what is it then that you offer in a Phoenix Rising yoga therapy session or group experience? You provide a model of presence and support that is pretty much unique in the world of helping professions, and, in so doing, you offer an invitation to your clients to help themselves, to learn more about who they really are, to understand how to be with what they discover. Who would want to refuse an offer like that?
