Loving Presence Psoma Yoga 6 Week Series

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Wednesday, February 6th, 2013
7 PM-9Pm

It has been said that this is the year of community, and both Loving Presence and Psoma Yoga have demonstrated themselves to be powerful tools to help build relationships and strengthen community.

"To be in loving presence in any relationship is its own reward.�Loving presence is a way of being that arises effortlessly when we are �seeing rightly�� that is when we let ourselves see what is beautiful, universal, and touching about another. When we see someone this way, our heart opens effortlessly. It lifts our spirit and evokes a kind of joy that feeds the soul and warms the heart. In a therapeutic situation, it can set up a context in which the client feels safe, seen, and appreciated. It creates a space for any helping relationship to be more effortlessly healing, and nourishing for everyone present. This workshop will introduce participants to this important expression of the Hakomi Method (mindfulness-based assisted self-discovery) and to a powerful way of being more fully present in any relationship - to oneself, to another, and to Life.�
Donna Martin,�MA,
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See also ganeshtherapies.com

About Don McGinnis

Don McGinnis is a registered psychiatric nurse who has worked for twenty years in the mental health and addictions systems and has worked most frequently as a group facilitator in Day Hospitals, Residential Treatment Centers, Day Treatment Centers and Addictions Resource Centers around the province.
He is offering classes designed to effectively help people who want to move their lives in a vital, nourishing and purposeful new direction. "These classes are for people who want to deepen their relationships and community" Don says.

He has recently relocated to the Comox Valley and is establishing himself here. "Over the years, I have seen what has been most effective and helpful supporting people through transitions. Health and healing are natural processes. More than anything, we learn to get out of the way of a natural process."

Don has seen the powerful impact of creative practices to build health, resiliency, confidence and self-esteem. Earlier on, he studied at the Victoria Institute of Art Therapy and began to use the creative arts to support the health of his clients at the Penticton Regional Hospital Psychiatric Day Program. While working there, he also saw the benefits of movement therapy, yoga , Tai Chi and Qi Gong practices. "Our movement and expressive groups had more impact than our talking groups, so we began to build educational components into the groups. We used movement and creative expression to help re-educate unconscious processes. Our most challenging habits are body-based, self protective and automatic or unconscious."

In the past few years, Don has studied yoga and has trained as a Yoga Instructor with Maggie Reagh in Vancouver. He has also studied with Donna Martin's Psoma Yoga, an approach that successfully integrates Hakomi (a body-based therapy) with Yoga practices. He has studied and practiced Reflective Presence or Loving Presence, and has held classes on Loving Presence and Psoma Yoga in the Comox Valley, Vancouver, and the Sunshine Coast.

"Reflective Presence is a mindfulness based practice that helps us to be nourished by others, and to be present for ourselves and others in a relaxed and focused way. It is the first step to becoming truly supportive of others.� Don says.

Don's classes are a fascinating mix of easy yoga asana, partner exercises, discussion, and mindfulness practices. "To make constructive changes, we need to see what we are already doing, and we must bring a quality of self-compassion, appreciation and curiosity to what we are doing." he says. "We develop a quality of experimentation and learning. Then, we can begin to experience life as friendly and nourishing, vital, and expansive. "

As we learn to pay attention to how we navigate life, we are naturally drawn to more successful and effective ways of living and being.