BodyMindTherapy

Bodymind Gestalt Therapy Group

2010-04-11T16:00:00.000-07:00

Mondays 7:00pm-9:30pm

Starts Monday May 2, 2011

8 weeks ($325)

The Bodymind Gestalt Group will provide an opportunity to explore bodymind awareness practices in the interpersonal realm as well as a forum to do some intensive psychotherapy. Participants will be introduced to Gestalt process and group work. With its here and now focus, Gestalt promotes greater awareness. In group, opportunities are created to try things out experientially and in so doing participants can become aware of just how it is they get stuck. Gestalt group work offers participants the necessary support to risk new ways of relating to themselves, others and their environment.

The reference to bodymind in the title of this group refers to the emphasis on meditation, breath, yoga and movement forms in the sessions. These practices will prepare you for the kind of interpersonal encounter work that we will do. However, this is not a technique based workshop. We will be sitting on meditation cushions (if you have your own bring it). We also have chairs present for your comfort. This seated style will enable us to flow freely in and out of movement-based explorations within the space.

Group therapy is also a more affordable way to work on matters of personal concern. While individual therapy offers a great depth of inquiry it can also become limiting in scope. Participating in a group is a powerful way to promote fast change. People attracted to group work are usually interested in engaging with greater authenticity in their lives so these sessions are also an opportunity to follow your curiousity in the social environment that a group creates.

No experience is necessary. Please contact Simone at 647.240.4104 to arrange a brief chat by phone first. A deposit of $150 is due by April 25, 2010

The basic work of health professionals in general and psychotherapists in particular is to become full human beings and to inspire full human beingness in other people who feel starved about their lives. — Chögyam Trungpa, from Full Human Beingnes

Yoga and Insomnia

2010-02-06T08:32:00.000-08:00

What is Gestalt Therapy?

2009-11-11T09:13:00.000-08:00

Gestalt therapy is a psychotherapy that addresses the mind body as a fluid continuum and uses creativity to shift toward a more intuitive and present-centred life. In the Gestalt process, what is directly experienced and felt is more reliable than our explanations or interpretations of the ways things are. Drawing upon body gestures, metaphor, verbal statements and other expressive approaches, the Gestalt therapist develops experiments for you to explore the full range of your potential. As the process unfolds, Gestalt facilitates enhanced awareness of personal responsibility and choice, how to avoid problems, finish unfinished matters and experience life with greater spontaneity and flexibility.

Simone's Yoga Classes at Parkdale Prana Room

2009-11-09T15:12:00.000-08:00

All sessions at
Parkdale Prana Room
1273A Queen St W
www.pranaroom.org

Hatha Yoga with Simone Moir
Sundays 6:00pm-7:45pm
8 weeks for $120 (just $15 per class)
or $18 drop-in

Riding The Lively Wave:
Yoga and Therapy Group for Anxious Times
with Simone Moir
5 weeks, April 30- June 4 (no session May 21)
Saturdays 10:00am-1:00pm ($220)
Contact: info@pranaroom.org or call 647.240.4104

Just relax and take a deep breath.

Who hasn't heard this before?

When your thoughts are racing with "If only" and "What if", your shoulders are up by your ears, your heart is pounding, sleeping has been replaced by pacing and your world is shrinking by the minute, taking this sound advice becomes more than a little bit daunting.

Soothe your fearful mind and stressed body with this supportive program that combines the know-how of yoga practices with self-reflection and interpersonal therapy. Become aware of the ways in which you stifle your energy and find new resevoirs of support in your body, relationships and environment. Through yoga postures, breathing practice, meditation and group work you will be introduced to a broad array of tools for coping. Ideal for anyone with a desire to free up their excitement for a more fully engaged life.

Beginners welcome. For those already have a yoga practice discover how your yoga practice can be of greater benefit to you.

Contact info@pranaroom.org or call 647.240.4104 to register by April 21, 2011 with deposit of $100.

What others have to say about working with Simone:

2009-10-26T20:10:00.000-07:00

Whether she is following a personal story, asking difficult questions about my blind spots, or spontaneously laughing at something I didn't realize was so funny, Simone Moir is a trustworthy guide. Her ability to listen and respectfully respond, cut-to-the-chase or just enjoy silence, make her a skilled and attentive therapist. I've always found it hard to recommend artists to therapists because few understand the messy and tender creative process. Simone's background in art practice, Buddhist psychology and western clinical technique is a rare and important blend. Combining yoga wisdom and body practice with the stillness of guided meditation and the precision of western psychology, Simone has a gifted ability of juxtaposing different systems without oversimplifying any of them. As a clinician this is a rare gift - one that allows a range of perspectives so that anyone working with Simone can expect her to attend to you with many tools and a lot of patience. Finally, someone to serve the many creative people who had previously avoided therapeutic work.

—Michael Stone
Author, Psychotherapist and Yoga Teacher

Simone’s extensive knowledge of gestalt therapy, substance abuse, meditation and yoga makes her an excellent and informed teacher. I have taken yoga classes all over the city of Toronto and strongly suggest Simone as a teacher who has the knowledge to engage you intellectually and spiritually through yoga. After participating in an 8-day intensive with her I had acquired basic tools that helped me to start my own daily meditation practice and I started to have a sense of how yoga could actually help my anxiety and general well being. This workshop led to a deeper awareness of my own addictive patterns and started me on my journey towards inner peace.

—Sarah
Performance Artist

Simone's yoga classes are subtle, powerful, and surprising. She pays critical attention to your breathing as she instructs, and this is fundamental to her approach: familiar asanas are new again as your body slows, expands and contracts with your breath, always in a fresh way. I have experienced profound stillness in her classes, as well as intense energy. Best of all, I find clarity there, and I have been able to bring this to my creative work out of the yoga studio.

— Sarah Seleckey, Writer

Yoga For Smokers Who Don’t Want To Be

2009-10-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

Six week yoga course with Simone Moir
Date: tba
Lumino School of Awakening and Personal Development 1466 Bathurst Street #306, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 3S3
Contact Simone Moir at 647.240.4104 or simone.moir@gmail.com

This 6 session series will use yoga philosophy to address habit change. You will learn various yoga postures, breath work and meditative practices specifically designed for smokers. This class provides a supportive environment in which you will examine your relationship to smoking and your desire for change. No prior yoga experience is necessary.

See post published June 10 2008 on this blog for an article about Yoga For Smoker's Who Don't Want To Be and The Stages of Change

Psychotherapy with Simone Moir

2008-11-25T08:33:00.000-08:00

Simone Moir is a Gestalt psychotherapist. With her training in Buddhist meditation and philosophy, yoga, and art she holds a lot of tools to help you shift toward a more intuitive and present-centred life. Drawing upon creative processes, Simone will help you to find new ways of responding to the challenges you face and accompany you in an exploration of the full range of your potential. As the process unfolds, you may experience enhanced awareness of personal responsibility and choice, enabling you to move from loneliness and isolation toward greater connection, spontaneity and flexibility. When you regain your physical and mental vitality, lively emotions are tolerated and embraced, so that self-trust may deepen.

Simone continues her research into a somatic yoga based approach to addressing anxiety, insomnia, addictions and depression. See her program Riding The Lively Wave. In her practice she also assists individual in overcoming barriers to incorporating meditation and yoga in their daily life as well as working through other challenges they may be facing on their spiritual path.

Contact Simone for a phone consultation at 647.240.4104

Address stress, anxiety, grief, relationship difficulties, loneliness, depression, pain, illness and destructive habitual patterns or emotions with this original, efficient and effective form of therapy.

Gestalt Therapy with Simone Moir:

• Supports change
• Gain awareness
• Increase spontaneity and flexibility
• Examine beliefs and core values
• Define your sense of self
• Explore new or unfulfilled dreams and possibilities
• May include instruction in mindfulness meditation, yoga breathing and other stress reduction practices
• May draw upon a range of expressive art practices including: play, voice, drawing, movement and role-play

What to expect from Gestalt Therapy

2008-11-12T12:14:00.000-08:00

Influenced by existential philosophy, Gestalt Therapy is a psychotherapy that sees the fluid interchange between mind and body as integral to a person’s health and wholeness. The Gestalt process models the way in which what is directly experienced and felt is more reliable than explanations or interpretations based on past experience. By eliminating projections that stand in the way of meeting your needs, Gestalt Therapy will assist you to lead a more present-centred life.

To this aim, the Gestalt therapist brings the client’s attention to ‘how’ their repetitive patterns are shaped rather than interpreting the past and asking ‘why’ questions. In the Gestalt view, it is awareness of what is happening in the present moment that heals us from the places we are stuck. The inherent capacity of individuals to redirect their misused or stuck energy toward lively engagement with the world forms the basis of the Gestalt method.

A Gestalt Therapy session may not resemble a ‘normal’ conversation or talk therapy session as many have come to know it. Gestalt therapy uses creativity as a means to shift reliance away from intellectual rationalizations toward a more intuitive approach where, trust in the inherent intelligence that is available in the moment to moment ebb and flow of life is gained. Drawing upon metaphor, bodily expression, verbal statements and other expressive approaches the Gestalt therapist develops experiments in which the client may explore the full range of their potential.

As the process unfolds, Gestalt will facilitate awareness of personal responsibility, how to avoid problems, finish unfinished matters and experience life with greater spontaneity and flexibility.

A Gestalt View on Self and Integration in Yoga
- Simone Moir

The cliché body is formed both by societal standards and personal negotiation with these standards. Effecting the conceptualization, posture, expression and movements of the person, embodiment of the cliché provides both support and suffocation of organismic regulation. In its current manifestation in North America, Yoga is, predominantly viewed by Westerners, as a body-based fitness practice that works on the physical system with added stress reducing outcomes. Even where Yogic practice is bastardized to fit the standards of western health regimens and disseminating of the philosophical view of Yoga is completely left out of the asana (physical postures) classes, Yoga practices presents a formidable challenge to the solidity of clichés that regulate the self.

As a system oriented towards growth, Yoga like Gestalt facilitates an individuals’ confrontation with layers of the personality through the use of frustration and support. In Yoga practice, a person encounters in an intimate and direct way, the limitations that the self-concepts and projections (namely the disassociation of the mind from the body) impose. Yoga destabilizes the cherished presupposition of a fixed self and directs the practitioner through cliché and role toward contact with the phobic and impasse layers of the personality.

For anyone spending hours at a time everyday of the week sitting in a chair, driving a car and using a computer mouse, it is not difficult to understand why Yoga asanas such as Parivritti Trikonasana (Revolved Triangle), Baddha Konasana (Cobblers Pose) and Eka Pada Rajakapotasana (King of Pigeons) prove vexing, humbling and overall frustrating. How close you can get your nose to your shin is that much more dumbfounding when it is accompanied by the prolific explications that a Yoga teacher may use. Terminology such as ‘Breathe into your kidneys’, ‘Stretch the skin from here to here’, ‘Find the line of energy that runs...’, ‘Ground the outer edge of the back foot’ or ‘Steady the gaze softly on the back of the eyeballs’ just to name a few, challenge our conceptions of the mind body relationship.

Despite the tortures the ego endures in the never-ending complexities of the asanas, Yoga practice introduces a student to principles, which support them in the process of deepening self-discovery. The primary principles that Yoga philosophy and teaching traditions offer as means of facilitating the student’s development of self-support.

In the Hatha Yoga of Indian tradition, students learned in direct relationship to a teacher one-on-one. The teacher would direct the students study dependent on the needs and arising conditions within the students practice. It can be assumed that Yoga teachers like Gestalt therapists were privy to the limitations of their student’s self-concepts and contact disturbances as demonstrated by how the asanas were performed. In the modern popularization of Yoga, this often overlooked fact of Yoga tradition leads to all kinds of heinous regimens and one-size-fits-all standardization that completely misrepresents Yoga’s quest for an authentic engagement with self and world.

Yoga is the practice of ‘beingness’, and as such lends itself to the phenomenological lens of Gestalt therapy. In the course of a Yoga practice session there are beginnings, middles and ends to each pose as well as each practice session. How a student approaches the phases of going into, staying in and coming out of an asana often reveals larger patterns of contact and avoidance. Similarly the ease with which a student goes into backbends (an outward focus and environmentally sensing) or forward bends (a more inward focus self sensing) also reflects patterns in relation to the flow of withdrawal and connection.

Often misinterpreted as a system of imposed restraint and withdrawal from the environment, Yoga’s intention is to strengthen the connection to ones own ability to nurture themself and foster intimacy with the self as the basis for relating to the environment. Yoga asana practice fosters this intimacy by making shifts in the stuck figure ground relationships of mind, body and environment. Yoga does this both literally and physically, as in headstand, were a new point of view is undeniable and more subtly by directing the focus of attention away from conceptualization and toward perception of sensations and awareness in the present.

Aside from the novelty of Yogic practices, the most important tool of Yoga upon which all other principles rely is the innate ability to be mindful. Mindfulness involves slowing down and narrowing in on parts of experience to become more intimately aware of them. This kind of concentration sharpens awareness of boundaries between figure and ground and at more subtle levels of practice the interrogation of these boundaries gives rise to the theoretical understanding as well as the visceral experience of nondualism.

In dualism the mind actively creates a sense of separation and isolation between the self ‘in here’ and the object ‘out there’ by fabricating a story of self that has continuity and solidity. From the early yogic text The Rg Veda comes this quote; "I do not know just who or what I am; I wander about concealed and wrapped in thought."

From these observations of the ‘deluded’ self, Yoga philosophy developed systems of inquiry to search out ‘authentic’ experience. In Yoga, mindfulness is first cultivated by watching sensations in the body then, the sensations of breath and proceeds by attending to the quality of physical movement, cognitive processes and the creation of imagery and symbolic visualizations. In a manner similar to the Gestalt metaphor of ‘peeling the onion’, this process seeks to dissolve the experience of an outer environment into the object of concentration and as one becomes familiar with the object of concentration, an integrating process unfolds, where perceptions of inner and outer collapse into one another and a state that could be described as present, available and open replaces dualistic fixations.

"A sense of 'security'...is given by clinging to the status quo, one's past achieved adjustments...new excitement threatens to shake this security to pieces...[In reality] there is no such thing as true security, for then the self would be a fixity...where the self has power to draw on, it has precisely no sense of security. It has perhaps a sense or readiness...A sense of adequacy and power grows as the particular problem is met...new possibilities are found in it and things surprisingly fall into place." — Perls, Herfferline and Goodman

The meticulousness of mindfulness teachings is often misunderstood in the Judeo-Christian context as regulation. When dualistic underpinnings such as right/wrong, good/ bad take hold, punishment is the inevitable result. Teaching Yoga in the context of this culture’s predilections demands attunement to this common misunderstanding. Gestalt theory has much to contribute to the way Yoga is taught. A Gestalt analysis of introjection, assimilation and integration would be of great assistance to Yoga practitioners in addressing these issues.

Hatha Yoga is one of the many branches of Yoga practice and phlilosophy and is best typified by the physical practices of asana (postures) and pranayama (breathing). The aim of Hatha (Ha Sun + Tha Moon) is the integration of opposing forces. Hatha Yoga assumes a movement of knowledge from the gross body to more and more subtle states of bodymind. What is first experienced in concrete ways by moving the limbs, and isolating certain muscle groups, is then refined to the movements of the breath and other less tangible forms of sensation and conceptual thought.

In their Yoga practice, students learn to recognize polarities ie; expansion & contraction, grounding & lifting, restriction & freedom, inhalation & exhalation and gain greater tolerance for dualistic tensions. Experienced in this visceral way, the inherent support of opposing forces can be assimilated into a greater whole.

As we gain awareness of ourselves through Yoga, we also open ourselves up to truths about the state of our body, being and life situation. This new view while more expansive can be painful and our habitual responses to pain will kick in. In fleeing painful experiences, we tend to create more judgments and criticisms about who, why and where we are at and develop negative predictions about what we are capable of dealing with. At a certain point, the Hatha Yoga student develops many questions about what to do with the critical thoughts, obsessive drives, lack of energy, avoidance and punitive or undermining voices that arise within their Yoga practice. Sorting through introjected ideas, projected parts of self and retroflected emotions demands close relationship to a teacher or others with a practice as developed as their own and further study and contemplation of Yoga philosophy.

Yoga seeks freedom from the disatifaction-satisfaction cycle we know best as our perpetual clinging to ‘me’ and ‘mine’. Without the underpinnings of the ethical dimensions of Yoga philosophy, yoga practice will remain individualistic and cliché in scope. Inquiry into the relational dimension of Yoga Philosophy can provide essential support to healthy interdependence and wholeness.

Yoga For Smokers Who Don’t Want To Be

2008-06-10T18:43:00.001-07:00

There is some wisdom in smoking cigarettes. This wisdom knows that breathing slow deep inhales and long exhales, spending time outdoors, getting grounded, taking a pause between hectic life events to reflect on and visualize our next step are all good and necessary aspects of taking care of our body and mind. By calming and steadying ourselves we get ready for whatever comes next.

Smokers are holding out on the dying art of taking a break in a fast paced culture that promotes eating lunch at the computer screen and putting in overtime beyond human limits. When you smoke it may be functioning as a meditative aid while at other times it is the glue to forming new social bonds. Smokers of all stripes band together in the worst and the best of times.

If you smoke you know that something about smoking is working for you. The trouble is that no matter how great the immediate benefits of smoking are in your day-to-day life these benefits are grossly outweighed by the health hazards and costs of this habit, both to others, the environment and ourselves.

Clearly it’s time to investigate change.

Why Yoga For Smokers

Yoga provides a supportive and structured approach to habit change. As a process and not an end point Yoga can assist smokers through all stages of habit change.

Contemplation and Preparation: In the beginning Yoga will help you to address your motivation, by becoming more intimate with your breath and feeling sensations in the body you discover the extent to which your habit has infiltrated all aspects of your life and assess the impacts of the habit. You recover your desire to take care of yourself.

Early Action: Once you have decided to take action Yoga lays out a path for you to follow in the initial stages of making a change. Intensive daily practice is advisable at this time, which will support you through withdrawal and help you to stay focused.

Middle Action: You have a place to turn to instead of your habit. You begin to rely on the classes you attend and look forward to familiar faces and practice routines. The time and place you set aside for practicing becomes ritualized and provides new meaning in your life.

Late Action: Here you start to uncover what was missing in your life along with the deeper emotional issues that lead to your dependency on the substance. Your Yoga takes shape. Who will you become? Your practice expands as desires emerge to try new and more complex poses and you get excited about the stages in the transformation process. You finally have the stamina to accept where you are and to work with what you have got. Tapas is a Sanskrit term for the heat that is generated through Yoga that burns through habitual holding patterns in the mind body and emotional systems and serves as the training ground for integrating difficult mental and emotional states. You leave your obsessions about outcomes behind and fall in love with process.

Maintenance: The best aspect of the yoga approach to smoking cessation and relapse prevention is the ongoing benefits of a regular yoga practice to support and maintain the new lifestyle you have adopted. Make your Yoga work for you. At this point you are self-directed in your Yoga practice and find way to integrate what you have learned into your everyday life. You supplement your home practice with classes, readings, retreats, DVD’s and online material for additional learning. Yoga is a practice of longevity that is vast enough in it’s scope to change with you as you age to support you with whatever you are experiencing.

Awareness
Contrary to popular belief Yoga is not only about feeling good. When we practice Yoga we gain awareness about ourselves particularly about what we have been covering up and avoiding. This can often be painful to realize. What we were covering up when we ran to our substances of choice and comfort be they cigarettes, chocolate or drugs and alcohol, is what comes to light once we start regular practice. The good news is that Yoga offers us a highly organized path to follow so we can learn to support the new awareness and use it to make choices that better reflect our needs.

What we do with the information we uncover in our yoga practice?
On the path of acceptance and healing of habitual tendencies, it is essential that you learn how to relate to what you experiences with the non-judgmental spaciousness of your own mind. Toward whatever comes to our attention when we practice yoga, we learn to direct this non-judgmental gaze. Developing a close relationship with a grounded teacher who can follow and guide you in your practice, will help you to develop a kind and gentle witness within yourself. We sow new seeds that counter our addictive tendencies when turn away from harsh self-criticizing thoughts and cultivate patience and kindness instead.

Purification and Balance
As a highly effective form of stress reduction, Yoga practices can replace the benefits of smoking with non-toxic rituals that are readily accessible and without cost. Observe your mental, emotional and physical state before and after just 5minutes of yoga practice. How you feel after a session will tell you how effective the practice has been. Yoga is a total system of purification that regulates the circulatory, endocrine, digestive, reproductive and nervous systems.

Identity
Yoga helps us to unpack our tightly wound stories of who we are. Many of us believe we are our habit. “I am a smoker.” What would it be like to free ourselves of these stories of who we are? What if we gave up our stories about what we can and can’t do? Yoga addresses habitual patterns of holding and restriction in our musculature, breath and personality. Each asana (pose) provides an opportunity to become something new. The asanas of Pigeon, Eagle, Downward Dog and Cow’s Head each teach us about aspects of being human and emphasize various states of being that we can learn to integrate within our personalities to greater wholeness.

Sacred
Honouring the body we have, now. We have nowhere else to start but with the body, mind and abilities we have now. Each day we come to Yoga with where we are now. That means if you were doing full-wheel yesterday and today you have stiff shoulders you honour your bodies resistance and practice accordingly. Similarly if you were having full deep breaths and feeling great last night and this morning you are wheezing, coughing and have shortness of breath you will find a yoga practice that meets where you are today. Make your yoga work for you. If your yoga practice is not benefiting you, why are you doing yoga? Sometimes we find that competition and self-hatred are the fuel beneath our practice and when this is the case we usually end up in injury and with mental hardship.

Yoga promotes spending time appreciating being ness rather than doing ness. By directing our attention to the things we are actually feeling and sensing in our bodies right now we meet the present moment that is the only place where the power of choice is available to us. When we bring our attention to sensation, breath, our physical and sensate being we relinquish the hold of our ever busy doing mind and it’s perpetual grasping to some thing or some experience out there.

Whatever we put into ourselves and whatever we do effects our environment both inner and outer. As a smoker, you may ask yourself how are you tending to the garden of your body and mind? Yoga teaches us that we are in the process of becoming in each moment.
What will you choose today?

Article published in Six Degrees Community Acupuncture Clinic news letter Spring 2009

“There came a time when staying within the tight bud became more painful than the strain it took to bloom.” — Anaïs Nin