Yoga and Mental Health Series: Continuing Education

The Yoga and Mental Health Series is a progressive three-part training designed for therapists, social workers, yoga teachers, and wellness professionals seeking to integrate yoga-based tools into their work with clients. Each course blends the wisdom of yoga with evidence-based mental health interventions, offering an experiential and accessible framework for healing that addresses body, mind, and spirit.

Through movement, breathwork, and discussion, participants will explore how yoga supports emotional regulation, resilience, and embodied awareness within their professional scope of practice. Whether you are a clinician deepening your somatic skills or a yoga professional expanding your understanding of mental health, this series offers a bridge between worlds: ancient and modern, science and spirit, inner knowing and practical application.

Part 1: Yoga and Mental Health Foundations 30 CE Hours for IL LSCW,LCPC; Yoga Alliance CE’s available

Overview

This introductory training lays the groundwork for understanding the interplay between yoga and mental health. Participants will explore how yogic practices influence the nervous system, emotional regulation, and self-awareness, developing insight into how these tools can support trauma, stress, anxiety, and depression.

Through a combination of lecture, guided practice, and group discussion, we will examine the relationship between embodiment and dissociation, window of tolerance, and the fight–flight–freeze–fawn responses. Participants will also experience how movement, breath, and meditation can calm the nervous system, build resilience, and support self-compassion.

You will learn to:

  • Understand the relationship between embodiment, regulation, and mental health
  • Explore pranayama techniques to address anxiety, depression, and emotional imbalance
  • Examine the energetic and emotional impact of foundational asanas
  • Recognize and reframe habitual thought patterns and belief systems through mindfulness and meditation
  • Practice and experience asanas, pranayama, and meditation to deepen a greater understanding of yoga and mental health connection
  • Cultivate awareness, balance, and presence for both personal and client well-being

Format: 7 Weeks, Tuesdays 11am–3pm (30 total hours)
Investment: $750
Continuing Education: 30 CE Hours available for Illinois Licensed Social Workers, Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Licensed Professional Counselors, and Licensed Clinical Professional Counselors through IDFPR. Also eligible for CE credit through Yoga Alliance (hours based on attendance).

Facilitators:
Tricia Fiske, E-RYT 500, YAECP, Senior Faculty for Tantra Yoga Alchemy
Jamie Kruse, LCSW
April Waldrop, E-RYT 500, Yoga Therapist
Chardyce Kott, LCSW

Part 2: Condition-Based Sequencing: Applied Practice 30 CE for IL LCSW, LCPC; Yoga Alliance

Overview

Building on the foundational principles explored in Part 1, this second module focuses on the art and science of designing yoga sequences that address specific mental and emotional states. Participants will learn how to build yoga/mental health frameworks based on the energetic and psychological effects of asana, pranayama, and meditation.

We will explore condition-based sequences for anxiety, fear, grief, anger, shame, and depression, along with balancing sequences that restore energy or invite calm. Each week integrates lecture, discussion, and experiential practice, helping participants translate knowledge into tangible tools for client care.

You will learn to:
• Design complete yoga sessions that consider energy, emotion, and nervous system states
• Understand how sequencing and pacing affect mental and emotional outcomes
• Select appropriate pranayama and meditation techniques for specific mental health conditions
• Apply the energetic effects of asanas (stabilizing, uplifting, cooling, grounding) to match client needs
• Integrate trauma-sensitive and polyvagal-informed approaches
• Bridge yoga philosophy with modern therapeutic applications

Format: 7 Weeks, Tuesdays 11am–3pm (30 total hours)
Investment: $750
Continuing Education: 30 Continuing Education Hours (IDFPR-approved for Illinois Social Workers and Counselors, LSWs, LCSWs, LPCs, LCPCs). Eligible for Yoga Alliance CE credit through Tricia Fiske as instructor.

Facilitators:
Tricia Fiske, E-RYT 500, YAECP
Jamie Kruse, LCSW
April Waldrop, E-RYT 500, Yoga Therapy Student
Chardyce Kott, LCSW

Part 3: Professional Integration: Bringing the Work to Life CE’s available for IL LCSW, LCPC and Yoga Alliance

Overview

The final part of the series focuses on integration and how to translate the knowledge and skills gained into your professional practice. Participants will explore ethical and effective ways to introduce yoga-based tools to clients, design holistic assessments, and create trauma-sensitive environments that support healing and empowerment.

This course blends reflective journaling, guided visualization, and practical frameworks for building a yoga and mental health practice rooted in integrity, accessibility, and care.

You will learn to:
• Introduce yoga-based tools safely and appropriately within professional scope
• Develop client intake and assessment forms informed by holistic models
• Integrate visualization, meditation, and journaling practices into clinical or wellness settings
• Understand ethical considerations and language for integrating yoga and mental health
• Explore sustainable business and collaboration models that honor both practitioner and client

Format: X Weeks, Date/time (hours)
Investment: $TBD
Continuing Education: X CE Hours (IDFPR + Yoga Alliance eligible, hours based on attendance).

Facilitators:
Tricia Fiske, E-RYT 500, YAECP
Jamie Kruse, LCSW
April Waldrop, E-RYT 500, Yoga Therapy Student
Chardyce Kott, LCSW

Workshop: Yoga and Mental Health: Stress 3 CEU’s available for IL LCSW, LCPC

Overview


In this experiential workshop, participants will explore how yoga and mental health principles intersect to reduce stress, restore balance, and promote resilience. Through gentle movement, pranayama, and meditation, participants will learn to identify how stress manifests in the body and how integrated practices can support emotional and physiological regulation.

This workshop welcomes mental health professionals, yoga instructors, wellness practitioners, and anyone interested in the healing intersection between yoga and mental health.

You will experience:
• An integrated asana, breathwork, and meditation practice for stress relief
• Discussion on how stress affects the nervous system and emotional well-being
• Tools to support client regulation and self-care practices in professional settings

Format: 1 Day, 9am–12pm (3 hours)
Investment: $65
Location: Torus Center for Integrative Healing, 121 Flinn St, Batavia, IL 60510
Continuing Education: 3 CE Hours available for Illinois Social Workers and LCSWs through IDFPR. Also eligible for Yoga Alliance CE credit.

Facilitators:
Tricia Fiske, E-RYT 500, YAECP
Jamie Kruse, LCSW

1.5-Hour Embodied Yoga and Mental Health Intro CEU Experience

Overview


This 1.5-hour continuing education experience invites therapists and helping professionals to step beyond the cognitive layers of healing and into the body’s innate intelligence. Through a blend of brief teaching and a 60-minute guided embodied practice, participants will explore how asana (movement), pranayama (breathwork), and meditation can deepen emotional regulation, re-pattern the nervous system, and transform how we support our clients’ healing.

This is more than learning about yoga, it’s an opportunity to feel what integration truly means.

Why This Matters
Therapists know that insight alone doesn’t create lasting change. Clients may understand their trauma and still feel trapped inside it because trauma, grief, anxiety, and depression live in the body.

While somatic awareness helps us notice what’s happening internally, yoga invites the body to participate in its own rewiring. Through conscious movement, breath, and stillness, the body begins to release stored emotional energy, balance the nervous system, and open new pathways of safety and self-regulation.

Yoga works from the inside out as it influences the nervous system, vagus nerve, and subtle energetic channels that talk therapy and even some somatic modalities can’t fully access. Over time, these practices reshape the brain–body connection, supporting not just symptom reduction, but embodied transformation.

We invite therapists into this work to experience firsthand how yoga-based tools can help clients move from survival to presence, from understanding to integration, from holding pain to breathing through it.

Who This Is For
• Mental health clinicians ready to bridge psychotherapy and embodiment
• EMDR, IFS, and somatic therapists seeking nervous-system-based interventions
• Yoga teachers, healers, and wellness professionals interested in trauma-informed clinical applications

What You’ll Learn
• How yoga impacts the nervous system and supports regulation and repair
• How to weave gentle movement, breath, and meditation into sessions safely and ethically
• The distinction between yoga-informed therapy and yoga instruction
• How embodied presence enhances attunement, compassion, and client outcomes

Experience Includes
30-Minute Teaching: The Why + The Science — Learn how yoga activates the parasympathetic nervous system, builds interoception, and re-patterns trauma imprints stored in the body.

60-Minute Embodied Practice — Experience an integrated asana, breathwork, and meditation sequence designed to release, ground, and integrate—where the practice itself becomes the teaching.

Integration & Reflection — Guided journaling and small-group discussion to connect your personal experience with your professional practice.

Learning Objectives
• Identify three yoga-based tools that support nervous-system regulation
• Describe how embodied presence deepens attunement and co-regulation
• Reflect on how yoga-informed practices can complement existing therapeutic modalities

Investment: $55
Duration: 1.5 hours
Continuing Education: Eligible for 1.5 CE Hours through the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) for Licensed Social Workers and Licensed Clinical Social Workers. CE credit is also available through Yoga Alliance (hours based on attendance).

Facilitators:
Tricia Fiske, E-RYT 500, YAECP
Jamie Kruse, LCSW
April Waldrop, E-RYT 500, Yoga Therapy Student

Chardyce Kott, LCSW

55-Minute Embodied Yoga and Mental Health Lunch & Learn

Overview


This 55-minute interactive session introduces professionals to the foundations of embodied healing through yoga and mental health integration. Designed for busy therapists, healthcare providers, and workplace wellness programs, this offering distills key insights from our 1.5-hour CEU workshop into a concise, experiential format that fits seamlessly into the workday.

Participants will explore how yoga’s principles of movement, breath, and mindfulness can regulate the nervous system, release tension, and support emotional balance, both personally and professionally.

What You’ll Learn
• The mind–body connection: how trauma and stress are stored in the body
• The role of the breath in calming the nervous system and restoring clarity
• Simple, accessible yoga-based tools to use between sessions or during the workday
• How embodied awareness supports resilience, attunement, and presence

Experience Includes
• Brief Teaching (20 minutes): The science and practice of regulation through yoga and breathwork.
• Guided Practice (25 minutes): Gentle, seated or standing movement paired with pranayama and mindfulness—no mat required.
• Reflection & Q&A (10 minutes): Discussion on integration and take-home applications for client work or personal well-being.

Why It Matters
In today’s fast-paced professional environments, chronic stress and emotional fatigue can impact both client care and practitioner health. This session provides an embodied reset, equipping participants with tangible tools for nervous-system balance and grounded presence.

Format: 55 minutes (ideal for workplace or lunch-hour sessions)
Investment: $45 per participant or group rates available
Continuing Education: Optional CE credit may be available upon request (content mirrors the 1.5-hour CEU workshop).

Facilitators:
Tricia Fiske, E-RYT 500, YAECP, Senior Faculty for Tantra Yoga Alchemy
Jamie Kruse, LCSW
April Waldrop, E-RYT 500, Yoga Therapy Student

Chardyce Kott, LCSW