TF06: ADVANCED PRACTICE Meeting the Moment: Thinking Outside the Box with Neurodiverse Clients

Presenter bio: Stacey Loop, C-IAYT

An effective yoga therapist understands the importance of meeting clients in the moment—even as moments continuously change. This session highlights how out-of-the-box thinking, combined with clinical understanding, can support neurodiverse clients. We will look at the use of American Sign Language alongside yoga therapy tools to create connection with a client with Down syndrome. How can the movement of hands and fingers lead to expression that embodies joy and lights up the brain to support positive change and growth on a multidimensional level? Sometimes movements say more than words!

We will also consider a client diagnosed with early-stage dementia and the function of creativity when health changes shift someone’s capacity to access breath and movement. Using research on neurodegeneration, yoga therapy tools, and artistry can efficiently support the multiple needs of such clients.

We’ll have time for discussion, and participants can expect to explore gentle movement plus a handful of simple sign gestures that cultivate feeling, presence, and embodiment.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify three or four keys to fostering connection in the therapeutic relationship between neurodiverse clients and yoga therapists.
2. Distinguish between verbal and nonverbal communication involving eight to ten sign-language handshapes and visual gestures that support expression of principles of mind-body integration.