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Eye-Brain Academy LLC
Adaptive Yoga
The benefits of yoga on cognition, stress, and healing in brain injury is well known. However, patients with visual problems after brain injury often experience hypersensitivity to sound, motion, and light, making yoga studios inaccessible to them.
Brain injury adaptive yoga is a specialized form of yoga designed to support individuals recovering from brain injuries. Performed via remote video (Zoom), you can practice guided yoga with Kendra Sheard, from the comfort of your own home. It focuses on gentle movements, breathwork, and mindfulness techniques tailored to accommodate various physical and cognitive challenges common to patients with brain injury. This practice aims to enhance physical strength, improve balance, and promote mental well-being fostering a sense of empowerment and connection to the body. Through adaptive yoga, participants can find a space to heal and regain confidence in their abilities.
NOTE: Adaptive Yoga is available through Eye-Brain Academy, LLC and is not considered as occupational or vision therapy services. This class is open to the public and geared for people with sensory impairments (as commonly occurs after brain injury) that make it difficult to participate in typical yoga classes. All are welcome to join,
Yoga and Brain Injury
Brain injury, including concussion, can cause:
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Anxiety
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Poor emotional control
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Stress
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Difficulty with memory and learning
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Executive dysfunction (difficulty with decision making)
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Problems with balance and coordination
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Hypersensitivity to sounds
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Hypersensitivity to visual patterns and visual motion
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Negative thoughts
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Loss of social skills
What is Adaptive Yoga?
For the brain injury survivor, certain head and neck positions can trigger symptoms like dizziness or pain. Additionally, brain injury can cause sensitivity to light—especially flickering light from candles—sounds, and scents. For these reasons, a traditional yoga class is often not an option for someone who has sustained a brain injury.
Adaptive yoga is performed with the specific needs of the brain injury community in
mind:
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No music
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No candles
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Accessible to participants of all abilities—all poses and transitions can be performed from either chair level or floor level
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Modifications for poses and transitions to accommodate all levels of ability
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All movements and transitions are performed slowly
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Instructions are provided using a variety of cues (verbal, visual, etc.)
Most importantly, adaptive yoga is an invitation for you to gently move your body within your own comfort level and individual limitations, while celebrating your own unique strengths. No movement or pose will ever be forced. Adaptive yoga does not focus on having you perform a pose accurately. Rather, it empowers you to take charge of your own journey to wholeness by mindfully moving your body through a yoga flow that is personalized to your needs.
One of the beauties of the human brain—beyond its complex, yet integrated, systems and networks of neurons—is something that we call neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the ability of one area or network of neurons within the brain to assume some new responsibilities for brain functioning when a neighboring area of the brain has been
injured. This is a critical part of the brain injury rehab process. It is also why yoga and
mindfulness are an important part of a wholistic approach to post-brain injury care.
Neuroplasticity relies on:
Repetition
Emotional arousal
Novelty
Attention/Awareness
Challenge
Yoga and mindfulness provide each of these components for the participant and, so,
have the potential to facilitate positive functional changes within the brain following brain
injury.
