Restorative Yoga

The Restorative Yoga Programme

The application of ‘pioneering new AcquaViva method’, designed for restoration of function after injury, and liberation from life-long holding patterns.

Join us for an introduction to the programme/Recognising the issue and setting the intent, with a one day workshop – date TBC. A day long session (10.30am – 4.30pm with a one hour lunch break), each participant will receive one to one instruction with Marc to address their physical needs for being on the course, with personal instruction for them to work with throughout the programme. Movement work and relaxation will be incorporated into the session. The investment is £80 for the day. Please email Katy if you are interested.

INTRODUCTION

The Restorative Yoga Programme has been created to provide people with an investigative and transformational practice to help them undo conflict within their body; imposed by injury, history, habit, and the everyday compensations we make through life. The course is structured around direct experiential understanding of specific conditions which lead to potential physical liberation. The yoga is ‘Scaravelli inspired’; an intelligent, sensory approach, awakening an intuitive practice that begins to respond to what the body actually needs.

This yoga has nothing to do with pushing and pulling, straining for fitness or forced flexibility; yet through engaging with this practice you will develop a whole new understanding and felt sense of core support, structural integration, breathing choices and the meaning of embodiment. It is the enjoyable practice of steadfastly removing conflict from the body and the side effect is both improved health and rates of recovery, followed by increased energy (a by-product of developing efficiency of movement.)

This is perhaps not the yoga that you might find in commercial studios… There is a much deeper enquiry behind the work; the practice requires revisiting basic function at a fundamental level, and an engagement with ‘new’ ways of doing things that will take presence, patience and practice… However, progress is easily measured by the degree of enjoyment that the movement engenders, so the process is both challengingly intense and deeply pleasurable. The context is yoga, so postures and breath work are the framework in which participants will practice, but the ‘AcquaViva approach’ allows for specific variations tailored to each participant and specific issue.

Any pain or restriction in the body can be used as a way of discovering the body’s relationship with itself, and perhaps even the mind-set behind it. And there is empowerment in the fact that once you have become aware of a conflictive relationship, you can change it, because it is literally a relationship you have with yourself. And in the process you are working to eliminate the source of the limitation. Having a postural issue or injury, however long-term, can serve to illustrate the effectiveness of working to find the whole body relationships that remove local conflict.

FACILITATORS

marcProgramme leader – Marc Woolford
Marc is Director of Studies and founder of the AcquaViva School. He has an informal and informative approach to yoga that invites deep exploration and an inner awareness, enabling the potential for liberation from life-long holding patterns and/or injuries. He is renowned for his skill at guiding people towards the direct experience of the ‘yoga-state’, as well as offering practical, common sense explanations of what is occurring and why for those interested in the information. His work is appropriate for all levels of experience, from curios beginner to dedicated practitioner/teacher.
helenAcquaViva School trainee – Helen Robbins
Helen is a facilitator of the Restorative Yoga Programme and will be assisting Marc where appropriate. She is a Craniosacral therapist (a medium of bodywork that compliments many of the principles behind ‘Scaravelli inspired’ yoga) and second year student on the AcquaViva Teacher Training course. She is utterly inspired by the transformative potential of this work and is currently teaching students in her home town of Brighton.
katyYoga and meditation teacher – Katy Robinson
Katy is a yoga and meditation teacher, graduating from the SriMa International School of Transformational Yoga. She has been practising yoga since 1999, leading her into deeper studies with different forms of yoga including Transformational, Sivananda and Yoga for Anxiety and Depression, encompassing asanas, pranayama and mantra – as well as meditation and relaxation – practices and techniques. Through an integral approach to yoga – connecting body, emotions, mind, heart and soul – Katy hopes students can find strength, focus and inner peace.

STRUCTURE

One Day Workshop – Introduction to the programme/Recognising the issue and setting the intent. A day long session (10.30am – 4.30pm with a one hour lunch break), each participant will receive one to one instruction with Marc to address their physical needs for being on the course, with personal instruction for them to work with throughout the programme. Movement work and relaxation will be incorporated into the session.

Evening 1 – Ground and centre. Reinventing relationships with gravity. Learning to ‘land well’ with less conflict in the body. Engaging with touch and building relaxed support from the ground up.

Evening 2 – Make space. How to make appropriate space within the body for breath and for movement, and how to meet restriction intelligently.

Evening 3 – Reintegration. Gathering together to open out. How to cause a release into a new relationship ‘through’ the area of interest.

Evening 4 – Naturalising the integration through rhythmic practice and functional movement. Developing natural core responsiveness. Putting it into practice in daily life.

Evening 5 – Letting go to receive the breath into your support and movement.

Evening 6 – Letting go of the breath and the spine into movement and support. Consolidation of programme. Evaluation of participants experience.

 

YOUR INVESTMENT

You time investment is one full day, then 2 hours per week for 6 weeks. As well as a commitment to ongoing self practice.

  • 10.30am – 4.30pm: one full day workshop (with one hour lunch)
  • 6.15pm – 8.15pm every Wednesday for 6 weeks (Spring / Summer dates TBC)
  • South London (Oval / Brixton)

Your financial investment is £250. (Returning students may receive a 20% discount.)

  • A 20% deposit (£50) is required to confirm your place.
  • The remaining 80% (£200) to be paid three weeks before the course begins.

Spaces on the Restorative Yoga Programme are limited, to maximise teaching and learning in a small group setting.

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST

If you would like to attend the one day workshop only, the investment is £80 for the day. Please email Katy if you are interested, so we can make sure we can manage number of attendees for this option. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us.