Yoga Skills for Therapists: Effective Practices for Mood Management

Yoga Skills for Therapists introduces healing professionals to the timeless teachings of yoga that are applicable in a clinical setting — no mat required. As a practical, hands-on guidebook, Yoga Skills offers clinicians the use and proper application of evidence-based Yoga strategies to better serve themselves and their clients in basic mood management and trauma release.

(W.W. Norton)

These Yoga strategies are drawn from the author’s research and study of multiple traditions and lineages, resulting in a compendium of Yoga-based practices that are specific to mood management.

Yoga Skills for Therapists offers specific yoga tools that therapists can teach their clients. These yoga tools include rituals and practices that strengthen the therapeutic bond and empower clients to self-regulate, increasing feelings of self-efficacy and control.

Available from your local bookseller or via the publisher or from online retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound, and Powells.

WW Norton: Enter code OAW 1955 at check out for a 20% discount.

Current Reviews and Interviews:

What the Experts say:

Brilliantly opens a door

Yoga Skills for Therapists brilliantly opens a door to the physical and spiritual layers of a client—one that many therapists and counselors have been waiting to walk through. From a place of genuine respect, integrity, and intention, Amy Weintraub offers easily applied foundational yogic practices to enrich the therapeutic experience for both client and practitioner.

Elisa Cobb
Yoga Therapy Today

Immersing yourself in the wisdom

Imagine immersing yourself in the wisdom of body-centered awareness from thousands of years of practice under the compassionate and skilled guidance of an experienced and illuminating practitioner. Yoga Skills for Therapists is Amy Weintraub’s gift of fresh air that weaves detailed instructions for personal and clinical applications with what modern research is now demonstrating to be effective clinical interventions for anxiety, depression, and trauma. Even your own mental and physical health will be greatly enhanced with the accessible steps illustrated in this fabulous contribution to our human journey toward well-being!

Daniel J. Siegel, MD
Executive Director, Mindsight Institute, Clinical Professor, UCLA School of Medicine, author, The Mindful Brain, The Mindful Therapist, and Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology

A groundbreaking manual

Amy Weintraub has produced a groundbreaking manual that will guide a whole new generation of patients and therapists in the use of simple but extremely reliable yoga-based techniques for self-regulation.

Stephen Cope
author, Yoga and the Quest for the True Self & Director, Kripalu Institute for Extraordinary Living

Practical and inspiring

Research now validates what yoga adepts have claimed for thousands of years: Yoga practices profoundly affect our state of heart and mind! Drawing on her wisdom and notable expertise, Amy Weintraub guides us in bringing this ancient science of healing into clinical settings. Yoga Skills for Therapistsis both practical and inspiring; it will allow you to offer the precious gifts of yoga to your clients and deepen the roots of your own practice as well.

Tara Brach, Ph.D.
author of Radical Acceptance (Bantam, 2003)

It is a fabulous resource

A psychotherapist might spend many years studying yoga and still not achieve anything near this elegant, practical, powerful integration. The instruction — while emerging from a 4000-year-oldtradition some consider esoteric — is immediately useful for treating abroad range of mental health disorders, even for therapists with no other background in yoga. As a bonus, the book seamlessly weaves in indispensable related tools, such as imagery, self-suggestion, and mindfulness meditation. It is a fabulous resource.

Donna Eden & David Feinstein, Ph.D.
Co-authors, Energy Medicine and The Promise of Energy Psychology

Powerful medicine

Amy Weintraub helps us to bring the ancient wisdom and scientifically validated power of yoga into our clinical practices. This book is lucid, well documented, and immediately practical. Powerful medicine for our patients and clients, and for all of us.

James S. Gordon, MD
author, Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven-Stage Journey Out of Depression, founder & director, Center for Mind-Body Medicine

Thank you, Amy

Thank you! Thank you, Amy, for weaving your practical and inspiring yoga therapy skills and heartfelt experience into this groundbreaking book. Easy and clear to read, that will enrich us “ol’ war horses” in the healing professions and the new generation of students, clients and therapists for years to come.

Lilias Folan
PBS host and author Lilias! Yoga – A Guide to Enhancing Body, Mind, and Spirit in Midlife and Beyond

Gratitude for Amy Weintraub’s book

I offer gratitude for Amy Weintraub’s book, which provides those of us in the helping professions with a rich medley of well-designed interventions that enable us to integrate the powerful and now research-proven healing modalities of yoga into our daily interactions with clients.

Richard Miller, PhD
author, Yoga Nidra: The Meditative Heart of Yoga, founder, Integrative Restoration Institute (iRest)

The ideal resource

Yoga Skills for Therapists is the ideal resource for those who want to bring yoga practices into psychotherapy or healthcare. Weintraub, a leader in the field of yoga therapy, offers evidence-based, easy-to-introduce strategies for managing anxiety, improving mood, and relieving suffering. Helpful clinical insights and case examples emphasize safety, trust, and skillful adaptation to the individual, making it easy to apply the wisdom of yoga effectively in the therapeutic context.

Kelly McGonigal, PhD
author, Yoga for Pain Relief, Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Yoga Therapy

I highly recommend it to yoga teachers and practitioners

Yoga helped me deal with depression and anxiety. After reading Amy Weintraub’s Yoga Skills for Therapists, I finally understand why. In clear language, Amy describes simple techniques accessible to everyone―breathing, mantras, mudras, imagery, affirmation, relaxation, and self-inquiry―explaining the evidence behind each, and relating stories of therapists who successfully used them with clients. While this book is written for psychotherapists, I highly recommend it to yoga teachers and practitioners looking to understand the mood-management power of yoga’s deeper practices.

Danna Faulds
author of Into the Heart of Yoga and Go In and In

A resource for psychological healing

Amy Weintraub shows how to use yoga as a resource for psychological healing and personal growth. Her methods are grounded in ancient wisdom, informed by modern science, and eminently practical for reducing anxiety, lifting mood, and improving self-regulation. She is a master teacher, and her skills and heart are woven throughout this new classic for therapists, clients, and anyone interested in inner strength and peace.

Rick Hanson, Ph.D
author of Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom

A timeless guide for therapists

Yoga Skills for Therapists will become a timeless guide for therapists at all levels of experience.

Richard P. Brown, MD
associate professor in Clinical Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; co-author, Non-Drug Treatments for ADHD and The Healing Power of the Breath

Helps healers center themselves

…a concise, easy-to-read book that helps healers center themselves and, by doing so, expand the circle of healing to encompass others.

Shirley Telles, MBBS, PhD
director of Research, Patanjali Research Foundation, Haridwar, India; head, Indian Council of Medical Research Center for Advanced Research in Yoga & Neurophysiology

An indispensable contribution

. . . an indispensable contribution to the emerging field of integrative mental health. This exceptionally clear and comprehensive discussion of time-honored and effective body-mind interventions should be required reading for all psychotherapists.

Rubin Naiman, PhD
clinical assistant professor of medicine, University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, author, Healing Nights: The Science and Spirit of Sleeping, Dreaming & Awakening

Well-written and well-researched book

In this well-written and well-researched book Amy Weintraub provides therapists with simple, easy-to-apply but powerful, breathing, meditation, and hand gesture techniques that do not require a mat or body postures. Therapists can easily incorporate these techniques into their practices without otherwise having to change what they do, and clients can use them on their own. Thank you Amy for giving us access to this ancient healing wisdom.

Richard C. Schwartz, Ph.D.
developer, Internal Family Systems Therapy, author, Introduction to the Internal Family Systems Model

Brilliantly opens a door

Yoga Skills for Therapists brilliantly opens a door to the physical and spiritual layers of a client — one that therapists and counselors have been waiting to walk through. Its chapters unfold a unique and inspiring blend of ancient traditions and contemporary concerns. From a place of genuine respect, integrity and intention, Amy offers easily applied foundational yogic practices to enrich the therapeutic experience for both client and practitioner.

Elissa Cobb, MA.
Director of Programs, Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy

A pleasure to learn from master teacher

This unique contribution to the integration of yoga, psychotherapy, and neuroscience provides an extensive set of practices for healing stress, anxiety, depression, and trauma . . . Amy deftly combines breathing, gestures, sounds, imagery, and meditation to address specific therapy issues such as mood, attachment, self esteem, and compassion. It is a pleasure to learn from master teacher, Amy Weintraub.

Patricia Gerbarg, MD
assistant professor in clinical psychiatry, New York Medical College; co-author, How to Use Herbs, Nutrients, & Yoga in Mental Health

A leader, innovator

Amy Weintraub is a leader, innovator, and an excellent teacher and writer. In her new book she brings therapists yogic tools to help emotional and physical healing and well-being.

Richard Fields, PhD
owner/director, FACES Conferences

The new masters of yoga

Amy Weintraub represents the new masters of yoga… who will carry the art and science into the new millennium. She is one of the forerunners of integrating yoga and therapeutic modalities, and I highly commend her for courageously pioneering this field where others will follow.

Rama Jyoti Vernon
International Yoga instructor and peace mediator, co-founder, Yoga Journal, author, Yoga: The Practice of Myth & Sacred Geometry