Moving through Grief and Loss: A 6-week yoga and meditation series
Tuesdays 5:00-6:30pm
June 11-July 16, 2024
**Sign up for the whole series or individual classes**
Led by Laurie Brockhaus, LCSW, E-RYT500 C-IAYT (she/her)
The practices and teachings of yoga offer valuable resources in moving through loss and encouraging growth and healing. This series is meant for those affected by personal or collective grief and loss, looking for supportive tools and to connect with community. You are welcome, whether you have experience with yoga and meditation or not.
Through the practices of yoga, we will find grounding and learn to turn toward emotional experiences as a way of opening up to compassion and empowerment. Each class will include an intentionally-sequenced practice of gentle yoga asana (movement/ physical shapes) and yin yoga (a slow, meditative practice that involves holding seated or reclining shapes for longer durations), as well as supportive breath work, meditation, mudra (symbolic hand gestures), and opportunities for reflection.
Classes will be guided in a trauma-informed way, meaning that Laurie offers many choices throughout practice, encourages participants to practice in a way and at a pace that feels physically and emotionally safe, and guides using verbal cues and demonstration, rather than physical touch.
Note: This series is not therapy; instead, it is meant to be a supportive educational and experiential class that focuses on practice, rather than discussion.
Weekly themes:
June 11 - Creating a sense of safety and grounding
June 18 - Witnessing, and staying present with, emotions
June 25 - Tolerating discomfort with compassion
July 2 - Making space for growth and change
July 9 - Connecting with self and others
July 16 - Inviting hope
You are encouraged, but not required, to attend all six classes. Pre-registration is required.
Registration
Fill out this form to register.
EQUITY PRICING:
Empowered Spaces and Laurie Brockhaus, LCSW, E-RYT500 C-IAYT value community care. Given the systemic injustice in this world which affects each of us differently, this equity pricing scale acknowledges that our ability to pay for services, and access those services, varies. We offer a self-determined sliding scale based on the ways that your identity grants you access to privilege and to social capital, e.g. race, gender & sexual identity, socio-economic status, educational background, able-bodied-ness, etc.
Supporter $150/ $25 per class
Sustainer $120/ $20 per class
Community $90 /$15 per class
**Full & Partial scholarships: Empowered Spaces is committed to doing everything possible to make offerings accessible to everyone. To inquire about the Empowered Spaces Equity Scholarship please contact Kelly at kkcaul@yahoo.com
Questions: reach out to Laurie at lkbrockhaus@gmail.com
Health Precautions
We will follow CDC guidelines when it comes to masking. Currently: Masks are optional. If cases go up in St. Louis County and guidelines change, masks will be required throughout the practice. Please stay home if you have symptoms, test positive, or were exposed to someone with COVID-19. If anyone would like to participate and would only feel comfortable if everyone is masked, please email Laurie to name this request.
ACCESSIBILITY:
The Empowered Spaces yoga studio is located on the ground floor. There is a 10-car parking lot adjacent to the studio & additional free parking on neighborhood streets. Restroom is wheelchair-accessible, ramp-accessible, and gender neutral in the main building. Please reach out to Kelly kkcaul@yahoo.com if there is anything more we can do to make our offerings more accessible. Empowered Spaces is committed to accessibility, and strives to be accessible and inclusive of all abilities and all individuals.
Meet Laurie
Laurie Brockhaus, LCSW, E-RYT500 C-IAYT, brings together years of experience in education, social work, mental health therapy, and yoga/mindfulness. She has taught yoga since 2004—in school, community, and studio settings—and served as a yoga teacher trainer for over a decade, focusing on trauma-informed and accessible teaching and teaching yoga and mindfulness toward social justice and as a resource for mental health and wellbeing. She is a compassionate and empowering yoga teacher who offers practical tools through a genuine approach. Laurie co-founded and directs The Oxygen Project: Yoga for Youth, which empowers youth through the tools of yoga and mindfulness by offering low or no-cost programming at schools and youth agencies in under-resourced communities.
As a licensed clinical social worker (since 2012) and a certified yoga therapist (since 2017), Laurie firmly believes in the mind-body connection and integrates somatic practices and talk therapy to help clients navigate strong emotions and the impact of mental health issues. She is skilled in supporting teens and adults through the experiences of anxiety, depression, and trauma, through an individualized approach using EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Therapy, Trauma-Conscious Yoga Method, ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), and CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy).