Lyme Advise

Stephanie Goldstein, MA, Certified Hatha-Raja Yoga Instructor, and Certified Integrative Wellness Manager

Through both traditional and contemporary yogic approaches, we will create an array of individualized sequences that can be incorporated into a regular daily home practice. This is intended to be an additional self-healing tool to manage flare-ups that come with chronic conditions of pain and illness. Because our energies fluctuate so rapidly, we must continue to develop a multitude of approaches through a variety of styles so we can support ourselves regardless of what we are facing. It will take courage, patience, honesty, and a commitment to a home practice, but there are always more ways to experience comfort and safety in our bodies than not. Currently I am offering private and semi-private Hatha and Raja Yoga sessions and Integrative Wellness Management and Coaching sessions in Memphis, TN.

Integrative Wellness Coaching is a client-based approach to support the achievement of health and wellness-related goals. All aspects of our lives affect all parts of ourselves, and IWC helps to clarify and prioritize your desire to modify (including but not limited to): lifestyle behaviors, nutritional patterns, stress management, and movement. IWC sessions can support you while you attend to goals set forth by your medical provider or a way to creatively brainstorm actions to take to achieve, maintain, and overcome obstacles you are ready to work with in your life.

Personal Experience with Lyme Disease

I have been living with a multitude of tick borne infections for the past 10 years in addition to other chronic illnesses I have had since early childhood. My consulting and yoga practice are based on direct experience with my own illnesses, a graduate degree in Integrative Health Studies, and over 3000 hours of certified one-on-one training with a Senior Instructor, Judith Hirt, MYEd, to specialize in the management of chronic pain and illness through yogic approaches. I recently wrote a home practice instructional manual, Svanasana Mala: A Garland of 6 New Yogasanas, to keep us creative and open as we work through the full-time management of Lyme Disease and all that comes with it.

Passion for the Lyme Community

For those of us that suffer with the debilitating burden of chronic illness and pain, the study and consistent practice of yoga can create a safe and flexible space for us to acknowledge and experience where we are and what we are currently facing. It has personally been a life-saving discipline for me in an abundance of ways for the past thirteen years. As the needs in our lives continually shift, we must also be open to new approaches and styles of asana practice. Yoga is anything other than stagnation.  

Each asana will be approached slowly, sensitively, and thoroughly while we mindfully explore alignment, grounding, breath movement, changing energetic states, and allowing enough time in each posture to experience all that the posture has to offer us.