April Showers Bring May Flowers...and Exciting Yoga News!

April Showers Bring May Flowers....

and Exciting Yoga News!

Dear Yogi,

I am excited to share that I have a wonderful new location to offer Yoga for Emotional Wellness packages! In addition to offering private sessions at Healing Tree Yoga in Quincy, MA, I now have a second location at The Mastlight in the Union Point development in South Weymouth, MA. Feel free to contact me to inquire about scheduling.

Thank you to all the donors who supported the Yoga Reaches Out Yogathon and Boston Children's Hospital. To date, over $430,000 was raised of our $500,000 goal! I am still $65 away from my personal goal of $250. The final day for fundraising is May 15! Please continue to donate on my Yoga Reaches Out New England Yogathon page .

Be sure to like Joanna Barrett Yoga on Facebook for updates, inspirational quotes, informative articles, yoga photos and more!

Love flows through my heart like blood that flows through my veins. Loving this life is easy when I see the magnificent universe with clear eyes. Like the stillness of a blue lake, I sit with hands at my heart center, effortlessly flowing between the inhalations and exhalations that nourish my soul.

I look in the mirror, deep into soulful eyes, and remember my laughter and my tears. I see me. I remember the moments of feeling alive, and I feel it in this very moment. Inhale and exhale...in this very moment. Inhale and exhale...and in this very moment. Gratitude pours over me and washes through every pore.

I close my eyes and see nothing and I see everything. There is so much to do and so little time, yet everything is as it needs to be with all the time in the world. I trust and let go. In the sweet surrender, I am in the flow. The flow of life. My life. Thank you God for my beautiful life.

Yoga for Emotional Wellness

Asana, pranayama, mantra, and meditation techniques are personalized for students so they can be guided through a journey of self-discovery to promote healing, restore balance and increase vitality. The aim is for students to maintain an optimum state of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being -- on and off the mat.

Through yoga students can experiment with:

Breathing
Moving
Strengthening
Stretching
and, Resting

Private sessions are set up so that a student is in control over what they are doing with their body at all times, and I am there to provide safe, professional guidance and to help students focus on particular dynamics (what muscles they are using, what it feels like to have their feet on the ground, what it feels like to breathe, etc.).

Four Packages to Choose From:

Soothing the Mind: Package for Reducing Anxiety
Uplifting the Spirit: Package for Increasing Joy
Embodying the Self: Package for Decreasing Disordered Eating
Calming the Chaos: Package for Stress Relief

What’s Included in Each Package?

30 minute initial phone consultation
Three 75-minute private yoga sessions
30 minute phone call follow-up

What Can I Expect?

Tailored sessions to your needs and abilities
Access to Joanna via phone and email between sessions
Reinforcement coursework between sessions
Weekly inspirational emails and check-in
Reading list of recommended books
Discounted rates for purchasing a second package or additional sessions

For additional questions, rates and payment plan options, please email Joanna.

Uplifting the Spirit:
Package for Increasing Joy

Yoga can help alleviate the symptoms and root causes of depression. Both active and passive poses, along with breathing and meditation, can provide relief from depression. Whether due to chemical imbalances or situational experiences, joy can be found through a holistic yoga practice.

Soothing the Mind:
Package for Reducing Anxiety

By transferring focus and attention to the body and breath, yoga can help to reduce anxiety in the mind and tension in the body. With poses, breathing techniques and meditation, yoga can help decrease anxious thoughts, worry and panic.

Embodying the Self:
Package for Reducing
Disordered Eating

When practiced skillfully, yoga helps us accept and celebrate our bodies. As a healing practice, yoga has the power to help in the treatment of disordered eating. Therapeutically-informed yoga can reduce eating-disorder causes and symptoms, and provide a self-care tool in the recovery process.

Calming the Chaos:
Package for Stress Relief

Yoga for stress relief is beneficial for calming the nervous system and encouraging optimal well-being. Yoga can help us slow down, focus on one thing, and find balance in our lives. Some yoga positions are particularly effective for promoting physical and emotional relaxation, tension relief and restfulness.

Yoga Teacher Mentorship Program

As a certified yoga instructor with 10 years of yoga experience, I provide personalized instruction as a valuable tool for students of all levels, including new yoga teachers.

This 1:1 mentorship is for new teachers who recently completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training program (as well as restorative, yin, and prenatal certifications), and who need to build additional skills for sequencing or gaining the confidence to teach in front of a class.

This mentorship program in yoga and meditation provide the perfect opportunity to address teaching goals and work on areas of interest. Sessions can take place in your home or at a studio in the Boston and South Shore areas.

Joanna Barrett is a Registered Yoga Teacher and mental health clinician, offering counseling and yoga to clients with emotional and physical challenges, as well as those looking for stress relief and relaxation. Joanna has over 500 hours of yoga training in vinyasa, yin, restorative, prenatal, therapeutic, and trauma-informed yoga.

Joanna’s journey to yoga began after struggling for many years with depression, chronic fatigue, migraines, insomnia, and extreme stress. Her body, mind, spirit, and soul needed profound calming, centering, and relaxation. After her first yoga class, Joanna’s mind was clear and open, her body’s tension had subsided, and she felt that there was healing that could be done on her mat.

Three years later, Joanna found herself gravitating towards teacher training to advance her practice and find passion and purpose in her life. Moved deeply by the psychological effects of yoga, Joanna decided to pursue a career in yoga and mental health counseling. Joanna’s experience in holistic wellness and mind-body modalities for healing has led her towards guiding individuals to reach their full potential for optimal well-being.

She earned her master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling from Lesley University. Joanna’s career includes the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center, Harvard University’s School of Public Health, South Boston Yoga, Healing Tree Yoga & Wellness Center, Om Births, the Pathways Institute, and community mental health agencies in the Boston area.

Joanna completed her 200-hour teacher training at South Boston Yoga with David Vendetti and Todd Skoglund. She continued her studies and completed her Relax and Renew® restorative yoga teacher training with Judith Hanson Lasater, yin yoga teacher training with Joshua Summers, and prenatal yoga teacher training with Rebecca Conant. Additionally, she completed teacher training modules in the areas of “the psychology of yoga” and “restorative yoga therapeutics” with Bo Forbes and “Trauma Informed Mindy Body (TIMBo)” foundations training with Sue Jones and YogaHOPE. Joanna completed a yoga therapy mentorship program with Kate Graham at South Boston Yoga, and later went on to assist the program.

Continuing her studies, Joanna regularly attends national workshops and classes to learn new tools to bring to her students. She has taken workshops and trainings with Seane Corn, Elena Brower, Kathryn Budig, Shiva Rea, and Dr. Timothy McCall, among others. Joanna is a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, American Psychological Association, National Counseling Association, Massachusetts Mental Health Counselors Association, and Yoga Alliance. She is also a published writer for Elephant Journal and Identity Magazine.