Yoga in Oncology Training for Certified Yoda Teachers (Montreal, April 25-28, 2019)
Last April I had the opportunity with my colleague Dr. Annelie Anestin to offer a yoga oncology training to yoga teachers recruited by the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation. Indeed, offering yoga classes to people with breast cancer requires special knowledge.
The 6-week program offered was adapted from Professor Bali’s yoga method for study in two doctoral research studies at the University of Quebec. Preliminary results have shown benefits on quality of life, depressive symptoms and fatigue during chemotherapy treatments. The Bali Yoga program was developed by Madan Bali, a renowned yoga master who has been teaching in Canada for over 40 years. 23 yoga teachers from across Quebec attended an intense 4-day training. The first part of the training covered theoretical and empirical data from psycho-oncology.
The second part included the theory of the Madan Bali yoga method as well as the practice and learning of this approach adapted for the research entitled the Bali Yoga Program for Breast Cancer (BYP-BC).
The Bali yoga program includes breast cancer psycho-education, yoga postures adapted to this population as well as visualization and mindfulness meditation. Emphasis is placed on the experience of the postures and frequent relaxation periods to promote a sense of empowerment in the face of illness.
The yoga teachers have all received certification for this training and will be able to offer safe and beneficial yoga to the breast cancer patients they work with. When teaching yoga to people with breast cancer, it is important to be sensitive to the specific needs of this population and to take them into account during the practice. Each person has a unique story. Knowledge of the stages of the disease and its treatments as well as its physical and psychological repercussions is necessary.
Thank you to the Breast Cancer Foundation for participating in the recruitment of the yoga teachers and for supporting them in their teaching activities with this population.
References :
Anestin, A.S., Dupuis, G., Lanctôt, D., Bali, M. (2016). The Effects of the Bali Yoga Program for Breast Cancer patients (BYP-BC) on Cancer Related Fatigue: Results of a Randomized Partially Blinded Controlled – Article published in the Journal of Complementary and Integrative Medicine
Lanctôt, D., Dupuis, G., Marcaurelle, R., Anestin, A.S. & Bali, M. (2016). The effects of the Bali Yoga Program (BYP-BC) on reducing psychological symptoms in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy: results of a partially blinded randomized trial. Journal of Complementary and Integrative Medicine. DOI 10.1515/jcim-2015-0089
Anestin, A. S., Dupuis, G., Lanctôt, D., Marcaurelle, R., Dubé, P, Martin, G, & Bali, M. (2013). The impact of a yoga program (Bali Yoga Program-Breast Cancer, BYP-BC) on mood changes in women diagnosed with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Poster presented at the Canadian Psychosocial Oncology Conference, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Lanctôt, D., Dupuis, G., Marcaurelle, R., Anestin, A.S. & Bali, M. (2012). “The impact of the Bali yoga program on the psychological condition and quality of life of women qualified for breast cancer” Doctoral dissertation, Université du Québec à Montréal, http://virtuolien.uqam.ca/tout /UQAM_BIB001196002
Learn MoreFear of recidivism
by Dr. Olivia Regnault, Psychologist at AlphaPsy
In the last 10 years I have had the chance to work, as a trainee or as a psychologist, in very different sectors of medical psychology. There was the burn unit, oncology, neurology, infertility, renal transplantation and the chronic pain clinic. All of these patients, while having different physical health issues, often had one common aspect that I want to discuss here: fear of recurrence. Whether it’s the burn patient who has been burned at home and fears another accident when they return home; the oncology patient in remission who fears another cancer; the stroke patient who fears another stroke; the patient who has received a new kidney who fears rejection or deterioration of that kidney; or the patient suffering from acute pain attacks who fears when the next attack will occur.
Fear of the future is a common factor for all these patients. Whether we call it worry, anxiety, anguish, it is present for everyone. It hangs over our heads like a sword of Damocles, making us afraid that it will fall on us. Some patients even refer to it as a “monster in the closet”, the one we feared at night when we were children and which comes back, in spite of ourselves, to haunt our minds once we are adults.
As a psychologist, I think it is important to validate and legitimize this fear of the future. There is a risk of recidivism, yes, sometimes even a risk quantified in probability. We can’t control everything in life and we don’t have a crystal ball to predict the future. However, considering this probability, an important question arises for the future: are we going to let this risk, this probability, invade our daily lives and plunge us into constant fear? Or will we find an alternative.
Of course, this is not easy and it is often difficult to calm our fears. I have found, however, that mindfulness and the present moment can be powerful antidotes. They often bring us back to the essential, to what we really have control over: the time that is passing at this very moment (what we are doing, where we are, with whom etc.).
Living in the moment can develop in different ways for everyone. For example, by monitoring what we pay attention to. It’s about taking back control of our mind and focusing our attention on one thing and one thing only: what is happening here and now. I would like to point out that in our increasingly fast-paced lives, this often becomes quite a challenge. Do you remember the last time you felt really “focused” on one thing, paying full attention to what you were doing? If so, what you experienced in that moment was a mindfulness experience.
It is important to point out that we often find it easier to be fully aware when something pleases us or is enjoyable. For example: a good smell that we smell fully, a movie that we like and that we watch while being absorbed by the story, a text that we write while thinking only about it. It is often said that in these moments, “everything else” doesn’t matter anymore, what matters is just us, what we do, who we are with (if we are surrounded), etc. You will notice, the next time this happens to you, how incompatible this state of mindfulness is with anxiety about the future since we cannot, humanly speaking, think about two things at the same time. It is therefore worthwhile to try as much as possible to bring our mind back to thinking about the present pleasant moment, thus preventing it from falling into stressful thoughts about the future.
In light of all this, I hope I’ve sparked a reflection in you about the importance of cultivating mindfulness, that inner antidote to fear. When we do this, we find that we all have the power within us to set aside the future and focus on the precious gift of the present moment.
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