Dr. Gladys Smith is a Licensed Clinical Counselor and Masters Addictions Therapist. She is also a Registered Yoga Teacher and received her 200 Hour Yoga Alliance certification training at Clayton Yoga. Gladys Smith will be presenting specialty workshops at Clayton Yoga and if you are interested in working privately with Gladys, feel free to contact us below!
Gladys believes that wellness and balance in an individual’s life can be achieved through mindfulness practices and learning to accept the true you. Gladys finds yoga to be a great avenue and finds yoga provides tremendous benefit to others. Gladys approach has been called by other students: fun, loving, innovative and confident. According to Gladys, Yoga gives us the ability to go inside and honor what we find. Not so easily swayed by what is happening in the external world, we find the positive, reassuring and supportive energies once again.
Gladys loves to specialize in trauma resolution, stress less and heal feelings.
The workshop Healing Feelings is designed to help participant’s build skills to address the impact that trauma(s) have on their lives. This is a workshop that is developed for anyone seeking to gain insight into their life. The workshop allows one to connect the mind and body to help release fear, anxiety, and the trauma in one’s life. Traumatic experiences can take many forms—a car accident, a mugging, or abuse, to name a few. In the past, conventional wisdom led people to talk therapy for healing. But some experts say this isn’t enough. This is where a workshop like Healing Feelings comes in. It is Trauma-Focused yoga that directly addresses the cognitive distortions and how they manifest in the body. The workshop will help you make that needed connection.
“Trauma causes the body to be frozen in a state of fear, terror, and hypervigilance,” says Dr. Bessel A. van der Kolk, a clinical psychiatrist and founder of the Trauma Center in Brookline, Massachusetts and a leader in the field of posttraumatic stress. “So fundamentally, the effect of trauma is in relationship to one’s body. One’s body gives the signal that it’s not safe, and your body keeps fighting an existing enemy.”
Gladys is a trauma-focused psychotherapist who works with a variety of populations to include: veterans, domestic violence survivors, victims of crime, anxiety ridden, and those experiencing depression or Posttraumatic Stress. Trauma-Focused therapy and Trauma-Focused yoga allows one to address the psychological and physiological burdens in life.
The workshop includes the following:
1. Addressing negative thought patterns and how they impact the body.
2. Raising awareness of Big “T”s in your life and the little “t”s in your daily life.
3. A 50 minute Trauma-Focused yoga class.
You will leave the class with a tool box of skills and poses that will help you reach a level of healing for those painful feelings and more focused on the positive aspects of your life.
For more information about Gladys, signing up for her specialty workshop, or attending a class at our yoga studio, contact us right away, at info@claytonyoga.com, or call 314-630-1677!
Namaste!
Fantastic post but I was wanting to know if you could
write a litte more on this subject? I’d be very
thankful if you could elaborate a little bit more. Thanks!
I loved meeting Gladys in one of my teacher training workshops. I learned so much from her and seeing it in this post really helps solidify what I learned and is for sure a call to action for me to learn more. This is a topic that hits home for me, as I am sure it does for a lot of people. Its so great she is doing a workshop, there can never be enough!
Gladys is one of the most enchanting, knowledgeable women I’ve ever met – I could have listened to her talk about trauma/stress related yoga for days. She speaks with such passion and conviction. I can not wait to use my yoga teacher training certificate to help other people get through their dark days. Every single person goes through something that is traumatic (to them or in a greater sense) and every single person could use the tools of yoga to heal. I hope to practice with Gladys more in the future, that kind of passion and sparkle is infectious.
First off, I have never heard of trauma based yoga, and I think that is awesome! Also, I can imagine that a lot of people will be able to benefit from it. I would love to meet Gladys and hear her thoughts on trauma and how to heal the body from such events through the power of breathing and yoga.