Mind-Body Flux

Presented with the Iyengar Yoga Institute of New York and Columbia University’s Narrative Medicine Program
Iyengar yoga teacher Matthew Sanford is paraplegic who uses yoga practice to address the short and long-term effects of traumatic loss and disability. He is a pioneer in adapting yoga for people living with disabilities but teaches students of every type. “We all live on a continuum of abilities and disabilities,” he says. “The principles of yoga apply to all people, to all bodies.” Here he is in conversation with neuro-researcher Barbara Ganzel who examines how stress and trauma is embedded in the brain and body and what, if anything, we can do to restore the brain to its optimal function.
Ticket includes 4:00 PM tour of Bodies in Balance
For a full list of associated workshops and programs: www.iyengarnyc.org

About the Speakers

Matthew Sanford teaches at national yoga conferences, studios and institutions around the country. He teaches traditional students and is a pioneer in adapting yoga for people living with disabilities. The fact that he teaches people in both demographics tells us something not only about Matthew, but also about yoga.
Matthew is the author of Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence which chronicles his journey from the intensive care unit to becoming a paralyzed yoga teacher. Today, Sanford is an in-demand spokesperson for mind-body awareness, an advocate for revolutionary new models of physical rehabilitation, founder of a non-profit organization Mind Body Solutions (www.mindbodysolutions.org) and a Certified Iyengar Yoga instructor. “The Iyengar emphasis on alignment and precision is the beginning of realizing the energetic connection between mind and body,” explains Sanford.
Barbara Ganzel has been doing neuro-imaging research at Cornell University for the past ten years. Ganzel studies the embedding of stress in the brain and body, and how this in turn impacts health and behavior across the lifespan. This interest stems from her prior work with trauma-exposed children and adults in clinical, academic, and research settings. Ganzel is currently engaged in clinical training in end-of-life care, to extend this work to the study of psychological trauma in hospice and palliative care populations.