Corinne Peterson, my instructor, decided to have a small group continuation in her downtown Evanston office and I intend to take advantage of her offering.
She and I talked about including Gregory. This is an e-mail I wrote to her in response to her request for a little more information on what she might expect or what she might do differently when including Gregory in a session.
Visit Corinne's website at: (http://www.corinnepeterson.com
Corinne,
I think it would be a good idea to do a test run with just Gregory and me to see if it works for him. Lets set up one or two times and since it will only be the three of us, you can let me know how much you might charge.
Let me ramble a little...
I am not sure how much you need to do differently, although I'll discuss it below. He might get something out of the usual Yoga Nidra or he may need it to be simplified.
If he needs it simplified I imagine that it would not be good for the group situation (or for my needs either.) We can try to evaluate as we go along.
Perhaps we should do one or two sessions with just the three of us. One "simplified" experience and one "regular" experience and see if we can tell how he does?
Some ideas for the first time with Gregory, simplified version: he may need some extra support from me in following directions to prepare (i.e. getting comfortable etc) I would advise you to keep the meditation as simple as possible.
When giving directions, best to keep them simple and one at a time. So for example, instead of saying: Close your eyes and picture a forest where you are walking quietly along past a brook that is bubbling with fish swimming slowly back and forth; you might say: Close your eyes. (Pause 5 or 10 seconds) Picture a forest. (Pause) See the trees. (Pause) See the sun shining through the trees. (Pause) In other words, one image at a time with time to process?
If you are interested, maybe we could work together to develop for your practice, a Yoga Nidra that is specialized for people with Alzheimer's or other dementias. Perhaps it would just be guided imagery of calm, beautiful, spiritual experiences WITHOUT asking much processing. It would be Yoga Nidra only in that it would help the person get to that meditative state in a comfortable, peaceful, frustration free place.
For Gregory, language and communication barely exists while all the memories and abilities are still there. He just cannot access them easily or on demand (his or mine.) He cannot easily process or make associations.
Isn't living life in most ways the ability to make associations between ALL of our experiences past and present in a way that helps us decide our actions? This no longer works for him.
I have gone through some wonderful growth with Yoga Nidra including new understandings, awarenesses, changes in behavior and thinking, etc. For Gregory perhaps just the ability to help him have an hour of peaceful meditation would be a great goal.
If he is able to make those associations in a meditative state but not be able to do so in waking language or communication, that is good also.
What it boils down to is when you say, "Visualize a forest," I have no idea what may or may not go on in his mind today which might be different from the next time.
My blog, although there is a lot, might give you some insight on what I go through on a day to day basis being his support. http://mhorvichcares.blogspot
If you would like to talk more, let me know. Meanwhile when might we set up a just the three of us session?
Fondly,
Michael
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