Workshops/Teacher Trainings
WORKSHOPS AND TEACHER TRAINING
In-person/online - Samamkaya Yoga Back Care & Scoliosis Collective, New York, NY - November 21, 2026
WHEN: Saturday, November 21, 2026 – 2:30-4:30pm
WHERE: In person and on Zoom, Samamkaya Yoga Back Care & Scoliosis Cooperative, 119 W 23rd St #406, New York, NY 10011
CONTACT: 646-964-5772 | Email info@samamkayayoga.com
This session will combine some of the work from our previous workshops while also exploring new therapeutic movements for your sacrum. Its aim is to provide you with a toolbox of techniques to relieve your lower back pain due to sacroiliac joint and sacral band issues. Students of any skill level – including beginners – will benefit, attendance in prior workshops is not required.
During our time together you will learn:
- Gentle, safe movements to soothe, balance and strengthen your sacroiliac joints and sacral band, while respecting your body’s particular conditions and limitations.
- How to explore the messages that your sacroiliac joints present to you, in order to gain understanding of how to create sacral spine health.
- Techniques to change your emotional responses to sacral pain.
Liz Owen learned lower back therapeutics over a 25-year period immersed in Iyengar yoga. During this time, she studied with senior Iyengar teachers in the U.S., and both B.K.S. and Geeta Iyengar. Her expertise of lower back health and yoga philosophy brings both Eastern and Western wisdom to bear on creating a healthy lower back and will bring mindfulness and depth to your journey of maintaining lower back health in daily life.
In-person/online -Samamkaya Yoga Back Care & Scoliosis Collective, New York, NY - November 22, 2026
WHEN: Sunday, November 22, 2026 – 2:00-4:00pm
WHERE: In person and on Zoom, Samamkaya Yoga Back Care & Scoliosis Cooperative, 119 W 23rd St #406, New York, NY 10011
CONTACT: 646-964-5772 | Email info@samamkayayoga.com
This session will combine some of the work from previous workshops while also exploring new therapeutic movements for your lumbar spine. Its aim is to provide you with a toolbox of techniques to relieve your lower back pain due to lumbar musculature issues, trauma, and vertebra and disk conditions. Students of any skill level – including beginners – will benefit, attendance in prior workshops is not required.
During our time together you will learn:
- Gentle, safe movements to soothe, balance and strengthen your lumbar spine, while respecting your body’s particular conditions and limitations.
- How to explore the messages that your lumbar presents to you, in order to gain understanding of how to create lower back health.
- Techniques to change your emotional responses to lumbar pain.
Liz Owen learned lower back therapeutics over a 25-year period immersed in Iyengar yoga. During this time, she studied with senior Iyengar teachers in the U.S., and both B.K.S. and Geeta Iyengar. Her expertise of lower back health and yoga philosophy brings both Eastern and Western wisdom to bear on creating a healthy lower back and will bring mindfulness and depth to your journey of maintaining lower back health in daily life.
In-person - The Arlington Center, Arlington MA, February 6, 2027
YOGA FOR EMOTIONAL BALANCE: Science-backed yoga practices for anxiety and depression
- Description
This two-part workshop explores how yoga can serve as a powerful tool for emotional wellness. Drawing on NIH-funded research co-authored by Liz Owen and conducted at Boston University School of Medicine, each session weaves together discussion and practice — giving you both the understanding and the direct experience of how asana and breathwork can ease depression, calm anxiety, and cultivate lasting emotional well-being.
Part 1: Discussion
We explore the eastern and western dimensions of depression and anxiety, and how their intersection can open a path to mental and emotional health. Topics include:
• The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems
• Allostatic load and its role in depression and anxiety
• The vagus nerve — and how yoga stimulates it for optimum functioning
• The philosophical teachings of yoga as tools for healing
• How pranayama, asana, the chakras, and the liver, kidney, heart, and lung meridians work together to balance the nervous system
• Which specific breaths and postures to practice for depression and anxiety
• Meeting the mind and body exactly where they are
Part 2: Practice
The practice portion includes active and restorative asanas, pranayama, and therapeutic deep relaxation. Suitable for all levels, especially beginners.
This workshop is open to all practitioners — yoga students, teachers-in-training, yoga teachers, and other professionals seeking a deeper understanding of how to ease depression and anxiety. Yoga Alliance CEUs available.
The Yoga Effect: A Proven Practice for Depression and Anxiety by Liz Owen & Holly Lebowitz Rossi (Da Capo Lifelong) will be available for purchase at the workshop.
“Readers will find an excellent review of the basics of yoga theory and practice in addition to well-presented instructions on a wide range of specific yoga practices that are likely to improve mental health and well-being. The research described in The Yoga Effect has been a meaningful contribution to the field.”
— Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School