​Yoga for Care Partners and Their Loved Ones with Dementia

As basic communication skills for people with Alzheimer’s Disease are diminished, caregivers sometimes can no longer connect with them. Amidst these immense challenges for caregivers and patients, yoga offers many tools to make interaction easier and more gratifying for all involved.

Willow Street Yoga Center is hosting a three-part series designed for care partners and their loved ones. The first two sessions will focus on the caregiver and the third one will be open to the person with dementia and the care partner. The studio is located at 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 100 in Takoma Park, MD.

July 30, 3:00-4:30 pm: Self-Care for the Caregiver: This section will be devoted to self-care and ways that caregivers can take care of themselves. It will include breathing techniques, gentle yoga, tips for relaxation, and other ways to reduce caregiver-related stress.

Aug 20 3:00-4:30 pm: Skills & Techniques: The care partner will be taught various yoga techniques and ways to work as a team with their loved ones to create a positive caregiving environment. The poses include the use of music to help memory cues for the person with dementia.

Sep 24, 3:00-4:00 pm: Putting it together: We invite the care partner with their loved one to work on the yoga poses and breathwork together creating meaningful engagement. We will do all of the poses in chairs (wheelchairs welcome) and will have information to take home.

Cost: $85.00 The last session participants and their loved ones are invited to attend virtually.

Teachers:

Angelique Raptakis is an E-RYT200/RYT-500 Yoga Teacher, Reiki Master, and Community Herbalist who looks to nature for inspiration, weaving its lessons into her classes. She believes that through the practice of yoga, we can more easily come to the connection between our body, our breath, our mind, and the universe we find ourselves in. She has completed over 60 hours of training in Restorative Yoga, over 60 hours in Yin Yoga, over 30 hours of training in yoga nidra, completed the Surviving Assault (Yoga Essentials as Early Intervention Following Assault or Trauma) course with Diana Tokaji, and participated in numerous Ayurveda immersions. She will always be a student of yoga and is deeply grateful for the continued loving guidance and wisdom of her teachers.

Cheryl Kravitz, APR, CFRE, RYT200plus. Cheryl is a graduate of the Willow Street Yoga Teacher Training Program and received additional certification to teach yoga to survivors of trauma, restorative yoga, and yoga for brain longevity. She teaches specialized yoga to people with injuries, survivors of abuse, individuals with dementia and caregivers. She has taught yoga to individuals with learning differences, members of the military and, with a translator, individuals whose first language is not English. Meeting people where they are on the mat and throughout life is Cheryl's mantra. She learned early on that yoga is a universal language and has found the practice resonates with the diversity of students she teaches. Her classes and workshops are infused with humor and compassion.