This book provides practical information on anatomy for dancers using images, storytelling, and experiential exercises. Based on over 30,000 hours of training, Functional Awareness(R) improves dance technique with tools to enable the dancer to recruit effort efficiently and move with ease in class, on stage, and daily life.

Dancers train for long hours to condition the body to perform stunning acts of artistry through movement expression. Daily tasks outside of dance training can unwittingly compromise the diligent efforts during classwork and rehearsals. The book goes beyond descriptions of the musculoskeletal system to improve performance. The reflective practice of Functional Awareness® teaches strategies to change daily habits in living and demonstrates how these small simple shifts can have a profound effect on ease in action. This book introduces the reader to the reflective practice of Functional Awareness®. It uses foundational information of anatomy and motor learning to guide the reader toward a deeper understanding of their personal body structure. The movement explorations and anatomical visualizations to improve dance skills and provide lifelong tools for body wellness. Each chapter provides essentials in functional anatomy with over 60 beautiful illustrations to buoy the reader through the content. An application to improve specific dance movements using mental training through anatomical visualizations along with tactile body mapping. Finally, each chapter contains a mindful practice to integrate the practices into daily life in order to release unnecessary tension, improve posture, and better support the body outside of dance class and rehearsals.

Functional Awareness and Yoga is an essential book for all who wishes to deepen their yoga practice and discover strategies to reduce strain or discomfort on the mat as well as in daily life. It is also an excellent book of introductory concepts in anatomy as applied to yoga required during a yoga teacher training. Each chapter provides essentials in functional anatomy with over 60 practical illustrations. The chapters also apply specific postures in yoga with cues to support the practice on the mat. Finally, each chapter contains a mindful practice section to help readers integrate anatomical imagery into daily life in order to release unnecessary tension, improve posture, and support ease of movement. The reflective practice of Functional Awareness® changes how one goes through simple daily tasks in living and demonstrates how these small simple shifts can have a profound effect on ease in action and resilience in movement both on and off the yoga mat. Guiding readers through the essentials in body alignment by providing engaging explorations in body/mind awareness, the book offers a pathway to improve resilience and balance in action.

"Functional Awareness & Yoga applies the Romitas' training exercises to the study and practice of yoga across myriad venues from the elementary school classroom to studio classes. Continuing a mission of uniting anatomy and artistry, the book provides thoroughly practical techniques to improve movement understanding and discover efficiency in action. By exploring physical and mental aspects of yoga, readers will learn to understand inadvertent consequences of movement patterns and to develop new ways of moving with exercises. Mapping movement activities out as a daily practice in mindfulness, chapters offer readers accessible and practical advice for how to change habits, improve movement efficiency, and improve balance to strengthen physical asana (poses). Though some yoga training considers anatomical function and alignment, such training rarely considers the impact of habitual use on the body that leads to chronic pain or injury. Each chapter therefore focuses on the necessarily reflective nature of the practice, utilizing the '4Rs': Recognize habit, Release unnecessary tension, Recruit new muscle action, Restore toward balance. Chapters also suggest modes of practice during daily tasks to re-educate common movement patterns and to facilitate greater ease and balance on and off the mat. One such suggestion asks readers to pay close attention to their feet. Are they in shoes or socks? Do they have contact with the floor? Does knowing that the foot has 26 articulating bones change the way we sense movement while walking? Similarly, readers are asked to close their eyes, imagine being on line at the grocery, and noting their body's default posture. Through these exercises, awareness of movement becomes a daily habit that can improve one's yoga practice"--

Functional Awareness and Yoga is an essential book for all who wishes to deepen their yoga practice and discover strategies to reduce strain or discomfort on the mat as well as in daily life. It is also an excellent book of introductory concepts in anatomy as applied to yoga required during a yoga teacher training. Each chapter provides essentials in functional anatomy with over 60 practical illustrations. The chapters also apply specific postures in yoga with cues to support the practice on the mat. Finally, each chapter contains a mindful practice section to help readers integrate anatomical imagery into daily life in order to release unnecessary tension, improve posture, and support ease of movement. The reflective practice of Functional Awareness® changes how one goes through simple daily tasks in living and demonstrates how these small simple shifts can have a profound effect on ease in action and resilience in movement both on and off the yoga mat. Guiding readers through the essentials in body alignment by providing engaging explorations in body/mind awareness, the book offers a pathway to improve resilience and balance in action.

For more than two decades, Functional Analytic Psychotherapy has brought new meaning – and new meaningfulness – to client/therapist relationships. And clients with disorders as varied as depression, PTSD, and fibromyalgia have benefited from its nuanced, curative power. In A Guide to Functional Analytic Psychotherapy, originators Robert Kohlenberg and Mavis Tsai join with other FAP practitioners to present a clinical framework, addressing points of convergence and divergence with other behavior therapies. Tracing FAP’s emerging evidence base, it takes readers through the deep complexities and possibilities of the therapeutic bond. And the attention to mindfulness and the self makes maximum clinical use of the uniqueness of every client – and every therapist.

How can I supercharge the therapy I currently use? This volume distils the core principles, methods, and vision of the approach. Each Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) principle is presented in terms of its intended purpose and is clearly linked to the underlying theory, thus providing clinicians with a straightforward guide for when and how to apply each technique. FAP embraces awareness, courage, and love as integral to the treatment process. Part I of this volume reviews the history of FAP and the basic behavioral principles on which it is based. Part II provides an easy to use step-by-step guide to the application of FAP techniques. FAP is an approach undergoing a renaissance, and this volume uniquely summarizes the full history, theory, and techniques of FAP, resulting in a handbook perfect for clinicians and graduate students with or without a behavioural background.