Yoga for Grief & Loss Classes
8 week series
5:30-7:30 Fridays March 7-April 25

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​Join Karla to practice Yoga for Grief and Loss in this 8-week series designed especially for those moving through grief and loss. We'll practice together for 8 Fridays from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. from March 7-April 25

Expand your sangha (community of like-minded others) and find some sthira & sukha (steadiness & comfort) in the midst of heartache. 
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Classes will include:
  • Centering, yoga postures and movement, breath work, meditation, nervous system and chakra balancing, deep relaxation
  • Work with the 8 limbs of yoga (yama,niyma, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhi
  • Exploration of each of the branches of yoga and how we can put them to practice in our everyday lives
  • Focus on sutras and other inspirational materials that can help support you in your journey through grief
  • Journaling and artmaking in some classes
  • Each class we'll have a group altar for placing photos of loved ones or other inspirational items​​

 Guided Yoga Nidra Sessions
Wednesdays 6:30-7:15
Beginning Spring 2025

 Learn more about Yoga Nidra and listen to complete Yoga Nidra recordings with Karla here. 

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 Yoga Nidra means “Yogic Sleep” but the practice is meant to help us hover between a state of sleep and wakefulness—awareness in a fully relaxed state. During this state, we can more easily “let go,” allowing a true state of surrender (Ishvari pranidhana). In such a state, healing can take place where healing is needed--on all levels of being.

This practice can help everyone, including those who are experiencing trauma and grief, access a place where body/mind/spirit can feel more integrated supporting better sleep, rest, relaxation, overall functioning.

Practicing Yoga Nidra supports all other practices of yoga and any other complementary treatment modalities you may be utilizing on your journey.
You can also schedule individual sessions with Karla.
Just send an email, fill out a contact form, or call 804-892-2782.

The  Book
Yoga for Grief and Loss:
​Poses, Meditation, Devotion, Self-Reflection, Selfless Acts, Ritual 

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Just as grief is an experience that affects us physically, mentally, emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually, yoga sustains and strengthens us in all of those same areas. 
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With a beautiful foreword by Chinnamasta Stiles, this book demonstrates how the principles and practices of yoga can help relieve symptoms of grief allowing those who have experienced loss to move toward wholeness, peace, and feelings of connection with loved ones who have died. Exploring the six branches of yoga, the book shows how each branch can support us through grief in different ways whether it be the self-reflection of Jnana Yoga, the spiritual devotion of Bhakti Yoga, the meditation of Raja Yoga, or the physical postures of Hatha Yoga. We are shown how to begin and sustain a personal practice, both on and off the yoga mat, which helps us to cope with and move through grief on multiple levels.

"Yoga teaches that we are perfect and whole as we are…You are enough—perfectly and exactly as you are; in pain, in joy, in peace, in grief."

AVAILABLE online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble 

Please enjoy these guided meditations and chants below from Yoga for Grief and Loss. The Mindful Meditation contains a few minutes of instruction and a 5 minute silent space to meditate together. 

What people are saying:

"Typically when we are overwhelmed with grief, words can only go so far in bringing relief and comfort. These words written by Karla Helbert, however, are the most powerful, useful, insightful, and comprehensive that I’ve ever seen. She is presenting something very special to the world and what she has accomplished is awe-inspiring. Ms. Helbert has pulled herself up from her own loss, and is thankfully now generously sharing her wisdom."

-Swami Asokananda, President Integral Yoga Institute of New York


"Karla Helbert’s new book, Yoga for Grief and Loss, is much more than its mere title.  This book contains within its pages the depth and breadth of grief’s nuances, its crevices, its core questions. It is a navigable, shimmering gift that invites the bereaved reader through the darkness of mourning.  Practical yet deeply numinous, I recommend Helbert’s Yoga for Grief and Loss highly; not as a means to heal or cure or overcome grief—rather, this book will help grievers to be with, turn toward, and grow through grief. Few authors have accomplished this with such honesty and grace."

-Joanne Cacciatore PhD, Professor Arizona State University, Author of Selah: An Invitation Toward Fully Inhabited Grief, Founder of The MISS Foundation


"Finally! In a sea of books on grief that fall dismally short, Karla Helbert skillfully presents a path that companions pain, rather than trying to solve it. Through the lens of yoga, Helbert demonstrates that the true teachings of all spiritual traditions help us find ways to bear the life that’s asked of us. We can hold deeply disparate realities - worlds of pain, worlds of comfort - without being forced to choose between the extremes of endless sadness or faux-positivity. Yoga for Grief and Loss is part of a new paradigm of books helping to change the way our culture tends to grief."

-Megan Devine, Licensed Professional Counselor, founder of Refuge in Grief, 
author of Everything is Not Okay


"This very profound yet practical guide shows what yoga can offer to someone grieving a loss. Sensitively written and incorporating very current understandings of grief, Karla Helbert’s Yoga for Grief and Loss offers wisdom and ways to 'adapt, adjust, and accommodate' to our new, however unwelcome, reality."

-Kenneth J Doka, PhD, Professor, The College of New Rochelle, Senior Consultant, 
The Hospice Foundation of America


 
"In my own grief experiences and sitting with many bereaved students over many years, I have often marveled at grief’s capacity to cut through all that is unreal and unimportant and to focus a laser beam of light onto the deepest longings of one’s soul, to push aside all the trivialities of everyday life, until all that’s left is loving. Karla’s book reflects and honors this profound gift of grief.  

Unlike so many well-meaning 'Yoga for ....' books, this book is not about a prescription to do anything. It is not the disconnected (or misdirected) directive of the therapist or yoga teacher. Rather it is a profound and profoundly loving acknowledgement of grief as an individual process, born out of, and in fact, a form of, love.

This book will absolutely become required reading for trainees in my Integrated Movement Therapy training program – it is not only packed with wisdom on yoga, it is truly an invitation for all of us to meet the grieving, and grief itself with a humble  sense of spaciousness and allowing. This book is truly a gift."

-Molly Lannon Kenny, MS-CCC, Vice President of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, founder and director of the Samarya Center in Seattle WA, 
developer of Integrated Movement Therapy®


 
"Raja Yoga has been defined as the Psychology and Philosophy of yoga, two relevant sciences that help us deal with the unknown, such as loss and death. How we deal with them in a way that helps us grieve and find meaning, minimizing suffering and transforming it into wisdom, is the focus of this book.

It is deep and authentic, coming from Karla’s personal experience with the loss of her firstborn, and from her intense study of Raja Yoga, the study of the mind and human behavior, the foundation of her Integral Yoga teacher training.

I am in awe of Karla’s amazing gift of transforming and making available to all, what could be a dry academic study of the ancient texts into a very readable and practical yoga therapy tool that addresses the devastating effects of grief and loss through Yoga. Such a refreshing, effective and inspiring approach!"

-Nora Vimala Pozzi, e-RYT500 (Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher 500 hour), PRYT (Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapist), YCaT (Yoga Therapist for Cancer and Chronic Illness), Director of Integral Yoga® Center of Richmond and Institute for Teacher Training

 

"As a Board Certified Chaplain working in hospital, hospice, nursing and aging facilities since 1998, I find Karla’s book a very useful tool for those in grief. Her explanation of the yogic lifestyle and its many paths, is inclusive, easy to read, study, and incorporate into anyone’s own life. I congratulate Karla Helbert for presenting to the public this useful tool for dealing with grief from the yogic perspective."

-Swami Sarvaananda, PHD, BCC (Board Certified Chaplain)

 

"What a treasure!  This is the book that my heart longed for when my own child died and I cast about for something to both acknowledge and bless the transformational fire sweeping through the landscape of my soul.  With deeply grounded wisdom, Karla Helbert simultaneously affirms the unmitigated pain of losing someone we love and offers trustworthy tools to help us navigate the wilderness of loss.  By engaging the ancient systems of Yoga, we are guided to embrace our grief as the sacred state it is and allow ourselves to connect with the Love that “yokes” us together for all of time."

-Mirabai Starr, Translator of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, author of Caravan of No Despair: A Memoir of Loss and Transformation

 

"Karla Helbert knows the territory of grief.  Her deep spiritual understanding, through the philosophy and practice of yoga, is the GPS that helped her navigate the death of her infant son.  This is not simply a book of postures, though they are included. Through the essential teachings of yoga, Helbert’s Yoga for Grief and Loss shines a light through the clouds of unknowing that follow loss.  Let the gift of these teachings be your ultimate guide to welcoming all that arises through bereavement. Read the book and practice the many self-inquiry exercises, meditations, mantras, mudras, yoga breathing exercises and postures, and you will ride the waves of your loss home to who you truly are."

Amy Weintraub, founder of the LifeForce Yoga Healing Institute, author of Yoga for Depression) and Yoga Skills for Therapists

    Feel free to contact me with questions.