By: Lakeview Health
Gina is joined in this podcast by Kelly Frotten, our yoga instructor at Lakeview Health, who discusses how practicing yoga fits in with our patient and their journey in recovery.
Podcast Transcript
Gina Thorne: We’re here today with Kelly Frotten who is our yoga instructor for Lakeview Health. Welcome, Kelly! Kelly Frotten: Hi, thank you! Gina: We’re excited to learn a little bit more about how you incorporate yoga into Lakeview Health and the work that we do with our patients. But before we do that, we want to learn a little bit about you as a yoga instructor. Can you tell us a little about your background and how you got into the field? Kelly: Yes, definitely. I’ve been doing yoga for about seven years, and it was originally just more for physical benefits for myself as an exercise more than anything. I was trying to mix up an exercise routine, and it was after college, and I was trying to get myself into a routine, then after about two years of practicing I kind of realized that there was more than just physical aspects to the practice. Once I got everything together and had a full-time job and all that, I decided to get my teacher certification right after I got married, and then I got pregnant and then it was just everything at once. Once I learned more about it, I got into the particular form of yoga that I do which is a vinyasa flow; which kind of allows a lot of openness. You can kind of do what you want for every class and every day can be different and I liked the mix up of that, although there are a lot of other forms and methods of yoga that you can always do. That’s kind of the one that stuck out to me, so that’s what I’ve been teaching since. Gina: Do you find that yoga has a sense of discipline to it that’s important for folks, particularly ones that are working in a good recovery program? Kelly: 100%. I think that the whole practice of yoga combines mind, body, and even spirit. I think that the control that it brings back, not only to your physical body, but to your mind, to actually turn inward instead of listening to all the mind chatter and things that go on in your head on a daily basis, it allows you to focus back on yourself and realize, “I do have control of my body and my mind, my decisions, my actions,” things like that. It’s just a nice outlet I think. Gina: Which is important for patients who obviously have spent a very significant amount of time out of control, and always, in many cases, in their head. Instead of feeling their body, they’re always in their head and so it’s nice to have an exercise that helps them learn how to be more disciplined around their body. How would you say incorporating yoga into Lakeview Health has been as an experience for our patients? Kelly: Hopefully, you know, I’m just kind of here to guide them through what they want their practice to be. Whether it’s to relax and get out of their head or build strength, or both, I’m kind of there to guide them through that section of the recovery process for them. Whether they want to find strength they didn’t know they had, or basically to just lead them to whatever path they’re trying to go down and whatever is working for them. Gina: It’s not a rigid model, by any means. It’s really more flexible to the individual. Kelly: Right. Yoga is for anyone. It can have your own benefit. I think that for me, knowing that they leave feeling better than when they came in is kind of what I’m there for. And to know that they got something out of it, no matter what that something is, knowing that there’s a positive change. Gina: Do you have experience or testimonials of what patients have said about the experience being in yoga? Kelly: I do. A few people, actually a lot of people, and it makes me feel so good, but people will come to me before they leave a day or two, and they always let me know, “Tomorrow is going to be my last day [in treatment] and do you know where I can do yoga? I live here and I live there, what do I look for?” Things like that and the fact that they want to carry their practice into their lives and keep it as an outlet for them makes me feel really good. People tell me that it’s been such an important part of their recovery thus far is a really cool thing to hear. Gina: It sounds like the implementation of yoga into our Lakeview program has definitely helped the patients feel like they can get a deeper sense of spirituality and connectedness to their body. Do you have any other recommendations or suggestions for people if they were looking to explore yoga? Especially if it’s someone who is listening today who has a family member who might be struggling with the disease of addiction. How would you recommend that they go about exploring this idea of yoga in their lifestyle? Kelly: There are so many different options, which is amazing. All you need is a mat and you. There are studios everywhere, which most places will allow you to take your first class for free and a teacher will direct you to what class might fit in better for you. There are DVDs that you can buy and do at home. There are books that you can get, things that you can read. There are certain things that can help to detoxify the body; there’s twisting, there’s things that are actually purposeful in helping. There are plenty of things out there now that the internet is just booming everywhere, and yoga is booming everywhere. You can pretty much put “yoga” in the Google search and come up with basically anything you want. It’s so accessible and easy. You don’t need a gym membership, you don’t need to go to a studio, and it really could be done in the middle of your house. Gina: Well that’s great. Thank you for your feedback and your information. You have a yoga studio here in Jacksonville, correct? Kelly: I do. It’s in the Fruit Cove area, Julington Creek, it’s called Yoga Bar. We incorporate yoga, Pilates, and barre classes, which is based on a ballet bar that kind of tones your muscles and things like that. Gina: If someone wanted to learn more about how to get access to your services, how would they do that? Kelly: You can go to www.yogabar.co and that will direct you right to me and I can answer any email that anyone has a question about. Gina: That’s fantastic. Thank you Kelly, we appreciate your time today. Kelly: Thank you so much.
