This study is an investigation of embodiment. It is informed by the experiences and understandings of health, healing, violence and oppression among 15 young South Asian women living in Toronto, Canada. Their articulation of the importance of, and difficulties associated with, health and healing in contexts of social inequity contribute to understandings of embodiment as co-constituted by sentient and social experience. In my reading of their contributions, embodied learning – that is, an ongoing attunement to sentient-social embodiment – is a counter hegemonic healing strategy that they use. Their experiences and insights support the increasingly accepted claim that social inequity is a primary determinant of health that disproportionately disadvantages subordinated people. Furthermore, participants affirm that recovery and resistance to violence and oppression and its consequences must address sentient-social components of embodiment simultaneously. In this study, Yoga teachings provide a framework and practice to investigate embodiment and embodied learning. Following 12 Yoga workshops addressing health, healing, violence and oppression, I conducted individual interviews with 15 workshop participants, 3 Yoga teachers and 2 counsellor / social workers. Participants discuss Yoga as a resource for addressing mental, physical, emotional and spiritual consequences of violence and oppression. They resist New Age interpretations of Yoga in terms of individualism and cultural appropriation; they also challenge both New Age and Western biomedicine for a lack of attention to the consequences of social inequity for health and healing. This study considers embodied learning as an important healing resource and form of resistance to violence and oppression. Scholarship addressing embodiment in sociology, health research, anti-racism, feminism, anti-colonialism, decolonization and Indigenous knowledges are drawn upon to contextualize the interviews. This study offers insights relevant to health promotion and adult education discourse and policy through a careful consideration of the embodied strategies used by the participants in their nuanced negotiations of social inequity and pursuits of health and healing.

This thesis argues that Friedrich Nietzsche???s notion of world and self as ???will to power and nothing besides??? offers a highly productive interpretive lens or ???grid of intelligibility??? for understanding the ethical implications of Michel Foucault???s middle and late works on power and subjectivity. For if the late modern era is marked by a sustained and pervasive incredulity toward metanarrative, it is also the historical site for the reappearance and widespread acceptance of a very ancient metanarrative ??? the Heraclitean view of material reality as continual flux. Inasmuch as Nietzsche???s will to power philosophy is grounded in this Pre-Socratic worldview, his works and those of his devotee Foucault may serve as a productive foundation for a late modern ethics. The scholarly implications of reading Foucault???s middle and late works through the interpretive lens of Nietzschean will to power in its two key manifestations, domination and dynamism, are multiple. In addition to providing new insights into the value of Nietzschean-Foucauldian philosophy for advancing a late modern ethics, such an analysis also illuminates important continuities in Foucault???s theory of power and how his works simultaneously extend and critique Nietzschean views on the role of asceticism in culture. The thesis then turns to a more futuristic exploration of how Foucault???s final texts, feminist critiques and extensions of these texts, and works from the separate discipline of feminist moral theory may advance a feminist form of will to power ethics. Feminist reflection upon the dualistic philosophical basis of modern androcentric power invites further speculation upon the utility of the nondual philosophies of yoga, including those found in Ved??ntic texts like the Bhagavad G??t??, for such an endeavour. Because yoga utilises asceticism-based practices of the self as its primary means for moulding moral subjects, it is comparable to the Greco-Roman will to power ethics described in Foucault???s final works. On the other hand, yoga???s nondual telos may present certain ethical possibilities that dualistic constructs like the Greco-Roman model cannot. Indeed, by practicing nonduality through yoga, contemporary women and others may be engaging in a practice of freedom in the most essential sense.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2005.

Thesis (Psy. D.)--Wheaton College, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-110).

Thesis (M.A.)--Cleveland State University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-52). Also available online (PDF file) by a subscription to the set or by purchasing the individual file.

Thesis (M.A.)--Cleveland State University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-52).

Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-22T20:50:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-10-27. Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2015-08-11T03:26:13Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 Publico-12860.pdf: 820937 bytes, checksum: 4dac4297e2a1cde3c6b85cb0fc4a2018 (MD5) / Introdução: A pratica de yoga tem se mostrado positiva na redução de insônia. Outros estudos mostram redução de sintomas de climatério. Porém nenhum estudo havia sido realizado até o momento para verificar os efeitos da prática do yoga em mulheres na pós-menopausa com diagnóstico de insônia. Objetivo: avaliar o efeito da prática de Yoga como um tratamento na saúde física e mental, nos sintomas do climatério em mulheres na pós-menopausa com diagnóstico de insônia. Métodos: Mulheres entre 50 e 65 anos na pós-menopausa sem terapia hormonal, IAH <15, com diagnóstico de insônia foram randomizadas em 3 grupos: grupo controle, grupo alongamento passivo, grupo Yoga. Foram aplicados questionários no momento pré e 4 meses após o início para avaliação da qualidade de vida na menopausa, avaliação dos sintomas de ansiedade e depressão, sintomatologia climatérica, gravidade de insônia, sonolência diurna, estresse e polissonografia. O estudo teve duração de 4 meses. Resultados: 44 voluntárias terminaram o estudo. Quando comparado ao grupo controle, o grupo Yoga teve escores significativamente mais baixos para sintomatologia climatérica, gravidade de insônia, qualidade de vida na menopausa e a fase de resistência do estresse na condição pós-tratamento. A melhora na gravidade de insônia no grupo Yoga foi significativamente maior que os grupos controle e alongamento passivo. Conclusão: Este estudo mostrou que uma sequência específica de Yoga pode ser eficiente para melhora da insônia, qualidade de vida e sintomas de menopausa em mulheres na pós-menopausa com insônia. / Introduction: The practice of Yoga has proven to have positive effects on the reduction of insomnia. Studies also show its effects on the reduction of climacteric symptoms. However, no studies have been carried out so far that evaluated the effects of Yoga on postmenopausal women with a diagnosis of insomnia. Objective: to evaluate the effect of Yoga practice on the physical and mental health of postmenopausal women with a diagnosis of insomnia, as well as on their climacteric symptoms. Methods: Postmenopausal women without hormonal therapy, 50 to 65 years old, with apnea-hypopnea index <15 and a diagnosis of insomnia, were randomly assigned to three groups: control, passive stretching, and Yoga. Questionnaires were applied before and four months after intervention to evaluate quality of life; symptoms of anxiety and depression; climacteric symptomatology; severity of insomnia; daytime sleepiness and stress. Volunteers also underwent polysomnography. The study lasted four months. Results: There were 44 volunteers at the end of the study. When compared to the Control group, the Yoga group presented significantly lower scores for climacteric symptomatology and insomnia severity, and better scores in quality of life and resistance phase of stress after treatment. The reduction in the severity of insomnia in the Yoga group was significantly higher than in the control group and passive stretching groups. Conclusion: This study showed that a specific sequence of Yoga might be effective to reduce insomnia and menopause symptoms, and improve quality of life in postmenopausal women with insomnia. / TEDE / BV UNIFESP: Teses e dissertações

BACKGROUND: Disparities in access to quality chronic pain treatment options disproportionately affect minorities. Although there is increasing evidence about the effectiveness of complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) to help in the treatment of pain, little is known about how low income minorities would benefit from having greater access to CIM. The Integrative Medical Group Visit (IMGV) model incorporates CIM in a medical group visit setting with the goal of increasing access to CIM. OBJECTIVE: The aims of this pilot study were to test 1) the feasibility of a Spanish language IMGV and 2) its effectiveness to reduce pain and improve function in Spanish speakers with chronic pain. METHODS: The study setting is the Family Medicine Clinic at Boston Medical Center. Adult Spanish speakers with chronic pain for at least 12 weeks were included; those pregnant, with psychosis, suicidal ideation or active substance abuse disorder were excluded. The intervention consisted of weekly, two-hour sessions for a total of 9 weeks. Main outcomes were pain level, pain interference, and physical and emotional function measured by the PROMIS 29 pre- and post-intervention, depression and stress, measured by PHQ-8 and PSS-10, respectively. Focus group participants discussed the feasibility of the intervention. Analyses involved t-tests to examine our outcome data, and qualitative thematic analysis for focus group data. RESULTS: This open study recruited 11 subjects, 10 women, average age of 51.9 years; 50% of participants attended more than four sessions. The outcomes showed a trend toward reduced depression, pain, fatigue, and anxiety. Qualitative themes of reduced pain, increased knowledge for healthier living, and improved access to pain treatment using an appropriately adapted intervention were found. CONCLUSIONS: It was feasible to implement the Latino IMGV model in the outpatient setting at BMC. Trends in reduction of pain and depression, as well as increased knowledge for healthier living and better access to CIM modalities were found. Future powered studies are needed to further implement this model.

No description available.

Esta pesquisa reflete sobre possíveis modos de utilização do Yoga para o fazer teatral. Propõe-se a análise de três experimentações previamente realizadas pela autora com grupos distintos de atores/alunos onde se utilizou de diferentes modos as técnicas do Yoga para o Teatro. O estudo tece também um olhar sobre a sociedade atual, refletindo a respeito de seus sujeitos e de seu ritmo de vida, na tentativa de compreender a realidade dos grupos que estiveram em trabalho. Por meio das experimentações, buscaram-se rupturas no ritmo cotidiano desses atores/alunos para o possível estabelecimento de pausas que pudessem promover um processo de preparação fluido para as práticas teatrais. O trabalho está dividido em duas etapas principais: a primeira compreende uma breve explanação da trajetória da autora, bem como suas motivações para a pesquisa, a contextualização da sociedade atual, um breve levantamento histórico/filosófico do Yoga e um apanhado de algumas práticas já realizadas por importantes pessoas de teatro. A segunda, por sua vez, compreende a análise dos experimentos previamente realizados e a promoção de reflexão sobre tais vivências. / In this work, we consider possible uses of Yoga in the practice of Theater. Three trials previously conducted by the author with different groups of actors/students were analyzed. In these trials, Yoga techniques were applied to theatrical performances in different ways. Moreover, this study also looks at the current society, reflecting about their subjects and their way of life, in an attempt to understand the reality of the groups whom we have been working with. Through these experiments, we sought to make these actors / students get away from their daily routines, establishing breaks that could promote a fluid process of preparation for the theatrical practices. The work is divided into two main parts: the first comprises a brief explanation of the trajectory of the author, as well as her motivations for conducting this research, the context of today's society, a brief historical/philosophical survey of Yoga, and an overview of some practices already made by important people in the theater scene. The second part comprises the analysis of previously conducted experiments and a reflection over these experiences.