Bodymind Gestalt Therapy Group

Mondays 7:00pm-9:30pm

Starts Monday May 2, 2011

8 weeks ($325)

The Bodymind Gestalt Group will provide an opportunity to explore bodymind awareness practices in the interpersonal realm as well as a forum to do some intensive psychotherapy. Participants will be introduced to Gestalt process and group work. With its here and now focus, Gestalt promotes greater awareness. In group, opportunities are created to try things out experientially and in so doing participants can become aware of just how it is they get stuck. Gestalt group work offers participants the necessary support to risk new ways of relating to themselves, others and their environment.

The reference to bodymind in the title of this group refers to the emphasis on meditation, breath, yoga and movement forms in the sessions. These practices will prepare you for the kind of interpersonal encounter work that we will do. However, this is not a technique based workshop. We will be sitting on meditation cushions (if you have your own bring it). We also have chairs present for your comfort. This seated style will enable us to flow freely in and out of movement-based explorations within the space.

Group therapy is also a more affordable way to work on matters of personal concern. While individual therapy offers a great depth of inquiry it can also become limiting in scope. Participating in a group is a powerful way to promote fast change. People attracted to group work are usually interested in engaging with greater authenticity in their lives so these sessions are also an opportunity to follow your curiousity in the social environment that a group creates.

No experience is necessary. Please contact Simone at 647.240.4104 to arrange a brief chat by phone first. A deposit of $150 is due by April 25, 2010

The basic work of health professionals in general and psychotherapists in particular is to become full human beings and to inspire full human beingness in other people who feel starved about their lives. — Chögyam Trungpa, from Full Human Beingnes

Yoga and Insomnia

What is Gestalt Therapy?

Gestalt therapy is a psychotherapy that addresses the mind body as a fluid continuum and uses creativity to shift toward a more intuitive and present-centred life. In the Gestalt process, what is directly experienced and felt is more reliable than our explanations or interpretations of the ways things are. Drawing upon body gestures, metaphor, verbal statements and other expressive approaches, the Gestalt therapist develops experiments for you to explore the full range of your potential. As the process unfolds, Gestalt facilitates enhanced awareness of personal responsibility and choice, how to avoid problems, finish unfinished matters and experience life with greater spontaneity and flexibility.

Simone's Yoga Classes at Parkdale Prana Room

All sessions at
Parkdale Prana Room
1273A Queen St W
www.pranaroom.org

Hatha Yoga with Simone Moir
Sundays 6:00pm-7:45pm
8 weeks for $120 (just $15 per class)
or $18 drop-in


Riding The Lively Wave:
Yoga and Therapy Group for Anxious Times
with Simone Moir
5 weeks, April 30- June 4 (no session May 21)
Saturdays 10:00am-1:00pm ($220)
Contact: info@pranaroom.org or call 647.240.4104

Just relax and take a deep breath.

Who hasn't heard this before?

When your thoughts are racing with "If only" and "What if", your shoulders are up by your ears, your heart is pounding, sleeping has been replaced by pacing and your world is shrinking by the minute, taking this sound advice becomes more than a little bit daunting.

Soothe your fearful mind and stressed body with this supportive program that combines the know-how of yoga practices with self-reflection and interpersonal therapy. Become aware of the ways in which you stifle your energy and find new resevoirs of support in your body, relationships and environment. Through yoga postures, breathing practice, meditation and group work you will be introduced to a broad array of tools for coping. Ideal for anyone with a desire to free up their excitement for a more fully engaged life.

Beginners welcome. For those already have a yoga practice discover how your yoga practice can be of greater benefit to you.

Contact info@pranaroom.org or call 647.240.4104 to register by April 21, 2011 with deposit of $100.

What others have to say about working with Simone:

Whether she is following a personal story, asking difficult questions about my blind spots, or spontaneously laughing at something I didn't realize was so funny, Simone Moir is a trustworthy guide. Her ability to listen and respectfully respond, cut-to-the-chase or just enjoy silence, make her a skilled and attentive therapist. I've always found it hard to recommend artists to therapists because few understand the messy and tender creative process. Simone's background in art practice, Buddhist psychology and western clinical technique is a rare and important blend. Combining yoga wisdom and body practice with the stillness of guided meditation and the precision of western psychology, Simone has a gifted ability of juxtaposing different systems without oversimplifying any of them. As a clinician this is a rare gift - one that allows a range of perspectives so that anyone working with Simone can expect her to attend to you with many tools and a lot of patience. Finally, someone to serve the many creative people who had previously avoided therapeutic work.

—Michael Stone
Author, Psychotherapist and Yoga Teacher


Simone’s extensive knowledge of gestalt therapy, substance abuse, meditation and yoga makes her an excellent and informed teacher. I have taken yoga classes all over the city of Toronto and strongly suggest Simone as a teacher who has the knowledge to engage you intellectually and spiritually through yoga. After participating in an 8-day intensive with her I had acquired basic tools that helped me to start my own daily meditation practice and I started to have a sense of how yoga could actually help my anxiety and general well being. This workshop led to a deeper awareness of my own addictive patterns and started me on my journey towards inner peace.

—Sarah
Performance Artist

Simone's yoga classes are subtle, powerful, and surprising. She pays critical attention to your breathing as she instructs, and this is fundamental to her approach: familiar asanas are new again as your body slows, expands and contracts with your breath, always in a fresh way. I have experienced profound stillness in her classes, as well as intense energy. Best of all, I find clarity there, and I have been able to bring this to my creative work out of the yoga studio.

— Sarah Seleckey, Writer

Yoga For Smokers Who Don’t Want To Be

• Six week yoga course with Simone Moir
• Date: tba
  
• Lumino School of Awakening and Personal Development 1466 Bathurst Street #306, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 3S3
• Contact Simone Moir at 647.240.4104 or simone.moir@gmail.com

This 6 session series will use yoga philosophy to address habit change. You will learn various yoga postures, breath work and meditative practices specifically designed for smokers. This class provides a supportive environment in which you will examine your relationship to smoking and your desire for change. No prior yoga experience is necessary.

See post published June 10 2008 on this blog for an article about Yoga For Smoker's Who Don't Want To Be and The Stages of Change

Psychotherapy with Simone Moir

Simone Moir is a Gestalt psychotherapist. With her training in Buddhist meditation and philosophy, yoga, and art she holds a lot of tools to help you shift toward a more intuitive and present-centred life. Drawing upon creative processes, Simone will help you to find new ways of responding to the challenges you face and accompany you in an exploration of the full range of your potential. As the process unfolds, you may experience enhanced awareness of personal responsibility and choice, enabling you to move from loneliness and isolation toward greater connection, spontaneity and flexibility. When you regain your physical and mental vitality, lively emotions are tolerated and embraced, so that self-trust may deepen.

Simone continues her research into a somatic yoga based approach to addressing anxiety, insomnia, addictions and depression. See her program Riding The Lively Wave. In her practice she also assists individual in overcoming barriers to incorporating meditation and yoga in their daily life as well as working through other challenges they may be facing on their spiritual path.

Contact Simone for a phone consultation at 647.240.4104

Address stress, anxiety, grief, relationship difficulties, loneliness, depression, pain, illness and destructive habitual patterns or emotions with this original, efficient and effective form of therapy.

Gestalt Therapy with Simone Moir:

• Supports change
• Gain awareness
• Increase spontaneity and flexibility
• Examine beliefs and core values
• Define your sense of self
• Explore new or unfulfilled dreams and possibilities
• May include instruction in mindfulness meditation, yoga breathing and other stress reduction practices
• May draw upon a range of expressive art practices including: play, voice, drawing, movement and role-play