e-Book The 12 Step Restorative Yoga Workbook download

I am an advance restorative teacher and this book just is not a good guideline for the layman. I was very disappointed in its format and information.

The author makes a well-substantiated case for using yoga philosophy and practice to help people with a variety of mental health and compulsive behavior disorders get into recovery and stay there. One of the best--if not the best--books of its kind I've seen, and one I plan to use in my practice as a mental health and substance abuse treatment professional.

This book has been great.

My 12 step clients have found that yoga has been fundamental in moving and balancing their nervous energy.

Great book!!

awesome book

I was thrilled to have found this book. I started running a 12-step based yoga class and have found very helpful ideas from it.

As a longtime yoga practitioner and 12 stepper, this was simplistic and disappointing to me.

Dr. Jon Platania, with his customary good humor, introduces two weighty subjects with a light touch, not only making yoga and recovery accessible to the novice, but offering practical, step-by-step instruction through illustrator Joe Lee's drawings. If you're scared off by the word "yoga" or think it's the domain of old Indian men with white beards who sit in caves, wrapping themselves into pretzels, then this book is for you. If you think yoga is for rich white yuppies in Northern California, read this book. If your mind draws a blank on the word, start here. If you can't imagine where to begin with the subjects of either yoga or recovery, start here (for those wanting even more detailed background on yoga, I suggest Platania's "Yoga for Beginners").

"The 12 Step Restorative Yoga Workbook" really is a "workbook" for beginning the practice of yoga and is not really meant to be read through in one sitting -- or one asana. Nevertheless, Platania proceeds methodically to explain the meaning and causes of addiction (he's also a psychologist and understands his topic well) before he puts forth what he proposes as a possible element in a program for recovery.

Does "Remember: Be Here Now" ring a bell with you? Dr. Platania may have had that book in mind as he wrote his own, but there are differences in today's here and now. The drugs that liberated a generation in the 60's enslaved many in the ensuing years. Dr. Platania demonstrates a personal knowledge of that process and it seems that yoga has been a crucial part of his own salvation from what became a disaster for many. It's also clear from the book that he has integrated the lessons, culture and awareness from that historical period, which he uses as a starting point for his book.

I especially love Platania and Lee's multicultural, multi-ethnic and otherwise diverse community of characters who populate the book. There's Patty, the compulsive overeater, Henry, the crack addict, Alvin, the gay man in Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous and Stella, the stressed-out obsessive-compulsive housewife and mother. Some kinda odd ashram, eh? Through these characters (types who verge on stereotypes) we observe beginning yoga positions. They, in fact, become our yoga teachers.

There's something here for everyone, with complex theories on addiction, psychology and yoga broken down for the general reader. If you want to heal and begin the process of re-entering your own life and body, this is a great resource.