Flagstaff Yoga Festival

Keelyn Riley, M.S.W., LCSW

Yoga Therapy loves the Cranial Sacral system

This therapeutic oriented yoga class will dive into two very sacred places in the body, the occipital lobe and the sacrum.  These are two primary places in which the spine manifests compression.  As a holistic psychotherapist and yoga instructor, Keelyn sees again and again that “compression leads to depression.”  Breathing movement and love into the sacrum stimulates the sacral plexus, which helps to loosen fascial restrictions in the pelvis. The cranial sacral system is the closed hydraulic system containing cerebal spinal fluid, the spinal cord and brain. For Keelyn, she sees this as the body confirming that the mind and body truly are one.  We will joyful create loving space in these two “sweet spots” of the body.  The practice will also include a discussion on how this work links us to the gunas and will close with powerful guided meditation for healing and transformation.

Love Your Body:  Awaken the Inner Goddess
The pure nature of yoga is to inspire a non-competitive environment while weaving the practice of loving-kindness into asana.  We all know that even in yoga, this sacred art can sometimes get lost in the shuffle of glamorous yoga adds and high dollar yoga clothing. “Love your Body” yoga is designed to inspire students to embrace, love and celebrate the beauty of their embodiment through a strong and sweet flow sequence that will weave powerful affirmations geared to transform deeper self love.  Keelyn Riley is a licensed psychotherapist who specializes in working with body image, addictions and anxiety related issues. She uses yoga therapy, healing affirmations, empowering mantras and other skills to assist and inspire people to “love their body” as a strong component of the healing process.  This yoga class will embrace the flavor of her work in this area.  Expect a sparkly experience; )

Keelyn is a licensed clinical social worker who focuses on holistic healing using meditation, guided imagery, energy work and certainly yoga philosophy. She has been in private practice since 2001.

Her career began in 1992, teaching stress reduction classes to therapeutic foster parents. From there, she spent nearly 10 years working in Behavioral Health centers, slowly cultivating guided relaxation and yoga postures into care plans for those recovering from substance abuse and mental illness

Keelyn received her initial yoga teachers training in 1999 in Seattle, Washington (Iyengar). From there, she studied various yoga forms including Ashtanga and Anusara. Today, her yoga practice and classes emphasize meditation and pranayama (breath work) through a gentle and peacefully restorative approach..

Because of a personal interest in energy medicine, she values teaching people to access their own awareness of the energies within their mind and body as a way to deepen their yoga practice. With so much exposure to highly stressed clients in her years of practicing psychotherapy, she also developed a series of meditation classes that utilize various forms of guided imagery.

Meditation practice began for Keelyn at 4 years of age, from parents who studied yogic meditation philosophies. From this foundation, she branched out into a variety of spiritual studies and personal journeys embracing the power of the healer within.

Keelyn has lived in Flagstaff since 1996. She has a beautiful and wise 8 year old daughter who loves yoga, meditation and the concept of “peacefulness.”