350: Yoga for Autism & Special Needs with Shawnee Thornton Hardy
Autism spectrum disorder affects about 1 in 100 children globally yet there is still a lot of misconception and misunderstanding about people with autism and other special needs. Shawnee Thornton Hardy shares more about how yoga can support people in this community.
Shawnee is the Founder of Asanas for Autism and Special Needs and the Founder/Director of Yoga Therapy for Youth Certification Program. She has worked with children and adults with autism and individuals with diverse needs for almost 3 decades, specializing in working with children and adults with significant cognitive and language delays, sensory processing challenges, significant behavior challenges and trauma histories. Her goal is to bring the experience of yoga and somatic practices to all individuals no matter their differences or challenges. Shawnee is also a published author – and will be giving away three copies of her book!
In this episode, Shawnee shares more about the children and teenagers that she works with, what their challenges may be, and how yoga can help. She explains some yoga practices that can help with anger and anxiety and how to bring calm when a class or student has high energy. Shawnee also highlights why it’s so important to treat each child as an individual and to let go of our preconceived ideas about them or their special needs label.
Key Takeaways:
[3:40] Shannon introduces her guest for this episode – Shawnee Thornton Hardy
[7:12] What does Shawnee do and who does she do it for?
[9:01] What inspired Shawnee to do this work?
[10:33] What are some of the labels that get placed on children Shawnee works with?
“[Labels] can be helpful to understand a diagnosis that a child or teen may have because we can have a sense of what some of their challenges or complications may be. But then once we know the label, we go deeper beneath and just look at that child or teen as just a human being and get to know their specific not only challenges but also strengths and their individual ways of navigating the world.” ~ Shawnee Thornton Hardy
[14:15] What are some basic things a teacher who encounters a young person with complex needs in their class should know?
[17:33] What trainings does Shawnee recommend for a yoga teacher who is starting out on this journey of supporting someone with special needs?
[20:37] What are some of the benefits of yoga for young people in this community? Shawnee shares some anecdotes from her experience.
[25:35] Shannon and Shawnee discuss how useful it is even for adults to be able to practice self-awareness.
[28:35] Many adults today have grown up in environments where we were encouraged not to express our negative feelings like anger or sadness.
[29:50] Shannon gives a shout out of thanks to sponsor, OfferingTree.
[31:38] What are some practices that can help for children who are feeling a lot of anxiety or worry?
“How can we ground ourselves in the sense of helping this individual child or human, whoever is in front of us, feel a sense of belonging?” ~Shawnee Thornton Hardy
[34:14] What does Shawnee do when chaos breaks out in her classes?
“When we have kids that are in a dysregulated state, they’re not in a learning space.” ~ Shawnee Thornton Hardy
[37:16] What is something that Shawnee wishes yoga teachers who are supporting children with complex needs knew earlier?
[42:02] Shannon and Shawnee discuss the importance of caring for each child as an individual and not assuming that we know everything about them because we know their diagnosis.
[45:25] Shawnee is giving away three books! Shannon shares the details of the giveaway.
[46:14] How did Shawnee end up writing her books?
[49:41] Shawnee reflects on how important leaning into celebration and joy is, and how that is part of her inner child work.
[56:26] Shannon shares some of her biggest takeaways from this conversation with Shawnee.
Links:
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Yoga Therapy for Children and Teens with Complex Needs by Shawnee Thornton Hardy
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Yoga for Autism and Special Needs Teacher Training by Shawnee Thornton Hardy
Gratitude to our Sponsors, OfferingTree and Pelvic Health Professionals.
Thank you for this! Glad and grateful to see educational strategies applied to yoga, especially for and with people with less common and possibly more complex needs.
Thank you to Shawnee for sharing in the podcast and for putting all her learning and working with people with all abilities into a book and I love the koshas’s theme Lisa 😍
So good to hear Shawnee as you can hear and feel the combination of her knowledge, experience, passion, warmth and compassion for the work that she does.
I think it’s a really important piece she adds about gaining or having understanding of a condition, experience or diagnoses and, the importance of the whole person and how each will be unique. Thank you for this conversation!
Loved this episode! As a career educator, I have worked with my share of autistic students. I believe that we need to include special populations as a part of our yoga teacher training. My main follow up question is how do we bring the best experience to our adult participants who are neurodivergent? Do you think the strategies presented can be used for all ages?
I really appreciate these niche episodes. This one was particularly meaningful because my aspiration is to incorporate yoga into serving families affected by mental health and substance use disorders, and I struggle with concerns that my focus will be too narrow. Learning about the important work that Shawnee is doing with individuals who have complex needs is inspirational and encouraging. Thank you!
This hits so close to home. I work in a school district and facilitate yoga and mindfulness sessions for staff, students and parents/family members. The escalation of trauma – for both students and adults – in the past few years is impacting the school climate and making it more and more difficult for people to engage together. Thank you for what you are doing!!
Thanks so much for this episode, I really enjoyed it. I teach a special needs group at my local college so super relevant to me!
Thank you for this episode and for every other episode! Your podcast has been a source of information, creativity and inspiration in my newbie teaching journey (I’ve only been teaching yoga for 1.5 years). Thank you for putting out these conversations for us to hear and incorporate into our services. I hope that with time, more and more yoga teachers in Puerto Rico and all across the world will be thinking about ways to create safer and kinder spaces for people with all kinds of diversities, who normally have little to no access to the health benefits of yoga!! I recently started teaching a group of male adults with different types of disabilities (mostly autism and Down’s Syndrome), so I definitely will be coming back to this and to the resources that both of you mentioned! <3
Thank you so much. Lovely to hear more of Shawnee’s work. I have ADHD as does my son & have worked with people with various differences in yoga & outside of yoga. Such a fascinating area & so important for everyone to understand since this is so often a hidden difference.