Male Announcer: You’re listening to From Pain to Possibility with Susi Hately. You will hear Susi’s best ideas on how to reduce or even eradicate your pain and learn how to listen to your body when it whispers so you don’t have to hear it scream. And now here’s your host, Susi Hately.
Susi: Welcome and welcome back. I’m so glad that you’re here because today I have Laurie-Anne Lamothe with me and she is a trainee, almost a graduate form my yoga therapy certification program, and she’s just rocking it. And I wanted to bring her on for the sole reason because we recently did a video review of one of her clients that kind of brought me to tears as I was watching it. And it’s actually bringing up a bit of emotion even as I’m introducing the concept.
And I think the emotion is for a couple of reasons that I’m conscious of. And the first one is that I had a sister, I mean I have a sister, she’s no longer with us, and she was my twin sister and she was born without a corpus callosum. As a result of not having that part of one’s brain she had 24/7 needs. And back in the day when we were little people like my sister would be put into institutions, which is what happened.
And then when she was 16 the way in our province where we lived they shifted the way that kids like her were cared for and out she came and we helped create a group home for her with some other kids. And we saw the growth of her happen tremendously within one year of having just a different kind of attention placed on her.
So when I am watching trainees work with folks the way that the way I would describe it, which might not be completely accurate, but forgive me if I’m making a mistake in terms of languaging, is that when we’re looking at folks that many people out in the population are saying are not as able-bodied or able-minded, which is not true but I’m just putting it in that frame, I frame this particular episode the way I do because Laurie-Anne is one of a handful of trainees that I have who work with people who have autism.
As people know, most of the work that I do is helping people to reduce and eradicate physical pain. And we work with all sorts of people, with all sorts of situations, but when it comes to my trainees and my own personal experience, working with people with autism doesn’t fall into my wheelhouse. It’s not something I’ve got a lot of experience with.
And what I find very, very moving, and likely because of my own family’s experience and supporting people in the way that we were able to support my sister, is when I see my trainees and grads helping folks where I don’t necessarily have the wheelhouse of skill, it’s very, very moving to see the application of the principles that I teach play out and be really successful.
So there’s a couple ways that we’re going to frame this episode. The first one is we’ve got Laurie-Anne, she’s going to introduce herself and give a little background so you’ve got context for how she works. Then we’re going to talk about autism and some of the language that is being utilized now, because language is important because language helps frame context and in many ways has been limiting for folks who have autism.
And then she’s going to share the story of the client that she was sharing with us on video review and just the gains that were made and how she sort of guided her client through this process, which was incredible. And then you’ll have an opportunity to hear about how you can connect with her if this is something that you’re interested in.
All right, so welcome Laurie-Anne. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I’m so glad that you’re here.
Laurie-Anne: Thank you so much, Susi, for including me. I think this is really important to broaden our perspective and understanding about people who are on the spectrum or who may be different from us in the way that they gather and process information.
So first, I’ll say that I grew up in a small town in northern Ontario, and we had a young lad on the street who learned differently, and I don’t know exactly what that was called for him. And he would come over to my house and my dad would mow the lawn with him. And so for me, everybody who lived in our neighborhood were all seen as kids in the neighborhood.
And then when I grew up, I became a social service worker. And when I was in training, I worked in a residential program for people who had behavior issues or behavior differences who all were on the spectrum somewhat.
And then four years ago, my 22-year-old daughter was diagnosed with low support needs autism. So the language around autism spectrum disorder has changed dramatically. We would have called her high functioning at one point, and now she has what they call low support needs.
I’m very passionate about things being inclusive here at the studio, so anybody can come as they are because in my mind, the practice of yoga sees us all as whole and complete, and we just need to remember who we are. And that goes for everybody.
So there have been some changes with language around diagnosis and autism. It used to be high functioning, medium functioning, and low functioning. And they have now changed that to be defined as low support needs, medium support needs, and high support needs.
When somebody is nonverbal, which means they speak less than 30 words, they may need less support, they just need a tool to get the language that’s going on in their mind out into the world. And there are some very brilliant people who are university professors and all over the world there’s so many people with autism spectrum, and it looks different for every single person.
Susi: So if we take that, consider what that means for helping people with the work that you do from a yoga therapy standpoint, what becomes important, knowing that context of language?
Laurie-Anne: So the most important thing that I began to realize is that I was the most important stimulus in the room. How I see people, how I treat people, the language that I use, how my presence in the room affects the people I work with, whether they’re on the spectrum or not.
And so while I was working with my daughter, she was my first video review, I noticed that she couldn’t handle tiny movements. That to make her go smaller in the yoga therapy training, to make the movements tinier and smaller, they were frustrating to her because it didn’t feel right inside of her body.
So I learned right away that how I approach bodies and movement is really different depending on the person. And we can’t take the one size fits all, “Oh, they have autism, we have to do it this way,” because each person is so completely unique.
And when my client came, he has a genetic condition that the more repetitions he does, his muscles freeze up and go into spasm. So he came into the studio. I had met his mother at a senior center in the area, and she thought maybe I could work with him. So I saw him first in a life coach capacity, but he came into the studio. His volume was really loud. He couldn’t walk in stocking feet, he had to have indoor shoes.
There were many, many things about him and what he needed that had to be met for him to be comfortable. Well, I don’t want shoes in my studio, but if I was going to meet him where he was at and where I was at, I was going to have to change my perspective and become more flexible.
So I worked with him in a life coach capacity and in group classes for several months. He’s done spectacularly well.
Susi: One question I have before you go on to where he came to is why did he come in the first place? What was the reasoning for him taking classes in the first place?
Laurie-Anne: So he first came to see me specifically to help him with organization and movement because nobody thought that he would ever find a way to get out of pain.
Susi: And when you say organization, how do you mean organization?
Laurie-Anne: So what he would need to do to wake up at the same time and like sleep hygiene and oral hygiene and everything that he would need to potentially be able to have a job.
Now, as we started working together in that capacity, that’s when the nervousness about pain and not being able to walk great distances and always having to have his shoes on and using electric scooters. Because the more I got to know him, the more I learned how the world wasn’t really a friendly place for him. That he couldn’t bring his scooter into certain areas and he would get very upset about it.
And so I had him working with some breath and relaxation. And then he worked with my co-op student who was a 200 hour trained yoga teacher. His term ended and I realized that my yoga student taught him all his bad habits. I know we’re not supposed to use the word bad, so let’s say taught him the way his body moved, taught him the movements the way this co-op student’s body moved.
And so I started working with him as a yoga therapist as well as coaching him. And it became very apparent very quickly that he could reduce the pain in his feet, that he could reduce the volume, that he could get a job. And we had to give him some support because he was still behaving like someone who couldn’t walk great distances.
Susi: Okay, hold that thought here because you just said a whole bunch there that I got to unpack a little bit.
Laurie-Anne: Okay.
Susi: So when you started to work with him in a yoga therapy mindset or yoga therapy lens, it seemed like very quickly you both realized that he could do all of these things. So was he not able to consider getting a job because of the pain and because of not being able to walk? Were those the two limiting factors?
Laurie-Anne: There was volume of his voice.
Susi: Yep.
Laurie-Anne: And he couldn’t find a job because he had so many restrictions. It couldn’t be cold. It couldn’t be wet. He had to be able to get there by his mom’s driving because if his feet acted up, then he would have to leave. And there was a lot of anxiety around that. And he, without intention, could become very loud when he was frustrated.
Susi: And most people would call that loudness inappropriate behavior?
Laurie-Anne: Yes, the volume of his voice would be inappropriate in a workplace setting, for example. That would be what people would call that. Too loud. It could be seen as aggressive based on the sheer volume of it.
Susi: Got it. Okay. So then what transpired then to move from a place where this is the state, to then he is at another state where the pain is down, he’s now walking on a regular basis, and the volume has shifted? Walk me through some of what happened that you can now look back on and say, “Yeah, yeah, I can see that as being the trajectory of the path.” What contributed to that?
Laurie-Anne: So a lot of it that happened in the coaching perspective was about learning how to regulate. And when I realized that what he needed was some tools in his toolbox, we had started with the belly breath. Just to bring him into his body inside that there was an inside of him that could move and breathe and help the outside of him become more, I’m going to use a word I don’t like to use but I don’t know another one, I’m going to say acceptable.
So that the volume could change so that people could really hear what he was saying. And then we started with bigger movements. And he was like, “I can’t do a half moon pose.” Yes, you can. And we would go into it and he would get more and more confident with understanding himself and his body. And then one day he walked in, he said, “Laurie, I don’t know what you’ve done. My feet, I don’t have the spasms anymore.”
So it was a lot of, you know, learning cow and cat. It was a lot of coming into regular classes. And then we started with the hip movement that rotated, like feeling the hip bone in the hip socket. Sitting with a skeleton, getting a box of bones out, putting things together, teaching him how his body went together and how it moves. How the shoulder moves in the shoulder socket. Because he loves this stuff.
He loves to be taught. Like the rectus abdominis muscle to him is the funniest muscle on the body. So the more I say that, the more he trusts it. Or in my video review, he has a habit with cow and cat to not move the pelvis. And then when he finally got the tip of the pelvis, he goes like this, “It’s moving.” I’m like, “Yeah, you’re moving.”
And to keep reinforcing that nothing he does is wrong or incorrect. Okay, so we did this and we feel this. And for him to be able to start to understand how his body moves, how it feels.
And then there was the coaching piece of, okay, you’re not having muscle spasms in your feet anymore. So, yes, you can go walk to the park. And then that, “I can?” Like, yes, you can go walk to the park. And I mean to say his life has expanded, he’s cooking dinner for the house. He’s got a job now, except when it rains, because he’s watering plants at the graveyard with an organization. He’s looking at a podcast for himself to talk about himself and what he’s learned.
And not every person that comes to you is the same, even if they have the same condition. Like not everybody with osteoarthritis in the hip is going to need the same stimulus as another person with osteoarthritis in the hip. It’s the same thing with people on the spectrum, everybody comes to you differently. And there’s not like this set, do this, do that, do this.
And what it’s done for me as a person is really quite incredible. Like I said with the video review, I would go, oh, I missed this. I missed that. When I started, I could have done more. And then when I was writing through his video review, I was like, oh, that’s so good. And that’s so good. And this is so good.
And so it changed me and how I even look at movement, because he’s willing to try anything and his life has expanded. During the time that he’s been together, his mother’s husband passed away. His mother has had surgery. They just got back today. He walked into a class just today, quiet, pulled together. Nobody would have known watching his movement that he ever had muscle spasms, that he ever had any “difference.” I use my air quotes there.
And I think what people need to also know about people on the spectrum is that only one third of the people on the spectrum have a learning difference. Two thirds of people with autism do not, but their brains are wired differently. Their organizational strategies are wired differently. And I’ve learned that with my daughter and how she works and how she operates and how I have to approach her.
I’m fortunate I have a studio with some of the most welcoming people. And if they didn’t like him, then they could go somewhere else because he is in class, just like everybody, being who he is in this moment with whatever is going on in his life.
And I can’t express how very proud I am of the work that he has done. He can do tree pose with his eyes closed. I can’t do tree pose with my eyes closed, but he can. He can see the pose. He can feel the pose. He can do all of those things where so many of us are too caught up in the what is right and what is wrong. And he’s like, well, you just close your eyes when you do tree pose.
And he now has all of these tools that when he gets anxious, excited, scared, nervous, the response is always the same. But now he has tools. Now he can do mini sun salutations. He can do deep breaths. He can talk himself down. And I think it’s all just really, really incredible.
Susi: So just to bring a summary to this, I think what’s important in what you’re sharing, Laurie-Anne, is that the reality is we can have whatever is going on inside of ourselves. And some of those things that are going on inside of ourselves has a label. And that label really is the beginning of the conversation, it’s not the end of the conversation, right?
It’s not the end of the conversation where we pigeonhole said person into some slot. And then we can expect these results because this person is in this particular slot, this label. But rather, it’s interesting information about what this label is, it gives us some context, but then we start to open our vision for what’s actually possible. Because nobody actually knows what is possible. Nobody knows what’s possible.
And there’s an opportunity, or rather the opportunity that is available has really been described by you. When you’re someone who has sort of the curiosity in their heart, the skill set and the tools to be able to be present to someone and to meet them and to just see what happens. Because really, that’s what it all comes down to, is we’re recognizing that we are a stimulus, we offer stimuli when we provide movement, breath or stillness.
And we get to see how this human with a system, physiological, psychological, anatomical, biomechanical, all the things, how it responds and then act from there. So it’s like it just goes to show what the heck is possible as a human being when we really come from a place of love and deep caring and with a solid skill set.
And so I just want to give hats off to you, Laurie-Anne, for just really taking it on and being of such great service to the people in your community.
Laurie-Anne: Thank you. I find it really humbling, really, to be able to be that for people. To be able to be a positive force for change and teach people how to move and watch their lives change. And you just never, ever know what’s going to come, what’s going to show up, what’s going to change.
Dr. Wayne Dyer used to say, keep your mind open to everything and attached to nothing. And that’s really how I handle all my clients. And he’s no different, he’s somebody who comes with his stuff and let’s work together, learn together, play together, move together, and sometimes sit really quietly together and see what happens.
Thank you so much, Susi, for having me on to have this opportunity to talk about neurodiversity. There’s so many people out there that think differently and move differently and it’s a great conversation to be had.
Susi: How do people reach you, Laurie-Anne, if people want to talk with you further or connect with you about services that you offer?
Laurie-Anne: You can email me. You are the key, spelled out in real English. Y-O-U-A-R-E-T-H-E-K-E-Y-6-5 @gmail.com. Or you can look at yogacentreniagra.com. And centre is spelled R-E, not E-R. You could send me an email through there as well.
Susi: Perfect. So we will add that to the show notes so you know where to find Laurie-Anne. Laurie-Anne, again, thank you. Very much.
Laurie-Anne: Thank you, Susi.
If this episode has resonated and you’re looking to deepen this idea of getting your body back on board, of listening deeply to your symptoms, of listening to the whispers so you don’t have to hear the screams, and you’re looking for one to one support or professional training, then reach out to us at [email protected] where we can customize your learning path. That’s [email protected]. Looking forward to hearing from you.
