Yoga DVDs For the Disabled
Carol Dickman Has Pioneered Ways to Make Yoga Accessible to All
Though images of yoga often reflect sacred space (an ashram or specialized studio), the ancient discipline that reorients bodily energy can be done almost anywhere by persons with a wide range of physical challenges.
For 12 years, Carol Dickman, and her Yoga Enterprises, has developed instructional audio, video, and DVD programs aimed at those who wish to live healthier lives despite impaired mobility. Her series includes "Bed Top Yoga" and “Seated Yoga” (1997), 33 and 43-minute programs that guide students through a series of breathing exercises, simple stretches, and rudimentary yoga postures, followed by relaxation exercises. "Bed Top Yoga" is done lying down on the back and "Seated Yoga" is done in a chair or on the edge of the bed.
Suite101 recently spoke with Carol Dickman.
When did you begin studying yoga?
C.D. It was in 1964 when I was living in Philadelphia. I took yoga classes at the Y in Center City and everything resounded so positively for me. It was perfect. My teacher was a student at the Philadelphia Institute of Textile and Design. In the 1980s, I saw a catalogue and discovered that my teacher from the 60's had gone on to found Kripalu Yoga. I traveled to the Kripalu Center in Massachusetts to take a course, and started to cry when doing the yoga again. It felt like a seed that yoga had planted inside of me so many years ago was finally being watered and nurtured.
Dickman's Program Began with the Blind
How did you start developing yoga for the disabled?
C.D. When I began, I had a blind cousin who wanted to learn yoga, so I created a program for him, recording detailed instructions on the various poses on an audiotape. At the time, I was living near the Jewish Guild for the Blind in New York City and approached them about starting a yoga class for the blind.
What sort of reception did you get?
C.D. They asked, “How would you do that?” I knew that when a teacher loves her students, they’ll learn. So I began teaching the blind and visually impaired. Soon, many students, including some in wheelchairs, began asking what they could do at home. I developed a script and made a recording that evolved into Bed Top Yoga, my first program. The idea caught on for a wide range of disabilities, including paraplegics, those with MS, and cancer patients. The programs have also proven popular among seniors.
What other teaching experiences have you had?
C.D. When I got my certification, I was working as a network news producer at NBC. I proposed teaching yoga classes at their corporate offices in Rockefeller Center. After a long deliberation, they said I could teach, provided, “You do not ‘ohm,’ and you do not chant.” I taught there for three years, offering special classes for runners, for computer users, and for the creative staff. I went on to earn certification in Bikram Yoga and in Yoga for Cardiac Patients.
How did adding Bikram expand your skills?
C.D. Yoga is in many ways a balance between will and surrender. In addition to teaching me new postures, the rigorous and exacting Bikram method was in direct contrast to the gentle and accepting Kripalu method. It got me back in touch with my willful self. It brought the pendulum back from the extreme of being “so mellow” and “ok if the ceiling's falling in”. What’s great about Bikram is the consistency: it’s 26 poses in a specified sequence, most done twice, and it’s the same anywhere you take it.
Dickman recommends beginners do yoga exercises with eyes closed to enhance relaxation and remove the potential for judgment.
Carol Dickman's Accessible
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Carol Dickman's Accessible
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