E34: Healing Minds Through Movement: How Treetop Yoga Therapy Changes Lives

When yoga therapy meets mental health, something remarkable happens. Ena Rodriquez O'Rourke takes us on a profound journey through her 13-year practice at Treetop Yoga Therapy, where she's helping veterans with PTSD, individuals struggling with addiction, and people recovering from physical injuries find their way back to themselves.

"Yoga is not just exercise, and it's definitely not a religion," Ena explains, dismantling common misconceptions that have followed yoga across cultural boundaries. As someone who left Alabama seeking a more open-minded environment, she understands firsthand the barriers that can prevent people from experiencing yoga's therapeutic benefits. Her practice welcomes everyone—regardless of background, belief system, or age—creating a truly inclusive healing space.

What makes yoga therapy distinctive is its present-moment focus. Unlike traditional talk therapy that often requires revisiting painful histories, Ena's approach helps clients reconnect with their bodies right now. "We work with what's present in that moment," she shares, describing how this technique helps people move from dissociation (being "in the attic of your head") back into their bodies where healing can occur. This skill proved life-saving in her own family, helping her navigate parenting challenges with her neurodiverse child as a single mother. Through her certification in iRest Yoga Nidra—a technique adopted by the military in 2006—she's witnessed remarkable transformations in clients who previously felt stuck in trauma responses. Now balancing her therapy practice with a return to professional acting, Ena embodies the integration of mind, body, and creative expression she helps others achieve.

Curious about how yoga therapy might support your healing journey? Visit https://treetopyogatherapy.com/ to learn more, or find a certified yoga therapist in your area through the International Association of Yoga Therapists. Your path to reconnection might be closer than you think.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Nick George.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Are you in need of a yogatherapy experience that reaches
the treetops and customersatisfaction?
One might be closer than youthink.
Today I have the pleasure ofintroducing your good neighbor,
Ina Rodriguez O'Rourke, withTreetop Yoga Therapy.
Ina, how's it going?

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Wonderful Nick.
How is it with you?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Perfect, we're excited to learn all about your
business.
Tell us about your company oryour practice.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me on in the
first place.
I have been in business as ayoga therapist one-on-one for
almost 13 years and have beenteaching for 25.
Yeah, how did you get into thisbusiness?
I started as an actor in LosAngeles and I needed to take a

(01:02):
break from it because I wantedto raise a family and one of my
children had been diagnosedneurodiverse and because of that
, there were some very specificchallenges that needed some more
of my time and actually somegreater skill sets than I had.
So I had begun teaching yogafor the calming of myself and my

(01:24):
family and then I justcontinued to gain more knowledge
, experience, certifications,etc.
For the sake of my child.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
What are some myths or misconceptions in your
industry?

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Oh, the first one I'll just name it is that yoga
is specifically exercise.
That is a great big myth and, Ido have to say, by the same
token, it's an excellent way tobe introduced to it and you
could even stop there if youwant.
There are plenty of amazingtrainings in some of the more
corporate lines of yoga that,having taken many of those as

(02:09):
well, I find have excellentsequencing and can be a valuable
part of an exercise routine.
I also believe that there are alot of folks, having grown up
in the South myself I was raisedin Alabama that believe yoga is
a religion, and it's not.
It predates Buddhism andHinduism in books called the

(02:32):
Vedas, this sort of thing, sothere's absolutely no religion
involved.
You can, if you like, come toit from that mindset.
Once again, another great wayto go into it.
But those are two myths.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
I find bandied about the most.
I'm from Tennessee.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
Okay then have you noticed that there was kind of
that idea that this is areligion when you were in
Tennessee and in the South?

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Without going too far down that rabbit hole.
It's the reason I moved here.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Oh, gotcha, okay yeah .

Speaker 2 (03:09):
I needed a new environment with new types of
thinkers around me, because Ifelt stifled or artificially
contained by the reality thatwas prevalent there.
But who are your targetcustomers?
How do you attract them now?

Speaker 3 (03:25):
So you know, starting from this point, working
backward, I would say thatprimarily now I'm working with
folks who have PTSD and it'sbecome my specialty About.
Well, I'm gonna say maybe itwas 2010, that I became
certified in something that'scalled iRest Yoga Nidra, short
for integrative restoration,which is actually a training in

(03:48):
Yoga Nidra, which is a form oftheta wave state brainwave state
and works a lot likehypnotherapy, and adopted by the
military in 2006.
So I've had contract work withthe VA in Cheyenne and in Fort
Collins for three and a halfyears working with groups of

(04:09):
veterans, men and women whopresent with symptoms of PTSD,
and then also addictioncounseling.
Same thing.
A lot of addiction comes fromhaving experienced traumas and
just not feeling healed andusing in some way because it
works for a while until itdoesn't any longer.

(04:29):
So those two mental healthstates are my favorite and I
have a lot of those, but I alsoreally enjoy working with folks
who have just had some surgeriesor injuries and helping them to
rehab.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Ina, have you ever thought about doing your own
podcast?

Speaker 3 (04:48):
I have actually as an actor especially, I thought
about doing it yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Outside of work.
What do you do for fun?

Speaker 3 (04:58):
Oh, I love to paddleboard.
I hang with girlfriends likecrazy and I am very much in love
with travel, like I've beengone three weeks out of this
month, probably four or fivedays, and I'm an actor, a
professional actor.
I went back to it.
So I have two careers and Ithink that they dovetail
beautifully into one another.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Let's switch gears.
Can you describe a hardship orlife challenge that you overcame
and how it made you stronger?
What comes to mind?

Speaker 3 (05:31):
Yeah, it's kind of sensitive, Nick, and I don't
mind sharing.
When I was going through theseissues with my child becoming an
adolescent and I was divorced,a single mom, there was a lot of
episodes we'll call themepisodes going on in the home.

(05:51):
And in order to deescalate thosethose episodes and then
deescalate myself and thendeescalate my other child who
was a part of that there had tobe a real system in place.
So my training in yoga nidra, mytraining in the iRest and in
yoga therapy has helped me tosystematically approach those

(06:12):
things in such a way that I can,within I'm going to say quite
easily, 30 minutes, geteverybody down in the household
from a 10 to a six, which is theability to come out of the
attic in your head where wedissociate when we're in the
moment of trauma or fight orflight, and get back down into
the body where there are so much, so many more bits of

(06:35):
information coming in that youcan utilize.
It's just the human mechanismto dissociate.
So I think that yoga therapy, Iwould have to say the thing
that has really been life saving, foraving for me and for my
family, has been that theknowledge that, oh my gosh, I'm
not in my body.
I need to now get into my bodyif I'm going to have a

(06:56):
conversation that has moreproblem-solving compassion and
love within it.
And then to watch my childrenadopt some of these methods as
well has been an incredible joy.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
I've got a couple of toddlers at home.
I'm going to need some of thesemethods as well.
Has been an incredible joy.
I've got a couple of toddlersat home.
I'm going to need some of that.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Right, yes, tina, please tell our listeners one
thing that they shouldabsolutely remember about
treetop yoga therapy Everyculture, every background, every
religion, every age is welcomewithin my office and within the

(07:33):
offices of all yoga therapists.
It is what we are geared for toreally sit with whomever and
with whatever they are feelingin the present moment, and no
story need be told.
So this is the differencebetween psychotherapy and yoga
therapy we don't need to know ahistory.
We work with what's present inthat moment.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
And how can our listeners learn more about
treetop yoga therapy?

Speaker 3 (07:58):
You can go to treetopyogatherapycom and it's
very heavy on content, so that'sthe greatest place to go would
be the website you can also, bythe way.
Oh sorry, I didn't mean tointerrupt.
You can also go to theInternational Association of
Yoga Therapists, which is awebsite, and their agency, which

(08:20):
is based in the US, and find ayoga therapist who works in your
neighborhood, and then most ofus also work virtually.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Well, you know, I really appreciate you being on
the show.
We wish you and your yogatherapy business the best moving
forward.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
Thank you, nick, I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go tognpfortcollinscom.
That's gnpfortcollinscom, orcall 970-438-0825.