Santa Barbara News-Press
Valley Living Section
April 1, 2005

"The Strength to Heal" (excerpts)
by Nora K. Wallace

Seven years ago, bedridden with a mysterious and debilitating illness, Felice Rhiannon looked to her training as a yoga instructor for solace and help healing.

She eventually moved from having to crawl on her hands and knees to where she can not try to help others overcome serious illnesses though yoga.

Ms. Rhiannon, 59, began practicing yoga while in her mid-40s, and she realized from the beginning that she wanted to be a teacher. But shortly after she finished your yoga teaching instruction, she was stricken with a chronic blood disorder that she prefers not to identify.

It took six months to diagnose and another six months for her to recover.

"I thought, I just spent years studying yoga, there's got to be a way that what I learned can help me," she recalled. "I started practicing yoga in bed. It occurred to me: Yoga helped me, it's got to help others."

The ancient practice of yoga combines relaxation, breathing and exercise to help practitioners with aliments such as arthritis, stress, circulatory problems, high blood pressure and heart disease.

Faced with her own illness, Ms. Rhiannon reconsidered how she planned to spend her life. having put her illness into remission-like status, she opted to focus her training on people in the "middle years and beyond," and those experiencing critical illnesses. Adding to her already 200 hours of training she studied for another 300 hours to become a professional yoga therapist. She learned how to work with patients suffering from cancer, polio, heart disease, migraines and multiple sclerosis, among others.

With clients who are in varying stages of ill health, Ms. Rhiannon said she teaches them how to use yoga not only on the physical level, with stretches and poses, but also internally, with proper breathing techniques.

"That is so they can be in the world in more healthful way, even though they're suffering," said Ms. Rhiannon, a two-year resident of the valley who previously practiced Chinese acupuncture.

"Yoga means union, unity of body, mind and spirit," she said. "Most people don't understand what is available under the label of yoga. Nor do they understand that it was traditionally taught one-on-one, with a teacher addressing the needs. Each persona is different. Yoga is personalized."

"Most people think yoga is only for younger people, who are fit and flexible and can do exotic poses such as putting one's feet behind one's neck," she said. "...nothing is further from the truth. I address a person's specific needs and design a posture to suit them." Because many of her (clients) are older or ill, she uses a variety of props to help them through a yoga regimen.

When Dee Cotton began taking yoga about three months ago, her arthritis was so painful she couldn't stand on her tiptoes. Now she does it with ease.

'It's very health-promoting," said this owner of Ok Street Health Club, It's wonderful. I have better balance. My flexibility has improved. I can get down on my knees. That's a big plus."