Lydia Mendoza - Greet the Sun

Lydia Mendoza, LCSW is a licensed clinical social worker and a certified yoga instructor. She has been a practicing psychotherapist and student of yoga for over 15 years and a yoga instructor for 8. Her psychotherapy style focuses on assisting clients in creating a fulfilling, joyful life and satisfying relationships. Her yoga teaching style emphasizes personal exploration and integration of the practice into daily life. She offers individual and couples psychotherapy and yoga therapy, private yoga instruction, and consultation to practitioners about how to use yoga in the therapeutic setting.

Individual Psychotherapy Session

A psychotherapy session uses process and intention in the service of healing. In a session, you bring anything that you are experiencing in your life and create space to hold this with acceptance and compassion. We together look at how to accept fully who you are as a person and create your life in accordance with your highest potential and good. Sometimes we focus on what has come before now and sometimes we focus on what it is you want to create, always with the intention to do what is in your highest good. Most of the time, you will leave a session with new ways and tools to work with emotional material and homework to work on until we meet again. A psychotherapy session runs 50-60 minutes and costs $100.

Couples Psychotherapy Session

A couple's psychotherapy session uses the same process as for individuals with the focus of the session on the couple as client. In a session, we look at what each individual brings to the relationship and how that impacts the healthy functioning of the relationship. We often will address practical things like communication, healthy boundaries, learning to detach from emotional drama, and learning how to engage in a healthy way. Often times, past relationships with family and other partners are addressed as they impact each partner's current functioning in relationship. We also will focus on patterns established within the relationship and how to effectively dismantle those that no longer serve you as a couple. A couple's psychotherapy session runs 50-60 minutes and costs $100. Sessions can be extended to 1 ½ hours at a cost of $150.

Individual Yoga Therapy Session

A yoga therapy session has much the same intention as a psychotherapy session, except that we use yoga as the tool for healing. In a yoga therapy session, you still do bring anything that you are experiencing in your life and create space to hold this by moving into and out of yoga postures, using the breath and meditation to deepen the healing, and using the yoga mat as a place to discover new tools with which to hold emotional material. You'll then practice with these new tools at home until we meet again. A yoga therapy session runs 50-60 minutes and costs $100. Sessions can also be extended to 1 ½ hours for $150.

Couples Yoga Therapy Session

A couple's yoga therapy session, with the couple as client, utilizes yoga to facilitate a deepening in an already healthy functioning relationship. This type of session is best suited to those couples who have completed some individual and/or couples psychotherapy and have a thorough understanding of how their individual histories impact their functioning in relationship; it is for those who see their relationship patterns and are able to divert them into new and healthier ways of relating. In a couple's session, we use partner yoga to deepen the experience of healthy relating. A couple's session runs 50-60 minutes and costs $100. This can also be extended to 1 ½ hours for $150.

Private Yoga Instruction

In a private yoga instruction session, together we personalize a yoga program to fit your specific physical needs. Private sessions can focus on strength or flexibility, or on physical conditions such as back or neck challenges, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, or any other physical challenge you might be experiencing. In tailoring a program to your specific needs, you take with you a set of postures, breathing techniques, and meditation tools to support you in your everyday life. Generally, you will work with this program 2-4 weeks and then we will meet again to refine it as needed. A private yoga instruction session runs 60 minutes and costs $100.

Consultation

Lydia is also available to meet with individual and group practitioners to discuss how to effectively utilize yoga in practice. Those wanting consultation should have a strong yoga practice and have participated in individual psychotherapy. It is recommended that those seeking consultation should also have experienced yoga therapy as well. Consultation can run from 1-4 hours at a cost of $100 per hour.