Meet Lou Foster, Special Yoga Advanced Practitioner and Trainer on our NHS Programme.
"I’m Lou, a Yoga Therapist and Senior Special Yoga Practitioner based in Cambridge, UK.
Many years before I ever took a yoga class, I worked in an inpatient Child and Adolescent Unit as a Mental Health Nurse. It was a stressful and traumatic time. I would spend a great deal of time supporting myself, and the young people in my care, to calm and self-regulate. At the time, I had no idea this was a yoga practice, and knew little about co-regulation or how my state matters.
Years later, having worked with children in various other settings and now a mother of three, my life changed very suddenly when our youngest daughter was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, a rare and aggressive childhood cancer which develops in the adrenal gland. My daughter and I spent most of the 2nd year of her life living in hospital whilst she received treatment - months of chemotherapy and a harrowing 9hr operation. My yoga practice kept me grounded and steady through this time.
The last stage of treatment was for her to receive daily radiation, requiring full sedation with each dose, necessary because she was expected to lie completely still, alone, in the radiation suite for a couple of minutes. She was just 27 months old. With the support of her Oncologist, she received the radiation unanaesthetised because they allowed me to support her (via walkie talkie!) by training her to place her attention on her breath. This had never been done before.
My amazing daughter is now 18. She saved her life, she changed my life, but also the lives of hundreds of children that I have had the pleasure of working with since. In 2013 I trained to be a yoga teacher; joining Special Yoga in 2014 for my first training of many, including SY for Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, Down Syndrome and SY for adults, and qualifying to be a Yoga Therapist in 2020. I now work independently as a peripatetic Yoga Therapist in schools, in the community and in CAMHS. I love the presence and connection the practice brings us, and I love sharing this through my work.
So, it has been a huge honour to bring all of these threads and lived experience together to help teach the very first NHS programme with Birmingham Children's Hospital alongside Jyoti recently. The staff we worked with are overwhelmed and exhausted. They received our support and understanding and left with new skills and practices; knowing their presence, their compassion and kindness towards themselves is the first piece in helping and serving others.
Love saves the day!"
Responses