Yoga for Living With Cancer Leeds

Classes are currently run on Tuesdays at Yoga Kula in Chapel Allerton. We also do one to one private classes.

If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with cancer, you /they will know that along with the diagnosis comes a feeling of having entered a parallel universe – one filled with tests, procedures, people and jargon that is unfamiliar.

Our Yoga For Living With Cancer classes are a joint venture between yoga teachers Rachel Frazer and Kirsten Steffenson. They offer a calming sanctuary where you can find some comfort and ease in your body and quietness for your mind.They are suitable for everyone who has an experience of cancer whether recently diagnosed, in treatment or post surgery, in remission, in the palliative stages or in the role of carer. You don’t need to have any yoga experience, or be coordinated, flexible or even feel good to come along. You can even do the class sitting on a chair. Just come along.

Yoga is not a cure for cancer but it can certainly help the body to work as efficiently as possible by strengthening the immune system and encouraging inner healing systems. It achieves this through four main techniques:

Relaxation: Calms the nervous system and reduces anxiety and stress, both of which can harm the immune system. Can improve sleep patterns and energy levels.

Breathing techniques: Improve respiration, release tension and restore balance and can help with feelings of nausea.

Physical postures: clears toxins, increases energy levels and enhances the functioning of our internal organs and systems. They can also improve lymphatic flow.

Simple meditations: Give you clarity to help you acknowledge and accept the realities of your situation and help cope with your fears.

The classes are gentle and can often be entirely floor based. All students are encouraged to practice at their own pace. The teachers are familiar with the many debilitating side effects of the disease and its treatments including nausea, pain, stiffness and lack of mobility following surgery, lymphoedema, tiredness, balance issues, immunosupression, emotional distress and breathing difficulties. All the physical postures can be adapted to address individual needs and the class size is no more than eight students which allows for a supportive and relaxing atmosphere. The class has two teachers to ensure that all students are given the time and assistance they need to be comfortable with what is being taught.

Kirsten and Rachel both completed an inspiring training in 2014 led by Laura Kupperman, who has been teaching yoga to cancer survivors for over ten years and is herself a ten year survivor of breast cancer. As a cancer survivor, Laura has experienced for herself the powerfully beneficial effects of yoga:

“ I found a way to get comfortable in my body exactly as it was, not as I wished it would be. It made me wonder why all cancer patients weren’t doing yoga. And that ultimately became my mission, to ensure that cancer patients and survivors have access to safe, supportive yoga classes. While mainsteam yoga classes are wonderful, the average teacher simply does not have the capacity to address the litany of cancer treatment side effects in a regular class. “

Both Kirsten and Rachel have worked previously with cancer survivors. Rachel is also a Registered Nurse working in oncology settings within Leeds for NHS Professionals and Kirsten has been a qualified physiotherapist since 2000.

Please email frazerr@hotmail.co.uk for more info and details of where we work across Leeds and West Yorkshire