Upcoming Courses
Therapeutic Yoga: Falling Summer & Autumn Slow Flow (Sundays- 13 Weeks )
Therapeutic Sunday Yoga: Heart-Centered & Alignment-Based
“Falling Summer & Autumn Slow Flow”
13-Week Series
September 10 – December 10, 2023 (*no class October 15)
Sundays, 9:15-10:30AM
Everything in Life and the Universe is energy in motion and is in the process of continual growth, surrender, and transformation. Continuously changing seasons illustrate this clearly: explosive growth in spring, lush and juicy summer, surrender of autumn, and the stillness of winter. Each season has its unique joys and challenges, just as we do, and our yoga practice gives us a platform to explore, discover, and evolve as a part of nature.
“I do not want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well. ” – Diane Ackerman
During this 13-week Therapeutic Yoga series, our yoga practice of moving shapes (asana), breath awareness (pranayama), and quieting the mind (centering meditation), will prepare us to gather resources and abundance from the harvest and gentle warmth of late-summer as nourishment, practice surrender and letting go into the unknown mysteries of life, and sustain us through diminishing light towards winter’s darkness.
All are welcome! Therapeutic Yoga is for both those new to yoga and those wanting a slower paced mindful practice. Whether you have been attending Sunday morning Therapeutic Yoga class for a decade or you are joining for the first time, we form a virtual community of beings growing and changing together.
Therapeutic Yoga is a great class for beginners, students recovering from injuries, illness, stress, and for those wanting a more peaceful practice. Therapeutic Yoga incorporates slower paced movement flows with breath awareness, gentle strength-building, joint lubrication, increasing range of motion, alignment cues that encourage a safe practice, and balancing of the nervous system for a calmer mind-state. Each class draws from a palette of yogic healing arts including gentle, yin, somatics, kriya, restorative, pranayam, yoga nidra, and meditation.
“The body is a portal into deep, soulful healing.” Deborah Cohan, MD
What if you miss a class or can’t attend any? No problem! A recording of each class will be sent out weekly for you to enjoy at another time. Recordings will be available until the end of the year for your convenience.
Therapeutic Yoga: “Falling Summer & Autumn Slow Flow ” aspires to enhance and deepen:
- healing the heart of emotions with compassion, connection, and love
- stress-relief in the body from accumulated tension or inflammation due to injury, trauma, arthritis
- calming and clarity of the mind from negative beliefs, excessive judging, an overactive inner critic, depression, anxiety, and stresses of daily living
- liberation of our authenticity and true nature
This 13-Week Sunday Series, 9:15-10:30 AM, Sept. 10 – Dec. 10, 2023, (*no class Oct. 15 ) may be informed by some or all of these topics:
- Seasonal Intention
- Gathering and Abundance
- Grounding Strength & Stability
- Flowing Waters of Creativity & Emotions
- Fires of Perception & Confidence
- Compassion, Forgiveness, Love, Loss
- Surrender and Letting Go
- Communication & Expression
- Gratitude
- Intuition & Imagination
- Connection & Unity
- Bringing Light into Darkness
If you register after the series begins, you will receive the class recordings that you miss.
About me
Professionally:
The Healing Arts are my passion!
Yoga Therapeutics, Mindfulness Meditation, and Mindfulness-Based/Trauma-Informed Psychotherapy
We all want to grow and heal, regain our center when we fall off balance, recalibrate when we veer off course, and remember our True Nature when we’re lost in self-doubt, depression, and anxiety, and lose touch with our sense of purpose and meaning. The healing arts offer us maintenance and support for daily living. Hatha Yoga helps us to relax our bodies, open our hearts, and clear our minds.
I have been practicing yoga off and on since my college days and teaching yoga since 2009 when my daughter left for college. Hearts Journey
I’ve been practicing meditation since the ’90s and teaching mindfulness meditation since 2011. Insight Meditation Community of Washington
I am a clinical psychotherapist and have been in private practice since 1997 and specialize in mindfulness-based and trauma-informed clinical psychotherapy. Wellspring Healing Arts
Personally:
Mother Nature is my Therapist! I love experiencing the changing seasons and the adventures that each one brings. While yoga and meditation help me stay sane, dancing, biking, kayaking, hiking, and canoeing help my body stay lubricated while enjoying the gifts of Mother Nature. I love traveling and experiencing different cultures! Bali, Australia, Greek islands Ikaria & Crete, Costa Rica, and Thailand are some of my favorite places.
I became a grandmother twice in 2021! I look forward to cultivating a relationship with both of my grandchildren, despite the miles and oceans that separate us.
I look forward to meeting and learning more about you!!! I welcome your questions. Email me at mira@wellspringhealingarts.org
For more information visit:
I Asked the Leaf
I asked the leaf whether it was frightened because it was
autumn and the other leaves were falling. The leaf told me,
“No. During the whole spring and summer I was completely
alive. I worked hard to help nourish the tree, and now much
of me is in the tree. I am not limited by this form. I am also
the whole tree, and when I go back to the soil, I will continue
to nourish the tree. So I don’t worry at all. As I leave this
branch and float to the ground, I will wave to the tree and tell
her, ‘I will see you again very soon.’”
That day there was a wind blowing and, after a while, I saw
the leaf leave the branch and float down to the soil, dancing
joyfully, because as it floated it saw itself already there in the
tree. It was so happy. I bowed my head, knowing that I have
a lot to learn from the leaf.
~Thich Nhat Hanh Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
Hi, I’m Mira Tessman
“Mira” Mary E. Tessman, MA, LCPC, RYT-300, C-IAYT is an experienced mindfulness-based clinical psychotherapist, a mindfulness meditation teacher, a hatha yoga teacher, and a certified yoga therapist and has been in private practice for over twenty years. She supervises graduate-level clinical psychology students and has been a college adjunct faculty psychology professor and speaker. She was co-founder/director of the Heart’s Journey Wellness Center for five years.
Mira has facilitated hundreds of contemplative, healing arts, and spiritual growth presentations, workshops, classes, and retreats for over two decades.
Visit Mira at www.wellspringhealingarts.org and www.heartsjourneyyoga.com
initially started yoga as an antidote to my sedentary lifestyle and to improve my flexibility. I was hooked after my first class with Mira. It was transformational. I get something out of every class and workshop. Aside from the physical benefits, I feel a great sense of well-being in her classes, and see many parallels between what happens there and other aspects of my life. She is a true expert and teacher on so many levels.
I love Mira and have been taking her Sunday morning yoga class for years. It keeps me grounded both mentally and physically. Mira has such a passion for yoga and her own practice that resonates. Her classes blend a variety of postures, breathwork and a reading at the end that is just perfect!
Every yoga class with Mira is stimulating for my body, mind and spirit. Always offering accommodations/options, Mira inspires me with her intuitive readings, challenges me to strengthen not strain and encourages me to recognize the harmony and peaceful energy in my own being. Plus her classes are FUN! Mira Tessman is truly an amazing, gifted yoga instructor!
Mira offers a supportive, creative and fun environment in all her classes. Her Therapeutic Yoga class is especially wonderful and has really helped me to manage my low back pain.
'Try yoga and meditation before Prozac; it can help elevate & stabilize mood.'
My Story
“Mira” Mary E. Tessman, MA, LCPC, C-IAYT has been practicing yoga off and on for over 25 years and started teaching yoga in 2006. Mira is a certified yoga therapist, completed a 300-Hr training, currently teaches several classes a week, and offers private yoga therapy in the Baltimore area.
Mira views her yoga and meditation practice as the most consistent and potent sources of spiritual, mental, and physical strength and support in her life. Besides teaching yoga, Mira is a mindfulness-based clinical psychotherapist and uses a mindfulness-based approach in her private practice.
She suggests to her clients, “Try yoga and meditation before Prozac; it can help elevate & stabilize mood.” Mira has been facilitating expressive arts, healing, meditation, and spiritual growth workshops, retreats and groups since 1994. She supervises Master’s level psychology students and has also been an adjunct psychology professor. Mira was co-founder and co-director of the Heart’s Journey Wellness Center in Towson for five years.
Mira enjoys planning yoga routines, traveling to exotic places (Bali is her favorite!), and also likes to dance, hike, kayak, bicycle, and hang out with her family and good friends.
