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In this episode, we discuss the intricacies of integrating yoga into therapy sessions ethically and effectively. We delve into the core components of crafting a comprehensive informed consent, addressing scope of practice, risks, and theoretical alignment. Dr. Tina Vitola shares her extensive knowledge on how therapists can bridge conventional mental health practices with holistic modalities while maintaining professional integrity. This episode emphasizes the importance of personal practice, thorough training, and client autonomy, aiming to empower therapists to safely and confidently include yoga and other unconventional practices in their therapeutic work.

MEET Dr. Tina Vitola

Dr. Tina Vitolo is a clinical innovator, educator, and mentor dedicated to helping therapists bridge the gap between conventional mental health practice and unconventional, holistic, and integrative modalities. With nearly 20 years of experience in the field, she specializes in guiding clinicians to develop a strong theoretical foundation, ensuring they integrate complementary, alternative, and energy-based practices in a way that is both ethical and clinically sound.  As the founder of The Black Sheep Therapist community and the creator of the Innovative Practitioner Accelerator (IPA) Program, Dr. Vitolo has empowered hundreds of therapists to align their unique practice styles with empirical frameworks, providing them with the confidence and language to navigate regulatory expectations without compromising their authenticity. She is deeply passionate about supporting clinicians in transforming their personal journeys into cohesive, ethically grounded practice frameworks that foster both professional freedom and integrity.  Dr. Vitolo is widely recognized for her expertise in helping therapists build clinical language around their unconventional modalities, ensuring they meet ethical and insurance compliance standards while maintaining alignment with their unique approaches. She is a sought-after consultant, speaker, and educator who specializes in teaching therapists how to integrate their personal and professional identities into their work, ultimately creating a more authentic, impactful, and legally sound practice.

Find out more at The Black Sheep Therapist and connect with Tina on Facebook and Instagram

• The importance of informed consent in therapy
• Integrating unconventional modalities in therapy
• Navigating ethical and scope of practice concerns
• Building theoretical alignment
• Linking yoga to various theories

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How To Build Competence and Confidence in Integrating Yoga Into the Therapy Room

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Chris McDonald: Have you hesitated to integrate yoga into your clinical sessions because you're unsure how to address scope of practice and what language to use in your informed consent? Are you wondering what is important to cover to protect your license? I. Informed consent is more than just a form. It's a foundation of trust, clarity, and leading with integrity.

But when integrating yoga into therapy, how do we ensure it's both comprehensive and effective? In this episode, we sit down with Tina Vilo, the Black Sheep Therapist, to unpack her proven formula for crafting the most thorough and impactful informed consent with years of experience. She shares the key components therapists often overlook, and how to create a document that protects both you and your clients while honoring the depth of yoga as a therapeutic tool.

Let's get started on today's episode of Yoga in the Therapy Room Podcast. Stay tuned. Welcome to Yoga in the Therapy Room, the non-traditional therapist guide to Integrating Yoga into your therapy practice. I'm Chris McDonald, licensed therapist and registered yoga teacher. This podcast is here to empower therapists like you with the knowledge and confidence to bring yoga into their practice safely and ethically.

So whether you're here to expand your skills, enhance your self care, or both, you are in the right place. Join me on this journey to help you be one step closer to bringing yoga into your therapy room. Welcome to the Yoga The Therapy Room Podcast, the non-traditional therapist guide. To integrating yoga into your therapy practice.

I'm Chris McDonald, your guide, therapist, and yogi. In today's episode, we're taking a closer look at an essential component of ethically and safely bringing yoga into your therapy room, and that is creating an informed consent that fully supports your clients and protects you. As therapists, we know that informed consent is foundational in establishing trust and transparency, but when incorporating yoga, there are unique considerations to keep in mind from clarifying the role of yoga and therapy to discussing scope of practice, potential risks, and client autonomy.

We'll explore the key elements of a well-structured consent process. Here to guide us on this journey is former guest Tina Vilo. If you haven't heard her in episode 180 1, I highly recommend going back and giving a listen about how to integrate unconventional modalities in a complimentary way. Tina is a clinical innovator educator mentor dedicated to helping therapists bridge the gap between conventional mental health practices and unconventional holistic integrative modalities.

Tina is widely recognized for her expertise in helping therapists build clinical language around unconventional modalities, ensuring they meet ethical and insurance compliance standards while maintaining alignment. With our unique approaches. Welcome to the Yoga in the Therapy Room podcast. Hi. So happy to be here.

I should say welcome back 'cause you were on the Holistic Counseling podcast, which we rebranded to this, but it's so wonderful having you actually,

Tina Vitola: almost a year ago now that I think about it because I remember on my birthday, uh, and my birthday's April 29th.

Chris McDonald: Okay. Yeah, exactly. So can you share with listeners what interested you in wanting to work with unconventional therapists?

Tina Vitola: Oh yeah. Well, one, I was am an unconventional therapist, so I have been someone who's really struggled in the social work field with trying to integrate parts of my personality, parts of my spiritual alignment into the clinical room. I feel like the message I constantly got from professors, from supervisors is like, separation, separation, separation.

And I just never made sense to me because. How, how do I break off pieces of me and show up as a clinician to help sit in the box?

Chris McDonald: Tina?

Tina Vitola: Yeah. I just, I was never like, this doesn't make sense, but I felt like I didn't have the legitimacy, the knowledge to challenge those people. I think sometimes people are in the professional roles of being a professor or being a clinical supervisor, and we automatically think that comes with, you know, a certain level of.

Expertise, knowledge and understanding. But I've noticed that that really does come with a lot of rigidity and holding onto myths and a lack of challenging sometimes when someone's been in a field or a position for 20 something years, that doesn't mean like, wow, they have all this expertise. I feel like to me, that sounds like that has very limited expertise and you can't really think outside that box.

So I sought out multiple avenues for my own personal healing, and I noticed how much spiritual, more non-traditional practices really gave me a sense of security and safety and vulnerability. That conventional practice never could, but I'm never one to, like, as I say, throw the baby out with the bath.

Water leg wasn't like, ah, conventional is just nonsense. Clinical applications or nonsense. It was, there's, there's juice in both of these. And how can I like juice from both of these trees, kind of. So I got into working with this field that way. Um, and then I got into working with therapists in this capacity because I, I wondered if there were more therapists like me who wanted to integrate these modalities, but just were like, I.

How so? I took myself down the whole journey. I got my doctorate. I studied this concept. I've been researching it for like five years. Um, I spent the money on the lawyers. I understood how to read my scope of practice, and then finally, finally figured out the formula and was like, I gotta teach other therapists how to do this because I know I was looking for a more innovative practitioner.

And I know that the world is looking for more innovative practitioners because the textbook therapist is not cutting it. If it was. Our mental health system will look different. It does not. It's not changing. It's getting worse. So we need to build a new framework in terms of how we practice and kind of shift this rigid conventional space in terms of how we practice.

Chris McDonald: Can I get an amen? Let's call it, because you challenge in your black sheep therapist group too, about the traditional role of therapists and what we should do. So, but how do you encourage therapists to step into that authenticity?

Tina Vitola: Well, I do it in a few ways. Number one, my belief is as a therapist, you should not be integrating anything into your practice that you don't personally use.

I know some professors in school may be like, no, no, no, no, no. Keep it separate. But like how do you do that? Like what kind of disassociation do you have to be in to cut off all these pieces of you, especially like your spiritual alignment to show up in practice. So first and foremost, the integrity to me is.

You should, you know, the way you utilize these approaches to heal yourself, you can absolutely use that same method in terms of bridging it into the clinical space. And, uh, a lot of therapists, sometimes they learn to teach, not like model to teach. And I feel like there's a little bit of a. Gap there that happens where you don't get to be as authentic and genuine.

And I think that's what really breeds imposter syndrome. That's one thing I'll say. And then really helping therapists like build theoretical understanding and language. I feel like that's a, the biggest thing is a lot of these amazing therapists just don't have the language, so then they think that they're.

Wrong, or they think that they don't know what they're doing. It's just more, no, that's not it. It's just we work from more of this intuitive, woo woo spiritual side and it's all about the feeling, not about the words. However, when we're in regulatory spaces, the words matter. Um, and to kind of really building a foundation for how you practice and being able to say that out loud and for you to understand it and digest it, I think really helps with people feeling more confident.

About bringing this into their work.

Chris McDonald: Yeah. So that people can really own it and feel clear with that and stand in their power with it. So what challenges have you faced with trying to bring more innovative practices into the world?

Tina Vitola: Whew. Okay. Where do I start? How much time do I'm just getting, um, challenges?

Well, a number one, I would say. The internal fear is one, I, I think this comes from two spaces, one from the field. Like, is this ethical? Am I allowed to do this? And like, real talk, some of these therapists out here are mean as hell, rude and really judgemental. Don't provide, yeah. They don't provide a space for you to ask a question.

And, um, I, I can't stand this shaming space like. I always say, if you have to shame someone to get your point across, you're not as rooted in your beliefs or principles about this, then you think like shame doesn't create change. So for me, it was hard for me to find other therapists like myself, which is exactly why I built the group, because I was like, where are these people at?

They have to be out here somewhere. Someone's gotta be talking about this. But everyone's hiding. Why are they hiding? Because therapists are mean. I still get attacked all the time for being called unethical and I know my stuff, but it still doesn't mean it doesn't activate me when I hear it and make me wanna crawl into a hole and make me question myself.

Am I really supposed to be doing this? Of course it does, and I keep pushing through. Anyway, uh, the other big challenge is I could probably say with confidence now versus the first time we spoke, I have researched. More about what the states and the national ethics Boards have written about how our clinical practice needs to be probably more than anyone on the planet.

Like I have researched this stuff. I can tell

Chris McDonald: how thorough

Tina Vitola: you are, read this stuff. I have like, I hired lawyers to help me understand how to read and I know that sounds crazy, but like. Doctor in all, I still had a hard time reading my professional board state statutes and expectations. I was like, what does that mean?

Like, I don't know what that means. I would constantly be there like, okay, so we, you know, counseling is, uh, engaging in interpersonal focus on working with family and children and individuals from the concepts of clinical theory. What the hell is that? I don't like What does that mean? Like,

Chris McDonald: it's also vague.

Tina Vitola: It's so vague. And then, but I think they do this on purpose to confuse you. 'cause if you're confused, you're, you're gonna stay small. 'cause you're like, well, it doesn't say I can't, it doesn't say I can't, how do I, you know, now the fear factors then. There is some language in the state board that's very clear on what you can and can't do.

You know, don't sleep with clients, don't violate hipaa. Like all of these things are very misconduct, unprofessional. But when it comes to the practice style, it's vague. So, but it's, that also gives us a leg up a little bit because they're not saying we have to use empirically supported treatment modalities.

They're not saying that we have to use evidence-based practice. You don't believe me. Look it up if you find it. And, and can tell me I'm wrong. I've read almost every single state board. I'm telling you I haven't come across it once. So that was a struggle is like, if there's no guidelines, what do you do?

But based on the work I had with the lawyers, I, I, um, co-worked with I, this was my understanding. You are supposed to read your state statutes in and out. You're supposed to read your code of ethics. Front to back and everyone should, and you're supposed to make actionable steps for how you interpret what they wrote.

That's key. So meaning that like if it says that you need to use modalities grounded in social work principles, you need to figure out what that looks like and show a tangible step that you did that if it says that we need to be transpersonal and do no harm. We need to have a tangible step to prove that we read that.

Because if you ask the board, what does this mean? And I dunno if anyone's listening, they're like, I never get an answer. Or they give you an answer to a question you didn't ask like, and you're like, now we're here again on some Did what? Like I didn't ask that. I asked this question. Oh, I can't interpret what those laws mean.

The board will tell you they can't interpret what the laws mean. Which I think is a lie because honestly I think if I would never do this, 'cause I'm sure I'd get flagged or something, but if I was just like, Hey, can I sleep with my client that I'm actively working with? I'm sure I'll get an answer of no.

But if I say, Hey, and I've done this, I've noticed that there's research saying that consumers want more complimentary alternative practices into their, into their mental health space. What would be your suggestion on the best guidance on how to bring that in, maintaining the expectations of the profession?

I can't help you with that 'cause there's no guideline.

Chris McDonald: So that, that's been the conundrum. Right.

Tina Vitola: Yeah, and there is none. So then you have therapists that do one of two things, head in the sand, I'm gonna do it how I do it. If they take my license, they take my license. Or you have the other ones that are like, I'm so scared to do anything, I will do nothing.

Both of those don't promote positive change and don't promote an expansion of the field. And both of those are kind of both kind of unsafe. Yeah, true. In some capacity. Yeah, true. So yeah, it's, um, I would say like, those are like my two, the two biggest ones that most therapists that come to me will tell me, or they're just getting fed nonsense from people that it's like, that's unethical.

And I always just say like, where'd you read that? And people are like, it's common sense. And I'm like, is it because like if it's common sense, like it should be written somewhere, I just, I haven't come across it yet. So if you tell me where you found it. I'd love to read it and then I usually don't hear from these people anymore.

Chris McDonald: Yeah, true. So can you talk about scope of practice and yoga? 'cause I get, that's the number one question that I get from listeners and I don't know, can I do this? Is this within my scope?

Tina Vitola: Yes. So when it's, when you're talking about like in your scope, that's also a section in your, in your board document that you're gonna really have to read.

Because some states, they don't give you a description of what professional expertise means or how it needs to be learned. They're not saying, Hey, I. This needs to be a 600 hour course on this in order for you to remain within scope. Um, it doesn't say like, it could be a 15 minute Udemy course. Like there's no,

Chris McDonald: no specific guideline.

Tina Vitola: There's no specific guidelines. So you have to, you kind of have the space to interpret how you wanna interpret. I think there are some states that will say like, it needs to be a CEU approved. Training, but those, that's very far and few between. I think I've only seen like one state that has that. So, you know, when you're reading scope, that means like, is it within your expertise?

Have you gotten training on what you're putting in? I think no one should be bringing in yoga into the therapy room unless they've had some training in yoga. And that doesn't mean just your own personal engagement with yoga, but like you have invested in someone. To teach you the benefits, the risks, the applications of the practice.

It doesn't mean you can't take your own little spin on it, but that you have done your due diligence to actually learn what this is before you bring this to your clients. That's integrity. That's an expectation. So when they say scope of practice, you should like, so for me, when I was bringing Oracle cards into my practice, that was personal practice.

I did not have training, but then. I did. I got training on it once. I was figuring out like, oh man, yeah, I know I have a personal relationship with this, but if we integrate a professional lens with this, this, this could look a little different.

Chris McDonald: Yeah, and I think that's key is we can't just, oh, hey, I've been to five yoga classes.

I'm good. Let me go ahead and start teaching.

Tina Vitola: Yeah, look, exactly. I think it's beneficial. Absolutely participate. And then you become the educator. I think, you know, that's experiential work right there. Like that's amazing. Then you can bring, that's only

Chris McDonald: part.

Tina Vitola: It's only par. Yeah. And yoga, I was telling you this before, is like the, what did I call it?

I'm now if I'm gonna forget, but it's like the least

Chris McDonald: controversial.

Tina Vitola: Yeah, it's the least controversial like triggering thing to bring into the therapy space. 'cause yoga doesn't activate people anymore. It might've in the 19 hundreds, like, oh, these yogis or coming in, but like this is not what's. Activating people.

People hear yoga and they're, it's so easily digestible. When you hear the word yoga, you start talking Oracle cards, past life regressions, Akashic records. That's, that's more stigma. You start getting like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Or mediumship. People start getting like, ah, that's crazy. But yoga was treated like that.

It was for a while in the beginning, and then it became westernized. It was like kind of allowed. Through the gate. So it's, it's not, it's like the least defensive thing to bring into the therapy space. People aren't like, absolutely not need to shut this down kind of thing. So yeah. Yoga, I appreciate

Chris McDonald: you saying that.

Tina Vitola: Yeah. Like I've even, I've even tested this out when I've asked the board questions about yoga versus like a, yeah. Mm-hmm. This could really fall under. Depending on like, the umbrella of complimentary and alternative practices, they kind of fall under each the same realm. Sometimes yoga, they eat up real quick.

They're like, oh yeah. Like totally get, you know, versus if I was to say, you know, Oracle cards or like, I don't know, some other mind body connective practice, um, or soul journeying or something like that, they're gonna be like, no, no, no, no, no. But they still fall under the same category, so it's like you can't, you can't be like, okay with a little bit and then not all of it.

Chris McDonald: Right. Yeah. I appreciate, um, all you said there. 'cause I think that that's always the number one thing. I think that drives fear too.

Tina Vitola: Yeah. You have to read what it says. I'm telling you, nowhere in anywhere isn't gonna say the therapists cannot do yoga. It's not there.

Chris McDonald: Exactly. I appreciate that

Tina Vitola: you find it.

Lemme know unless, unless like the state has some regulatory thing on yoga, which they might, that you, of course you would wanna read, which isn't often

Chris McDonald: right. But I think there is misunderstanding of what yoga is and that's why I talk about a lot in this podcast. It's not just awesome, it's not just movement.

Yeah, we got breath work. I know you mentioned you even do breath work and, 'cause you're not a yogi per se, but you still do some of the practices. So breath work is one of, yeah. Of being in the chair connecting to mindfulness, right? Yeah.

Tina Vitola: Hundred percent.

Chris McDonald: Yeah. That falls under the umbrella. So I think just expanding to your understanding of what yoga is might be helpful for listeners as well.

It's, yeah.

Tina Vitola: And the type of yoga that you wanna integrate. I know there's different types, like kini, whatever you use is amazing just as long as you're able to, and we'll get to it I'm sure a little later. But like, how do you build this language and and, and be transparent about what your practices are?

And really importantly is always when we're bringing things into the therapy space, especially more non-traditional modalities. I say non-traditional, even though yoga is a little bit more traditional than we've seen and there's a lot of research on it. You know, we wanna take a both and perspective here.

So it's not like someone's coming into your psychotherapy session and then today all you're doing is yoga. It's how do we integrate yoga from a clinical lens to support a client's goals, treatment plan, uh, and where they wanna be or what they need to heal. So that part's really, really important, is bridging, not bridging.

Bridging.

Chris McDonald: Mm-hmm. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So true. 'cause then we're talking about something different if it's. The whole session and yeah, not integrated with those things. Are you a mental health therapist who feels like traditional talk therapy isn't enough? Are you wanting a more somatic approach? You are not alone.

Many therapists feel the pull to offer something more, something that helps clients. Connect with their body, regulate their nervous system, and find healing beyond words. That's why I created Yoga Basics course for therapists in eight week training designed to help you confidently integrate yoga into your clinical practice, and no prior yoga training is required.

In this course, you'll learn how to use trauma-informed yoga for nervous system regulation, ethical ways to introduce yoga into sessions safely. Simple postures and breath work techniques tailored for therapists. It's time. Time to bring something new and transformative into your sessions. Let's move beyond the limits of talk therapy and offer clients a holistic path to healing interested.

Tina Vitola: Yes, yes, yes. Let's talk about the formula. So, in the informed consent, I have developed a formula that will actually allow you to prove that you've read your state statutes and you've read your code of ethics, and you've made an actionable step for each one.

My spidey senses is that in like, I don't know, 20 years when the therapy world kind of gets their, you know, pie person here. Yes. Get their shit together. Okay. Um, they're gonna say that we need to, you follow an evidence-based framework. Now, evidence-based framework is very different than empirically supported treatment modalities.

ESTs are more like the D-B-T-C-B-T, MDRs, those randomized controlled studies that are looking to reduce anxiety or this or that. I'm not talking about that. Evidence-based practice is a framework. It's basically saying that we have three pillars that we have to hit. We have to look up the research that supports the integration of this for wellness and healing.

So we all should, any modality you're bringing in, you should look up the research on it. Yoga has a ton of research every day,

Chris McDonald: more

Tina Vitola: coming out, more coming out, you know, because it's, it's the safe one. So they research it more. The second part of evidence-based practice is clinical scope of knowledge. So are you qualified to integrate this into the practice based on your education?

So training, very important. And then the third piece is. Does it align with the client's preferences and values? Now most people take that as we have to shift for what the client needs versus we need to really know our practice style, the theoretical fundamentals, be able to share that with our clients so that they can decide whether or not they wanna work with us and that we align with their preferences and values.

A little bit of a different spin there. So, um, I teach my formula from this perspective because I know at some point. This is where it's gonna go. It's not gonna be so rigid because they can't push cultural humility and then also say, we need to be rigid with our approaches. Can't do it. They'll be really tied with like how they're, how do you push towards inclusion and diversity and then tell you you have to use a very rigid approach.

They're not gonna do it. They'll exactly.

Chris McDonald: Mm-hmm.

Tina Vitola: Tail between the legs. But, um, in terms of the informed consent, you need to one, make sure you have training and put that information in your informed consent. You don't market yourself as a yoga practitioner. You market yourself as a licensed behavioral health clinician who is integrating aspects of yoga into the therapy session.

Um, and list your training. Where did you get training on yoga That needs to be put in your informed consent. Another thing you need to do is be able to describe your practice transparently. Maybe the, the trauma informed yoga that you walked me through that time you came into my group is very different than maybe I've heard of like fire or something yoga or they look different.

Um, there's some yoga practices that are very. Aggressive and not really intense with the breath work. There's other ones very gentle, like, you know, breath work practices, things like that. Some require movement, some don't. Some utilize a chair and it's very soft paced. Other ones don't like you just have to be very clear on what your practice includes.

So a description of your practice is gonna be very, very important. The next step that I walk therapist through is you need to build theoretical alignment on how the yoga. Supports clinical applications and knowledge. So a lot of therapists get tripped up here because, you know, school failed us and all the good things.

They teach us modalities, they don't teach us theory. So you know, when I ask therapists like, what, what are the theories that drive their practice? They are usually telling me modalities. They say IFS, they say DBT, they say EMDR. That's not really what I'm talking about. I'm talking about like is it a transpersonal lens that you're using?

Are you using more of a youngian framework? Depth psychology? Do you even know what your practice is? And most therapists get embarrassed 'cause they're like, I have no idea. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. I went years not knowing, I call myself like the old me was a very dangerous therapist, so old me, like I totally get it, but they don't teach it.

So like. Who's out here talking about theory outside of me? I don't know who else is out here talking about theory, not, not many people. So you wanna build a connection between the practice and the theory. So I actually pulled a few different theories to just kind of talk about very quickly, um, how you can create a link in my informed consent.

The formula goes, description of the practice risks. We'll, we'll get into that in a little bit. And then how does this practice align with this theory? So like, let's take a transpersonal psychology lens to this, right? Transpersonal theory is all about mind, body, experience, transcendence, like all of this, right?

So yoga in general really focuses in on tapping into that higher dimension, right? That connection to like the self, the universe, the core. So you can really come from that lens. Why you wanna integrate yoga into your practice? If we go from a polyvagal theory, I mean that one's like super simple, like engaging in yoga activates the polyvagal nerve.

It's all about nervous system regulation, calming getting the body into like a resting, digesting kind of space. So like easy, it links

Chris McDonald: parasympathetic activation.

Tina Vitola: A hundred percent. Exactly. Then when you're talking about other theories that maybe are a little bit more known to people, like attachment theory, right?

If you're engaging in body-based activities, we're really encouraging a very secure connection within the body, right? Self-regulation, reinforcement, you're gaining internal trust, like you really need to be one with your body and feel safe in your body when you're doing yoga. That's the whole premise of it, right?

So you can actually come from a very attachment based lens. Totally. Okay. And then also like, let's just say psychodynamic, right? When I've engaged in quieting the mind, quieting my body, staying present, sometimes some stuff comes up, unconscious material just starts popping up, or a thought or a memory, or it's like I'm kind of calming myself down so much that like I'm allowing this res residual stuff that I have pushed back so far to kind of have some safe space to kind of show up.

And I'd be like, why didn't I think of that before? And that's something you can process through in the clinical setting. Space. So depending on like how you practice. 'cause you don't, you don't have to use these theories. It's just more about like, how do you practice? Why do you like yoga? What, what do you, what are the benefits of it?

How do you see it? Transform someone in the therapy room. Link that to a theoretical, but have it in your informed consent. Write it out. Because if you write it out and your practice is like, oh, you need to ground this in clinical theory. There's your proof. It's grounded.

Chris McDonald: Absolutely.

Tina Vitola: So really understanding your theories are important.

I know that's hard, that's why I teach it, but it's really just theory is just like, what guide your practice and how can you talk about it? What are your beliefs about change? It's really all, it's, it shouldn't be so scary, but it, it really is sometimes.

Chris McDonald: Yeah, it's, it's a lot. There's a lot of layers to this too.

Tina Vitola: Yeah, exactly. So then once you kind of do that, you're also gonna wanna highlight the risks. Now every different yoga practice has different risks. So usually what I do with therapists is I'll have them either walk me through a practice, 'cause sometimes people are like, I don't have the words to describe what the risks could be.

So I'll be like, all right, well walk me through one and they will. And I'll be like, oh, that really hurt my back. Or Oof, I hated the way that sounded, I got really activated Then. Um, or man, when we were doing that breath work, I felt like I was gonna cry. So you're gonna wanna highlight the potential things that could get activated from the practice as best as you can.

You don't have to be like, it doesn't have to be like this long, you know, you know, like those, um, depression medications online, they're like, that may cause heart attacks. Or, you know, it doesn't have to be all that, but just more that like you are protecting your client by being transparent. You know, maybe the breath work is going to trigger some stored trauma responses that you weren't expecting.

Yeah, so like you just wanna think about all the things that could come up from a yoga sessions, maybe for yourself personally, or things that clients have reported to you, and just put that in a little paragraph in terms of the risks. So that's gonna be really, really important. Another thing you're gonna wanna do is.

Connect your clients with research. So when I teach therapists how to integrate these modalities, whether it be yoga or anything else, I say give research links so that clients can engage in their own due diligence if they want to. But you've made it an easy access for them to look at it. Um, and they can ask you questions.

And in these like research links, you'd be surprised. Like they go over all the risks of yoga. They are, they go over, um, the impact, the benefits. Um, maybe your clients have a question, but it also shows that you've. Gotten yourself up to date on what is available out there. That's really important that we're up to date on the research 'cause um, I had someone who was bringing in like shamanic practices, didn't know any re I found like five articles on shaman practices.

Wow. Yeah. Mental, mental health and wellbeing. And I was just like, I didn't even know that these existed. They do. So look them up. It's part of your professional integrity and the, the whole do no harm is to find information. Research that supports you integrating this into your practice. So as long as you're kind of hitting all those pieces, like get the training, write up a description, make sure you're highlighting the risks.

Make sure you're aligning them with all the different theories that flu your practice and why it connects to clinical concepts. Giving yourself those research articles. You're hitting every expectation. Did I say training and making sure you get the training. Yes. And all of that's in your, in, in your informed consent.

Now, you're good because you show that you read your state board, which is vague nonsense. You're like, well, when I saw grounded in theory, I took that as I need language that grounds this in theory. So I wrote some,

Chris McDonald: right?

Tina Vitola: If you, if that's not what you meant. You should have said something differently.

Chris McDonald: Yes,

Tina Vitola: but you don't have guidelines, so what am I supposed to do?

Chris McDonald: Yeah, so just knowing that you can cover yourself. There are ways to do this and

Tina Vitola: yeah, I'm, I'm always like 50%, like, cover your ass and then also feel confident and confident about what you're doing, so know how you practice. Own how you practice. I have a lot of therapists that are like, well, I don't do it the same way that someone else does it.

Awesome. I've never met a practitioner that does it the same as everybody else. You, we shouldn't.

Chris McDonald: We're different people. No, exactly. And that's one thing I've learned is that someone else's light is not your light. Exactly. Right. We all bring different things. I think yoga can be a very. Different thing if we start teaching movement.

'cause it does bring up that imposter syndrome. Like, Ooh, I've never done this before. This is a lot. So I think the other key is, is making sure that you are doing the practices, in my opinion. And I don't like people to take my training unless they're actually doing yoga, because I feel like you can't teach these movements unless you know how it feels.

Right. How does it feel to do a chest dress? Church to open up the chest. Right? How does it feel to do these breath work practices?

Tina Vitola: I say to people even who want to go in my program, they're like, well, I haven't done it yet, but I then you're not ready for this. Like, I don't, I'm not, I don't teach the modalities, I just teach you how to own those modalities.

So how, however, that looks like for you. I will help you own it and find a way to integrate it. But I don't teach it because there's, I mean, I've, like, there's so many different approaches. I mean, these clinicians I work with like such amazing work. Like some stuff I'd never even heard before that I'm learning about.

And I was like, Ooh, okay, tell me about that. Like how can we build theoretical alignment around it? Tell me about your practice style and then we, um, my expertise is just creating the bridge.

Chris McDonald: Yeah. And you also help people to create their informed consents as well. You said you do some coaching with that?

Tina Vitola: Yeah. So that's like. A very small part of, well, not a very small part, but it's kind of like my program is built to kind of develop everything you need to build your informed consent. But it does focus on like, how do you even know what theories influence your practice? Like we kind of start there. What's the niche population that you wanna work with?

Why do we even start describing your practice? The risks, the research. I gave everyone a template of the same informed consent that I paid my lawyers for. Um, I just highlight all the things that would be their stuff and we take out all mine, add in all of yours. So it's very comprehensive. Like I was looking at one today that we just finished up one, it was like 61 pages.

Wow. Because of all of the more non-traditional. Modalities that they wanted to integrate. And I know a lot of people are like, well, that's really long. Our client's really gonna read that. I think if you gave your client a one page informed consent, they're not gonna read it. They just sign. At the end of the day, if we wanna have professional freedom and we wanna move with integrity.

We still have to do the work to develop this. And you know, of course you wanna encourage your client to read it, send it to them year after year, ask 'em if they have questions. But like horse water, like, you know,

Chris McDonald: and from, from your understanding too, is that the informed percent, they sign it, but isn't it important to make sure we in reinforce that verbally with them as well?

Oh

Tina Vitola: yeah, a hundred percent.

Chris McDonald: Yeah. And that client autonomy, can you talk about that too? Because I think that's an important piece of this, that clients have the autonomy to not engage in yoga or not, or to Oh,

Tina Vitola: yeah. In the informed consent that I have it, it says that like, y you know, even for some therapists who bring in like intuition development and like sometimes have downloads, like if you're not, it, of course this sounds so much better than why I'm saying it right now, but if, if you don't wanna know this, if you don't want this part of your practice, you lemme know and it's not part of your practice.

However, like the part that I want therapists to own is. Your practice style that's rooted in clinical theory, that shouldn't change your understanding of transformation. That shouldn't change in terms of your perspective when you're working with clients and trying to walk them through their healing journey, the modalities you choose to integrate.

Those are gonna shift depending on the client's comfort level, but like when I do consultations with any new private practice client. I say, listen, I am very clinically versed. I have my doctorate, all the things to prove that I understand clinical applications and the process. And then there's this bridge here, and here's my woo woo side, and this includes a lot of these different modalities.

This bridge never divides, not in my practice. I'm always. Going kind of back and forth. And I ask clients like, you know, what's your comfort with integrating these practices as part of my, uh, in intake process? Tell me your interests. Are you interested in this? Do you know what I mean when I say spiritual practices?

What does that mean to you versus what does it mean to me? You know? And we have a conversation around that in intake.

Chris McDonald: Yeah, I think that's important too with spirituality. 'cause that's something too that I offer for clients if they wanna talk about their spiritual practices, whatever they might be. And, and make that part of my intake form too.

Are you comfortable sharing this? And if they're not, we don't talk about it unless they bring it up.

Tina Vitola: Yeah. And spirituality, like, you know, I, I, I think it's so important in the healing process, even if your belief of spirituality is so different than mine, it's all good. I can still hold a respect for understanding and how you integrate it.

That's not me shoving my beliefs down your throat. It's just more holding space for it. But yeah. People, a lot of, when it comes to this stuff, a lot of therapists should be asking their client's comfort with this or their interest in this. Because on my dissertation, the research I did a lot of it was more in the medical field, but a lot of the medical stuff tends to fall over into the mental health stuff.

'cause we follow the same biomedical model. There's a ton of research on saying how consumers feel so shunned, disrespected, and isolated because they're nervous about saying their interests. If I say that, like, oh, I picked some Oracle cards today. Like, you know, like I had a, I had a baby psychic reading a few months ago, and if I go into my OBGYN's office.

Like this week because you know, I'm expecting and I'm, I'm like, so I just wanna ask about the delivery process because I met with a baby psychic medium and they told me that I'm gonna deliver standing up. I have not forgotten that they told me this. So, like, I've gone out of my way and I believe it too.

Uh, my legs are really strong. I, I can see this happening for me. Got the ball. I wanted to know about positioning. Is this allowed? So I went in having like a full on conversation about this, but I can own that and I know they're gonna judge me. I know they're gonna be like, what? Is she crazy? Should a babying, I don't care.

Can I, I deliver standing up in this hospital or not? Like I just need to know. Right. Um, because that's my plan, you know? But like other people are not gonna say that. They're gonna tippy toe around it. They're gonna be like, oh my God, this doctor's gonna think I'm crazy. I'm not gonna say anything. So then maybe you're not gonna share your birth plan with something that's extremely.

A big deal. So, but that's just an example. But like, you know, if people who have cancer and they wanna integrate more, you know, a both, and also with like more natural products, like are they not bringing up to their doctor? 'cause they think their doctor's gonna think they're stupid.

Chris McDonald: Right, exactly. So we leave it out a part of who people are.

If we don't have this spirituality piece.

Tina Vitola: And for therapists who we're supposed to be moving in terms of a person centered model and approach, right? Like we should be having these conversations. So these therapists that think that, you know, the collaborative of us, they're all woo woo and unethical. Like, you, you, you're gonna tell me that you might not have someone coming through your door that might feel completely shamed by you by not asking these questions.

Bringing it into the room.

Chris McDonald: And the healing that I've witnessed from people that if we're allowed to bring in these spiritual practices is just profound. It just reminds me of, I had a therapy intensive, I have holistic therapy intensives and I had this in the fall and this client was so thankful. He's like, thank you so much for allowing the spirituality in this room and the presence.

And it was like all, it makes me tear up 'cause it's, it was just so amazing that we were able to offer this space and be present with that, you know?

Tina Vitola: Yeah, it, it, the space should be there. I, I tear up with like my, my coaching clients, like, you know, to see them own Yes. Themselves, the impact they're making for their group of people that they work for.

The freedom,

Chris McDonald: isn't it? Yeah. Like, it's like opening our hearts.

Tina Vitola: Yeah. Like, I have people that come on the consult, they're like, oh, you know, sometimes they're very timid, like, I incorporate this and that, and I, I'm just not really sure. And then towards the end, they're just like, I'm claiming. I'm working with.

Yeah.

A lot of you know, and that's, think about neuroscience, like you can't change your brain chemistry unless you feel safe. So if a therapist can learn how to be safe in their more non-traditional approaches, own that energy in the therapy space with their clients, that relational frame there, like you're sending a message that you can be your authentic self.

'cause I've chosen to be my authentic self. It doesn't have to be the same. And if we can model things that would seem like more unorthodox, it gives our clients like proof that people can do this. Yes.

Chris McDonald: I love that so much. What's the best way for listeners to find you and learn more about you?

Tina Vitola: Yeah, I mean, definitely my Facebook group.

It's a free group, black Sheep Therapist, embracing Unconventional Practices and Mental health. You can also go to my website, the black sheep guide.com and check out all the different options I have available. You can get on my email list. I'm always promoting that. I always have a bunch of free trainings and free guides, and.

Chris McDonald: Yeah, I, I love your trainings in the group. They're really helpful.

Tina Vitola: You were in one of them, so this I

Chris McDonald: was, you go in there and see one of my past ones.

Tina Vitola: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's definitely in there. It says Trauma Informed yoga with Chris. Yes, absolutely. Can find it in guide section.

Chris McDonald: Well, I so appreciate you being here to sharing this information.

This has been so helpful. Thanks for coming on the show today.

Tina Vitola: Yeah, my absolute pleasure.

Chris McDonald: That brings us to the end of another episode. Be sure to tune in next Wednesday when another episode drops. Thank you listener for spending your time with me today. It truly means the world to have listeners like you here.

Are you ready to bring the transformative power of yoga into your therapy sessions with confidence and ease? I've got a free resource for you. Introducing building confidence and competence and integrating yoga to therapy sessions. A thoughtfully designed checklist to help you navigate best practices and feel empowered as you blend yoga and therapy.

This free guide is packed with tools to help you stay ethical and fully present with your clients, and to take the first step forward towards transforming your therapy practice. Don't wait. Start integrating yoga into therapy with confidence. Go to HC podcast.org/build confidence. That's HC podcast.org/build confidence.

And once again, this is Chris McDonald sending each one of you much light and love. Till next time, take care. Thanks for listening to today's episode. The information in this podcast is for general informational and educational purposes only. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests are giving legal, medical, psychological, or any other kind of professional advice.

We are not responsible for any losses, damages, or liability. That may arise from the use of this podcast. Yoga is not recommended for everyone and is not safe under certain medical conditions. Always check with your doctor to see if it's safe for you. If you need a professional, please find the right one for you.