In this episode, we talk with Cheryl Albright, CEO and Founder of Soul To Soul Yoga, an organization supporting whole-person wellness through accessible yoga therapy, occupational therapy principles and community-centered education.
Cheryl has extensive experience working with individuals with disabilities and began incorporating yoga into her clinical practice in 2009 through Yoga for All Abilities®. Her work focuses on advancing health, wellness and inclusion, with advocacy extending internationally through the Global Autism Project and the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
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Episode Transcript
Quick Navigation (click the linked text below to jump to a new section)
- Intro
- Cheryl’s background
- Her connection to the disability community and her approach to health and wellness
- The inspiration of Soul To Soul Yoga
- What sets Soul To Soul Yoga apart from a more traditional yoga experience
- What inclusive and accessible yoga looks like in practice
- How yoga elements can be adapted
- The benefits of yoga that extend beyond movement
- How sensory-aware and trauma-responsive practices are incorporated into Soul To Soul Yoga
- Cheryl’s advice for people trying yoga for the first time
- How Soul To Soul Yoga is making positive changes in the yoga industry
- Cheryl’s final thoughts
*Edited for clarity*
Host 00:03
Welcome to Wellness, Health and Everything Else: a NCHPAD Podcast. NCHPAD is the National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability – the nation’s premier center dedicated to promoting the health and wellness of everyone. In each episode, we explore topics at the intersection of health, wellness and mobility limitations. If you have an idea for a topic, would like to learn more about a topic or are interested in our free resources, programs and partnership opportunities, email us at nchpad@uab.edu, give us a call at 866-866-8896 or check out our website at nchpad.org.
Music Interlude
In this episode, we talk with Cheryl Albright, CEO and Founder of Soul To Soul Yoga, an organization dedicated to supporting whole-person wellness across diverse needs and life experiences. Through integrative yoga therapy, occupational therapy principles and community-centered education, Soul To Soul Yoga provides accessible, evidence-informed tools for individuals, families and professionals.
Cheryl brings extensive experience working with individuals with disabilities. Her use of yoga in clinical practice began in 2009 when she discovered Yoga for All Abilities®, which she has since incorporated into the work of Soul To Soul Yoga.
Cheryl is committed to advancing health, wellness and inclusion for people with disabilities. Her advocacy has also extended internationally through her work with the Global Autism Project and the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
With a background in both occupational therapy and yoga, Cheryl shares the experiences that led her to bring the two approaches together.
Cheryl Albright 01:46
So, my name is Cheryl Albright. I’ve been an occupational therapist for 23 years and a certified yoga therapist for most of my career. Combining them was by accident. I had gone back for some other degree- many degrees I’ve not finished- but one of them. And my accountant was like, “Hey, I need you to take a course as a tax write-off.” And so back in the day, we used to get magazines that would have, like, everything OT; it would have articles, but also would have continuing ed courses in the back. And I saw Yoga for the Special Child, which is now Yoga for All Abilities, and said, “Oh, a week in Sarasota sounds fun.” And that’s kind of how it all started.
Host 02:33
Personal and professional experiences can have a lasting impact on how we view inclusion. Cheryl discusses how her connection to the disability community has shaped her approach to health and wellness.
Cheryl Albright 02:43
So yeah, I have an older brother. He has level three autism, high support needs, nonverbal as an adult, and I think I look at the world differently because I got used to one-sided conversations. And because I learned so much about nonverbal communication, and people all communicate, it just may not be with words, so what does that look like? And I just felt like I always had a different perspective. Yes, I was an OT, but I still felt like I was kind of on the outside of my therapy colleagues, like, yeah, no, I don’t know if I would do it that way, or I just had varying different opinions based on the way I grew up. And we also had an aunt with Down syndrome. She ended up having Alzheimer’s really young, before the age of 50. Her mother had Alzheimer’s, my grandmother, and so I just kind of grew up in the world of disability and disability awareness, and just yeah, I just look at things a lot differently than most.
Host 3:53
Soul To Soul Yoga was created to offer a different approach to therapy and wellness. Cheryl explains what inspired its creation and the needs she hoped to address.
Cheryl Albright 04:02
So yeah, I took the first training and noticed that I started to feel better and was like, okay, what is this stuff? And I was the “but why” kid. I wanted to know, but why. Like, I always wanted to know why my brother was the way he was. I was just the “but why,” so if you told me to do something, I wanted to know why you needed me to do it or not do something because I was just inquisitive. So I went home, started practicing it myself, and was like, “Hmm! Okay.” And then I brought it to the school that I worked for. It was working, so I had a group of students with high behavior needs; it was a mixed class. It was a strange class, but they were all boys, and I said we’re going to do this once a week for group and see what happens. And then it turned out that that was the 30 minutes once a week that none of them were in timeout back in the day, when they still did seclusion. And so, I was like, okay, it’s working for them!
So then I did traveling therapy for a while, like traveling nursing. I would take contracts in different places. So, then I tried it in different settings, in different environments, different ages and populations, and it was still all working. And I thought, hmm, okay. So, when I took my last travel assignment, we ended up staying in the Sarasota, Florida area, and I thought, okay, it’s doing something, and it’s doing something above and beyond the traditional approaches that I was taught in school. So, I thought, all right, let’s give it a go. I know nothing about running a business, although I come from a long line of entrepreneurs. I just thought, let’s give it a go and see what happens! And so yeah, I just had different parents tell me different things— or clients over the years— anything from better sleep and pain management to GI issues, and we do a lot with autoimmune conditions too. So yeah, it just seemed to fill in a void that wasn’t being filled with traditional, but the “but why?” I still don’t have an answer for you.
Host 06:01
Yoga can look very different depending on the needs of the person practicing it. Cheryl explains what sets Soul To Soul Yoga apart from a more traditional yoga experience.
Cheryl Albright 06:11
So, a traditional yoga class, when you go in, you know it’s usually the teacher is at the front of the room, like I bark orders and you comply. So, you do what I do, and that’s how it’s just going to work. And when you, if you’ve worked in an IDD field, you know that’s not going to work, right? Like, you know that that’s just not a thing. So, my environment is set up differently. We have a pacing lane in the back of the room. You can join or not join. You have complete autonomy. Even if we’re non-speaking individuals, I will get them to OM. I have yet to find one student who won’t. So, we do purposeful vocalization, and we’re working on the whole human versus, like, a segment. So, what it boils down to is really good, like, nervous system regulation that’s broken down to a level that they seem to understand. And so, at the end of all my yoga classes, I feel like I’m channeling my teachers sometimes, but it’s like yoga is not for fitness, but it is like a sport that you need to practice.
You know, one good example is I was at a day program, and there was an individual who was clearly upset about something. Could have been pain-related. Who knows? And she was making very loud vocalizations, and the other consumers were starting to [say], “Stop that!” And they’re parroting what they heard the direct service professionals do. I was like, “All right, we’re going to stop. Think about when we’re out in the community, and there’s a baby crying. You can’t tell the baby to stop crying. Like it’s just going to happen. There’s going to be a loud noise that comes from a kitchen if you’re at a restaurant. There’s going to be, you know, there’s going to be something that may annoy you. So, we need to learn to work through it.” So, I didn’t, I wasn’t addressing her directly. I was hoping she would join us in the breathing, but if she had those emotional outbursts, that was fine, and the rest of us would stop and we would breathe or do whatever calming technique worked for that individual, and then we moved on. And so, applying it to, like, yes, this is yoga, but how are we going to use it when you’re not on your yoga mat? And that’s what makes us different.
Host 08:20
Accessibility in yoga goes beyond simply modifying a pose. Cheryl discusses what an inclusive and accessible yoga practice can look like for people with mobility limitations and other physical disabilities.
Cheryl Albright 08:32
So, it’s funny. Yoga has eight limbs. Movement’s just one of them. Pick a different one. Like, there are so many ways to access yoga. What I noticed, especially with our friends who are wheelchair users or are 100% dependent on another human for all of self-care, and maybe non-speaking, is that when we do the relaxation, they do relax. You can see their physical body start to release tension. We need to get out of our heads the Instagram-looking version of what yoga actually is. And if you follow some of the content creators who are from India or Indian, they will be saying something similar to what I’m saying: that it’s not about the asana or the physical posture. It’s about whatever that individual needs. So, if I have a whole class of individuals who don’t move independently, then one way to make it accessible is just not to do movement. There are so many other things we can do. So, it doesn’t have to look like, as I said, that studio class where there’s a person in the front of the room barking orders, and you expect a response.
Host 09:41
Yoga does not have to be practiced in one specific position or in one specific way. Cheryl describes how movements, breathing exercises and other elements can be adapted to meet different needs.
Cheryl Albright 09:52
So yeah, if you go to my website, I have a perfect visual example for people. I have one class that’s completely lying down, one that’s in a chair and one that’s more traditional, kind of up and down. There’s a difference between, like, yoga therapy where I may be working with somebody one-on-one versus in a group. Although, therapy brain doesn’t turn off in a group either. But it may look different because, individually, I can help; I can provide physical assistance. When it’s a room full of people, that makes it really challenging. And so, whatever position is comfortable for them, I prefer they get out of their wheelchair just because, once again, my therapy brain says they need breaks from that throughout the day, and that would be a perfect opportunity to do that. If we have enough mat tables and things, it can be done, or it’s whatever the individual is most comfortable with.
So, you might see things like singing and eye exercises and breath work and guided relaxations and things along those lines. And it’s not just for the humans that have the IDD; it’s also for the direct service professionals who are working 16-hour days and several jobs at the same time. So, in my upcoming book that was accepted by Routledge, I really break that down into: this is what yoga is saying, this is what AIDD (or the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities) is saying, here’s the OT practice framework. We’re all saying the same thing. So stop working in silos. We need to pull in not just the individual, but the systems around the individual. And so, from a public health perspective, it’s like those systems are the direct service professionals, and then the professional providers, and then the bubble keeps going. And the direct service professionals need it more.
Host 11:42
While yoga is often associated with stretching and physical activity, the practice can offer much more. Cheryl explores some of the benefits of yoga that extend beyond movement.
Cheryl Albright 11:51
Our friends can tell me how they feel after; a lot of times, you’ll hear calm or good. Those who have more language —I also work in behavioral health, so the overlap of IDD and a comorbid diagnosis— the most common report is they sleep better. And some of my work with the autoimmune population was published this year, and it was focusing really on digestive health. But all the systems are interconnected, so we had to pick a system that we were going to look at research-wise and just say, “Okay, we know all of these systems are in play with this diagnosis. We’re going to tease out one of them.” And the biggest complaint was digestive health. So, we said, “Okay, let’s just focus on that.” So, digestion is the next one. So, when we’re not, you’re either in fight or flight, or you’re in rest and digest. And we need rest and digest to kick on more than we need fight or flight. We need fight or flight to keep us safe. We all, you know, those of us that drive know we need it on the road, right? Like you need to have some kind of heightened sense of awareness. But we don’t need to live there all the time, and so that’s what that looks like. Can we have more rest and digest? The systems that are involved, I hear, is better sleep, rest, and we are digesting better. So, whether they have chronic constipation or any kind of GI issue, that seems to have the biggest improvement.
Host 13:28
Creating an inclusive wellness environment can also mean considering sensory needs and past experiences. Cheryl explains how sensory-aware and trauma-responsive practices are incorporated into Soul To Soul Yoga.
Cheryl Albright 13:40
So, if you go to the World Health Organization’s website and you look at the statistics between trauma, any kind of trauma or abuse in IDD, the numbers are gross. They’re disgusting, and so in this population, I say that we are trauma-assumed because they’re claiming 90%, with not everything being reported. So, at that point, we’re just going to assume somebody has undergone some form of trauma. And what does that look like? Body autonomy. You ask permission before you ever touch another human. You give them agency. If they don’t want to do a pose, or something doesn’t feel right, you let them do that. Like I said in the beginning, I have a pacing lane for those that need to get up and move in the back of the room. So they’re not disrupting anything. It’s just that they need to get up and they need to move their body. The agency for them to process sensory information their own way. And so that’s the main point when it comes to that.
Host 14:45
Starting a new wellness activity can sometimes feel intimidating, especially when accessibility is uncertain. Cheryl offers advice for people with disabilities who are interested in exploring yoga for the first time.
Cheryl Albright 14:56
That’s a hard one because it’s going to depend on where you live, right? And we know that resources in major cities are usually better than —like, if you told me about a major city within the U.S., I could find somebody within a couple of minutes. And in some of the bigger cities, I could just rattle off names now, and that’s worldwide. The thing is, in some of the rural communities, as you know, services are quite limited. Although if you wanted somebody who has a little bit more training, the International Association of Yoga Therapists has a list right on their website of who their certified practitioners are. You don’t have to be certified, so they may not, but somebody on there in your area may know of somebody else, right? So, it’s that piece of it. Another place to look is Yoga for All Abilities has all their licensed practitioners right on their website. We’ve all had at least the basic 95 hours as far as that goes. Accessible Yoga is another organization that you could look into that has the same lineage, different teachers. Or you could look for other people like me who are siblings that have learned to combine all the things together. We tend to be a little quieter about it, but we’re out there. So yeah, that’s kind of where I would start as somebody that has additional training.
Host 16:19
Greater disability inclusion in yoga and wellness will require continued changes across the industry. Cheryl shares what she hopes the future will look like and how Soul To Soul Yoga can contribute to that progress.
Cheryl Albright 16:30
Like I mentioned before, the book that’s coming out. I’m going back to get my master’s in public health. I think there’s a lot of systems that need to change in general, and it’s just going to take a lot of work. People fear what they don’t know, right? And so, if they’ve never interacted with somebody with an intellectual disability, they may not want them in their class because they don’t know how they’re going to respond. Or, you know, I always tell my students what’s happening on the mat is happening out in the world. So, whatever is happening in that yoga space is happening elsewhere. And so, it’s the same for public policy. People’s perceptions. The health and wellness industry is a billion-dollar industry. Why should they focus on a small subset that can’t afford it? Or it shouldn’t be accessible to them. And it’s funny because I work with a lot of nonprofits, and I was like, “Oh no, you guys are great! I can find you money. It’s the for-profits that I have to convince to be in a line item.” And so, you know, most of the organizations who serve people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are nonprofits. There are health and wellness initiatives. You can find anything from local credit unions all the way up to the big yoga brands, and trust me, they love a PR moment. So, you know, they have foundations and things, and it takes a little bit of creativity. But I think when you support not only the individual but support their support network, that’s where I see, like, my role in some of that too. Because I might not be able to change minimum wage, and I might not be able to change their situation. What I hope to do is change the response to it, and so I can’t help that you have to work 16 hours, six days a week, to survive. But is there something that you can do in the car to calm your nervous system down? Is there something that I can teach you to help better interact with this individual and not get so frustrated? Can I help support that piece?
Host 18:42
Here are Cheryl’s final thoughts.
Cheryl Albright 18:45
If I’m talking to service providers, it’s not to poo-poo yoga. Oh, that’s just a nice thing. The condescending head tilt is what I call it. “Oh, that’s just a nice thing to do.” No, no! There is some therapeutic benefit to it. There is more and more research coming out on how it can help individuals. Stop looking at social media for what yoga should look like!
Host 19:12
Thanks for joining us for another episode of Wellness, Health and Everything Else. If you want to learn more about Soul To Soul Yoga, we’ll have a link to their website in the episode details on streaming apps or on our website. For a full episode transcript, visit our website and find the episode in the podcasts and videos section or in the episode details on streaming apps. If you have questions about NCHPAD’s free resources, programs and partnership opportunities, email us at nchpad@uab.edu, call us at 866-866-8896 or check out our website at nchpad.org.