Yoga & Psychotherapy Training at Agama with Elica

Elica Lorde from Melbourne in Australia will be conducting the Yoga and Psychotherapy Workshop at Agama from September 5th to the 10th...

Hi Elica, please can you explain the event...

The Yoga & Psychotherapy Workshop is a 6 day experiential journey which you could liken to a Hero’s Journey. During the 6 days we go through a process of understanding and entering the subconscious mind with a focus on the emotional and mental bodies.

A complete blended Yogic and Western map of the mind is used to guide this Journey. Lectures are offered for intellectual understanding of psychological concepts and the structure of the psyche. Guided meditations, shamanic style journeying through chakras and a deep excavation of the subconscious mind is offered for personal healing and transformation.

What do you think an individual can gain from your workshop?

We refer to psychotherapeutic work such as this a ‘horizontal spiritual path’. So as well as the opportunity to understand and heal longstanding or deep emotional and psychological blocks and issues, this workshop also is an entry point into a deep spiritual work.

As we work through and clear our emotional and mental bodies the energy that was invested in these issues and in the personality itself can be freed and used for advancements in our spiritual evolution. Psychotherapeutic work is highly complementary to more vertical paths of spirituality such as that offered by the Yoga System.

And what uniqueness will you personally bring to this event?

I aspire to bring the uniqueness of my own Self to the workshop as well as sharing the common ground within all of us that is the Self.

How long have you been practicing Yoga?

I have been practicing styles of Yoga such as Hatha and Vinyasa for a few years now, but Samadhi Yoga has been my focus for 21 years.

In your words, can you please describe Samadhi Yoga?

When I say ‘Samadhi Yoga’ what I am meaning is that by working through all of the bodies from the physical to the causal, by steadily resolving all of the blocks and limitations we slowly expand into Being. So the horizontal work that we do eventually meets the vertical path in this expansion and becomes One.

There is a saying that Maha brought to my attention, and old Zen proverb ‘Before enlightenment chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment chop wood, carry water’. By working away through the various issues through the bodies ‘chopping our wood and carrying our water’ we can arrive at an everyday, grounded enlightenment.

How did you get involved with Agama and how did you end up on Koh Phangan?
I first heard about Agama through friends who had attended the school some years ago. As karma would dictate I experienced a life crisis, went trekking in Nepal for a month and then landed on Koh Phangan.

I had only intended to do Level 1, try and find some healing and equilibrium and head home, but Spirit had other plans. I began working with Agama students in the Agama Healing Centre. Eventually this led to taking the Therapeutic Yoga TTC run by Maha, which led to a collaboration between us teaching Psychology to students, assimilating both our lifework and developing this workshop.

Suffice to say, these days I am happily practicing Yoga, fulfilling my Dharma through this work and am engaged to be married to a beautiful Yogi I met on the island.

And leave us with your personal Yogi Philosophy…

Chop wood, Carry Water.