WHAT is Innerworks?
Innerworks is a workshop that successfully addresses the impact of long-term stress affecting so many of us these days. Incorporating aspects of yoga, creative writing and dreamwork, this workshop has a solid basis in years of rigorous scientific research across several disciplines. Innerworks provides the tools and techniques for participants to safely access and work through tensions, traumas and stress.

WHO developed it?
Jungian psychotherapist Martha Ayres, who is a Diplomate of the American Psychotherapy Association and a certified Kripalu yoga teacher. Martha brings over three decades of experience—working with individuals, couples and groups, using the theoretical framework of C.G. Jung to understand the unconscious and inner images and dreams—to her development of this workshop technique.

HOW does it work?
Martha initiates the workshop by guiding participants in a series of gentle yoga and breathing exercises to quiet the mind. The calm that results—the tranquillity of moving into the body—is what enables the authentic inner voice to emerge. Participants are invited to express themselves through writing, focusing on a thought, a feeling or a sensation, or an image that has come to t
hem during the yoga session, a recent dream, or a prompt provided by Martha. She then encourages participants to read their writings aloud. The experience of reading their own words
in an atmosphere of safety and trust deepens their self-understanding and enhances self-acceptance and empowerment. What follows is a session in which participants reflect on, and share the thoughts and sensations they have experienced throughout the workshop, not as a critique, but an opening to something new—where there are no judgments—only mutual support and respect. The workshop ends with yoga.

WHY is it effective?
Yoga postures are intrinsically relaxing and soothing, initiating the process of relief from stress.
The act of writing that follows allows participants to transform unresolved stress and anxiety into coherent stories. By expressing themselves thoughtfully through the written word, participants apply order and structure to their feelings about these situations or incidents, and are thus empowered to relieve their stress. The serenity and psychic order that results leads to better health, flourishing creativity, and a more focused and confident attitude.

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