Yoga Therapy for Posture and Core Health

ONLINE & IN-PERSON with Diana Meltsner, C-IAYT, ERYT-500, YACEP

$40 | $35 Early bird, exp. 5/17/26.

Please register in advance; a Zoom link will be emailed 1 hour before the session, or join Zoom directly via your Momence dashboard.

We appreciate advance registration.

Join Diana Meltsner, a certified yoga therapist, for an educational workshop exploring the relationship between posture, core function, and musculoskeletal health. We will examine how core stability supports balance, lumbar spine health, ribcage alignment, the reduction of shoulder and neck discomfort and more. The workshop will include lecture, guided practice, and discussion, with content adapted to participants’ interests and needs.

We will look at the anatomy just briefly and then in movement we will recognize and feel the different parts of our body being in or out of alignment in our posture, the inner core activation and core’s engagement works together with the rest of the body. This regained awareness can be applied to gentle yoga asana, advanced asana practice as well as body movement off the mat.

Topics will include:

  • the relationship between alignment, strength, flexibility, and patterns of tightness or weakness
  • postural organization with and without effective inner core engagement
  • compensatory movement patterns contributing to chronic pain and injury
  • progressive and gentle methods to retrain the body, to activate and strengthen the core
  • how much to practice to restore and maintain functional strength

We will practice a series of awareness-building and gentle strengthening exercises for the core and address common challenges. Practices will be done in a chair, standing, and on the floor. All levels are welcome.

This workshop will be recorded and available to all enrolled students for two weeks.


Diana Meltsner, C-IAYT, ERYT-500, YACEP, has been teaching a variety of classes and workshops since 2001 and since 2017 offers yoga therapy sessions privately and at Integral Yoga Therapy Clinic in San Francisco. She has over 15 years of experience in leading and co-teaching Yoga and Meditation teacher trainings. She has been working in the clinical setting for Kaiser Permanente since 2005 as a yoga teacher, yoga therapist, and health educator. Diana’s focus is on the healing aspects of Yoga on the mind as well as the body by applying the physical postures, practices of breath-control, mindfulness and meditation. Diana helps her clients to find the ability to move through life with increased ease, stress resilience, and intuition. Diana Meltsner works as a programs manager at Integral Yoga Institute, an urban ashram in San Francisco. dianameltsner.com

New Beginnings Writing Group

ONLINE with Susan Ford, C-IAYT, RYT-500

$1-15 sliding scale

Please register in advance; a Zoom link will be emailed 1 hour before the session, or join Zoom directly via your Momence dashboard.

Meets twice a month on 2nd and 4th Friday | Ongoing
In these times of great change we will explore a path toward meeting ourselves where we are to give voice to all that matters! As we live with interruptions and chaos, we can deepen into the roots of our creativity, encouraging the river of expression to flow. Beginners and seasoned writers are welcome, as we explore various forms of writing: poetry, prose, short stories, memoir, among others. Through writing exercises using everyday life, place, family, images, poetry of others, while using pranayama, meditation and the guidance of the Sutras we will build a body of work. Participants are encouraged to go at their own pace.
Tools we will Practice:

• The Art of Paying Attention
• Acceptance
• Play
• Writing from the Heart

Together we will combine self-care with our writing and discover what a writing practice means to us and how it may take shape.


Susan Ford, C-IAYT, RYT-500, began teaching in 2011 and has been an assistant trainer for the Basic Yoga Teacher Training at Integral Yoga Institute San Francisco (IYISF) since 2012. She specializes in gentle yoga and yoga therapy working with people with disabilities, cancer, heart disease, arthritis, aging, bone health, anxiety, depression and asthma. Her focus is to help students to meet their bodies where they are by introducing and incorporating Therapeutic Yoga, Raja Yoga, Hatha Yoga, pranayama and meditation. Susan has been a writer of poetry, short stories and plays most of her adult life and has been repeatedly featured in storytelling events in Northern California. She has led writer groups, tutored many in writing, and regularly hosts poetry reading Satsangs at IYISF.

New Beginnings Writing Group

ONLINE with Susan Ford, C-IAYT, RYT-500
$1-15 sliding scale

Please register in advance; a Zoom link will be emailed 1 hour before the session, or join Zoom directly via your Momence dashboard.

Meets twice a month on 2nd and 4th Friday | Ongoing

In these times of great change we will explore a path toward meeting ourselves where we are to give voice to all that matters! As we live with interruptions and chaos, we can deepen into the roots of our creativity, encouraging the river of expression to flow. Beginners and seasoned writers are welcome, as we explore various forms of writing: poetry, prose, short stories, memoir, among others. Through writing exercises using everyday life, place, family, images, poetry of others, while using pranayama, meditation and the guidance of the Sutras we will build a body of work. Participants are encouraged to go at their own pace.
Tools we will Practice:

• The Art of Paying Attention
• Acceptance
• Play
• Writing from the Heart

Together we will combine self-care with our writing and discover what a writing practice means to us and how it may take shape.


Susan Ford, C-IAYT, RYT-500, began teaching in 2011 and has been an assistant trainer for the Basic Yoga Teacher Training at Integral Yoga Institute San Francisco (IYISF) since 2012. She specializes in gentle yoga and yoga therapy working with people with disabilities, cancer, heart disease, arthritis, aging, bone health, anxiety, depression and asthma. Her focus is to help students to meet their bodies where they are by introducing and incorporating Therapeutic Yoga, Raja Yoga, Hatha Yoga, pranayama and meditation. Susan has been a writer of poetry, short stories and plays most of her adult life and has been repeatedly featured in storytelling events in Northern California. She has led writer groups, tutored many in writing, and regularly hosts poetry reading Satsangs at IYISF.

New Beginnings Writing Group

ONLINE with Susan Ford, C-IAYT, RYT-500

$1-15 sliding scale | Meets twice a month on 2nd and 4th Friday | Ongoing

Please register in advance; a Zoom link will be emailed 1 hour before the session, or join Zoom directly via your Momence dashboard.

In these times of great change we will explore a path toward meeting ourselves where we are to give voice to all that matters! As we live with interruptions and chaos, we can deepen into the roots of our creativity, encouraging the river of expression to flow. Beginners and seasoned writers are welcome, as we explore various forms of writing: poetry, prose, short stories, memoir, among others. Through writing exercises using everyday life, place, family, images, poetry of others, while using pranayama, meditation and the guidance of the Sutras we will build a body of work. Participants are encouraged to go at their own pace.
Tools we will Practice:

• The Art of Paying Attention
• Acceptance
• Play
• Writing from the Heart

Together we will combine self-care with our writing and discover what a writing practice means to us and how it may take shape.


Susan Ford, C-IAYT, RYT-500, began teaching in 2011 and has been an assistant trainer for the Basic Yoga Teacher Training at Integral Yoga Institute San Francisco (IYISF) since 2012. She specializes in gentle yoga and yoga therapy working with people with disabilities, cancer, heart disease, arthritis, aging, bone health, anxiety, depression and asthma. Her focus is to help students to meet their bodies where they are by introducing and incorporating Therapeutic Yoga, Raja Yoga, Hatha Yoga, pranayama and meditation. Susan has been a writer of poetry, short stories and plays most of her adult life and has been repeatedly featured in storytelling events in Northern California. She has led writer groups, tutored many in writing, and regularly hosts poetry reading Satsangs at IYISF.

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