Behind the Asanas
Yoga Psychology, Neuroscience & Somatic Integration
Reconnecting mind, body, and spirit to the living world where we belong.
Behind the Asanas explores healing as a response to separation—where yoga psychology, neuroscience, and somatic integration meet the grief call beneath anxiety, restoring safety, belonging, and embodied meaning.
This course supports a grounded return to wholeness through presence, relationship, and integration. It is designed to be engaged slowly and revisited over time, in ways that support nervous system safety.
Self-paced • All modules available immediately • Begin anytime
An Invitation.
Many of us arrive at yoga, therapy, or spiritual practice because something feels fractured inside—a sense of anxiety that won’t resolve, grief that lingers beneath the surface, or a quiet feeling of separation from ourselves, others, or life itself. At the same time, many modern approaches remain fragmented: psychology without spirit, spirituality without the body, insight without integration.
Behind the Asanas was created to meet this moment—to offer a coherent, grounded, and compassionate path toward integration.
This course centers the remembering of wholeness through embodiment, relationship, and presence—and the gradual return of vitality that comes when we are no longer living in fragments.
At its heart, Behind the Asanas understands anxiety, fragmentation, and emotional distress not as isolated symptoms, but as expressions of separation—from the body, from early sources of safety, from authentic expression, from community, and from the deeper Self.
Drawing on yoga psychology and philosophy, affective neuroscience, interpersonal neurobiology (IPNB), and somatic integration, this course offers a holistic and compassionate framework for understanding how separation distress shapes the nervous system, psyche, and spirit—and how integration restores coherence.
Across eight modules, participants are guided through a carefully paced arc that mirrors a timeless healing journey: from recognizing the splits we’ve inherited, to meeting fear as a protector, to turning toward grief with presence and compassion, and finally returning to embodied life with greater voice, agency, and relational capacity.
This course invites you to listen beneath symptoms, respond to the grief call with care, and rediscover belonging—within the body, within relationship, and within life itself.
This course emphasizes
Anxiety as a meaningful signal rather than a problem to fix
Grief and separation distress as central to human suffering and healing
The role of safety, attunement, and co-regulation in nervous system repair
Yoga psychology as a lived, embodied path—not just philosophy
Somatic and narrative practices that support integration, not bypassing
Healing as something that completes itself in relationship and community
How the course is held
This course is designed with care for pacing, nervous system safety, and integration over time.
It welcomes complexity, nuance, and lived experience—honoring both ancient wisdom and contemporary science without reducing either.
The Arc of the Journey
This course unfolds as a carefully held arc—one that mirrors the human journey from separation toward integration.
Week 1
Reuniting What Was Split
Why Integration Matters
Mind/body and science/spirit divides • Establishing safety and ritual • Why integration—not insight alone—heals
Week 2
The Mother Matrix
Origin, Attachment, and the Roots of Safety
The Mother Complex (individual & cultural) • Shakti/Prakriti • Early regulation, digestion, and belonging
Week 3
Turning Toward Fear
Neuroscience, Survival, and the Cost of Avoidance
Panksepp’s FEAR system • Avoidance and collapse • Meeting fear without overwhelm
Week 4
The Journey into the Heart
Grief, Compassion, and the Medicine of Presence
GRIEF/PANIC systems • Separation distress • Loving-kindness as regulation
Week 5
Fire, Voice & Embodiment
Tapas, Expression, and Integration
Agency, boundaries, digestion, voice • RAGE and truth • Embodied compassion
Week 6
From Individual Healing to Collective Life
Reimagining Family, Culture, and Community
Integration beyond the mat • Cultural complexes • Relationship as practice
Week 7
Integration & Return
Coming Home to the Living World Where We Belong
Meaning-making • What has shifted within you • Living from coherence
Week 8
Remembering the Source
Separation, Longing, and the Return to Wholeness
The pain of separation from Source • Longing as guidance • Nonduality as lived coherence
Who this course is for
This course is for:
Yoga teachers and meditation practitioners
Coaches, therapists, and somatic practitioners
Clinicians-in-training and seasoned guides
Seekers drawn to both psychology and spirituality
Anyone working with anxiety, grief, attachment, or meaning
No prior training in neuroscience or yoga philosophy is required—only curiosity, presence, and care for inner work.
Our Approach
This work weaves together:
Yoga psychology & philosophy
Affective neuroscience (FEAR, GRIEF, attachment systems)
Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB)
Somatic integration and embodied practices
Depth psychology and cohesive narrative
Nonduality is approached not as a belief or goal, but as a lived experience that emerges when fear and separation distress are met with safety and care.
Your Guides
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Leanne is a depth psychologist and transformational coach who specializes in the intersection of Western psychology and the Eastern liberatory and the shamanic traditions.
She holds two degrees, a Masters degree in Statistics from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and a Doctorate in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara California.
Additionally, she is also a Certified Professional Coach, Certified Yoga Teacher and author of several academic papers and the book Consciousness in Jung and Patañjali.
Learn more at https://leannewhitney.com/
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Shilah is a a full time transformational coach, somatic integration therapist, mentor and educator. Over the last 2 decades she has acquired over 5000 classroom teaching hours and has led many national and international retreats for other seekers.
Shilah has completed over 2000 hours of teaching and extensive supervised training for the Yoga Alliance credentialing body. She has also earned the designation YACEP which allows her to be a recognized continuing education provider for Yoga Alliance.
Shilah is also a Registered Ayurvedic Yoga Therapist, Registered Ayurvedic Herbalist, and Certified Professional Coach.
Learn more at https://www.arcanalife.com/
What You’ll Walk Away With
Beyond insight, participants often notice changes in how they relate to anxiety, grief, and connection in daily life—both personally and professionally.
Participants often leave with:
A clearer understanding of anxiety beneath the label, and greater ease meeting anxious states as they arise
Tools to meet grief and separation distress with more steadiness, compassion, and confidence
Greater nervous system coherence and regulation, including less urgency, collapse, or overwhelm
Language to integrate psychological and spiritual experience—in personal reflection and client work
A more embodied sense of belonging to self, others, and life
Practices that support integration well beyond the course
A felt return of vitality and aliveness as fragmentation gives way to coherence and connection
A Course You Can Return To
Behind the Asanas is a self-paced foundational offering, designed to support integration over time and revisited as new layers emerge. Enrollment includes three years of access to all modules, supporting a long-arc relationship with the material across different seasons of growth and integration.
All eight modules are available immediately upon enrollment, allowing you to move gently, return to the teachings as needed, and integrate at a pace that supports nervous system safety.
Investment: $595
Your tuition includes:
3 years of unlimited access to all 8 in-depth teaching modules
Pre-recorded lectures and guided practices
Reflection prompts and integration assignments
A returnable resource for ongoing support
A Closing Note
This course is an invitation to remember what has always been here, even beneath fear, grief, and longing. If this speaks to you, you are warmly invited to begin whenever the time feels right.