Cory J Cooper Berens

I am a former early childhood educator who taught in preschools with a Bachelors degree in Early Childhood Education. I went on to become a Director of Three successful educational centers. I soon became a mother quickly after I was married when my son was diagnosed with Autism at 18 months. The blessing was due to my background,  I knew he was not meaning his benchmarks so intern I left early childhood education and concentrated on my son’s therapy as he was nonverbal. The hardest part for me was a Speech Therapy, in which the Speech Therapist would constantly tell me my son needed to make a sound or jester in order for him to receive the food items he desired. As a mother, this was extremely hard for me! So in turn, I used my own Breath work that I used from Hatha yoga during a dark time in my life when I lost my father suddenly. Yoga became my saving grace and helped calm and regulate my own grief so I implemented the breath work one day when I was extremely frustrated during a feeding session with my son, I hid behind the kitchen island and cried! I used my breath, work to calm myself down before addressing my own son’s frustration. To my surprise, I noticed my own son stopped crying and he inturn was imitating my deep breathing, and was able to stop crying as well. This calmed him enough to point to the food item in which I knew already he wanted! Since then, I realized that Yoga could be used as a tool to help him and his therapy! Soon after the doctors told me he was “low toned” what does that even mean? For me when I saw that my son was not in his physical body. Therefore,I implemented the yoga poses that developed his core muscles from the inside out! Soon instead of the shell of his former self, he started to sit up straight, he began speaking, and flourished in his other therapies His therapist asked what I was doing behind the scenes in which my son was quickly showing signs of improvement! All I have been doing, I explain with implementing the ancient practice of yoga! They soon asked me if I would teach their other clinicians, the tips and tools of hatha yoga for their other patients! This is when Yoga for Youngsters was born!  Although I thought it was only for special-needs children! But  I was so wrong! It was my son‘s second grade teacher as we enrolled him in school that accepted inclusion rather than institutionalizing him as the doctors recommended. Miss Ruben, my sons 2nd grade grade teacher explained - no Cory Yoga will help all children Not just special needs! Our children are struggling today. They are not able to regulate their emotions, they can’t seem to concentrate, or stay focused for more than six minutes at a time we have so many dysfunctional diagnosis like OCD, ADHD, and behavioral disorders and so on .. Yoga means union - body, mind and soul! Through yoga, poses, mindfulness, breath, work, and meditation children learn to regulate themselves in this unknown world in which we are living in today! Together, let’s gift our children, this wonderful ancient tool of yoga and set them up for success in the future.