One of the most popular sessions at this spring’s Limb Preservation Foundation symposium was the chair yoga demonstration. Led by a Colorado nonprofit called Guided by Humanity, the session generated raves not only from amputee participants but also from nondisabled attendees, including one appreciative member of Amplitude’s staff.
Accessible yoga is one of several programs offered by GBH, which offers inclusive, accessible wellness services to all comers, especially those who feel underserved or completely left behind by the conventional healthcare system. That’s a regrettably vast population, due to the pronounced imbalances and holes in American healthcare. It includes a disproportionately high share of amputees, along with people with other disabilities, people recovering from addiction, uninsured and underinsured people, individuals with limited incomes, and so forth.
All these populations are welcome at GBH, which offers both in-person and online classes. The online instruction allows amputees all over the country to participate in GBH programs, which include not only accessible yoga but also numerous other programs to help amputees cultivate healthy habits.
“I think a lot of amputees have a challenging time with self-care,” says Tracy Alverson, who discovered GBH after losing her left leg below the knee to diabetes in 2016. Alverson, who lost her leg at age 61, says GBH helped her develop a range of strategies to support her own physical and mental health. She now helps other amputees do the same by volunteering as a Certified Peer Visitor. And when she retires in about a year, she plans to volunteer for GBH and help it reach more amputees than ever.
We spoke with Alverson recently to learn how Guided by Humanity has affected her life. Our conversation is lightly edited for clarity. Learn more about Guided by Humanity online at guidedbyhumanity.org.
How did you find your way to yoga after losing your limb?
I have been a left below-knee-amputee for eight years, due to non-healing wound complications from Type 2 diabetes. I’m very blessed with a great group of friends who supported me and, and so I became a Certified Peer Visitor through the Amputee Coalition. That allows me to speak to people who are interested in being supported before, during, or after their amputation. It’s important to me that anybody, especially folks who live in remote areas, have support in some form or fashion.
As well as being an amputee, I have polyneuropathy in my sound leg, so I can’t really trust it to not occasionally give out on me. It doesn’t keep me from walking, but it is limiting. I was working with a personal trainer who had me doing upper-body cardio work and increasing the strength in my legs. Then I had two revision surgeries. which laid me up for a bit, and I was not able to keep working with my personal trainer. So my physical therapist told me about a yoga class that was done through Spaulding [Rehabilitation] Hospital in Boston.
Was that class specifically for amputees, or was it designed for anyone who’s rehabbing an injury of any kind at the hospital?
It was a chair yoga class. It was for anybody who needs to be in a chair of some sort, whether that was through limb loss or otherwise. I did that for a while, and then I finally came across Guided by Humanity. I don’t remember exactly how, I just know I immediately connected with them. With Guided by Humanity, they’re not only having you do the movements, they’re explaining why you’re doing the movement, how it’s impacting your body, and how it relates to the other movements that you are doing sequentially. So I’m not only getting yoga, I’m also getting getting this education about tendons and muscles and how they’re impacted by different poses.
I started with yoga, and it just blossomed from there. Through Guided by Humanity, I’ve taken yoga for amputees, which is obviously specialized. I also take chair yoga, which offers a different kind of instruction. I’ve taken a grief class through them. I’ve taken a class with them called Ducks in a Row, which helps you get your estate planning and your personal desires in order so the people who are assisting you at the end of your life know what you want. I am currently doing a compassionate caregivers class, which is designed for people who provide 24/7 caregiving to somebody. Now I relate to caregiving through my employment [Alverson has been a worker’s compensation counselor for 13 years] and through the people I assist as a Certified Peer Visitor. But I’m not a classic, around-the-clock caregiver. And then I’m helping them get a new class ready, which is called Yoga for Recovery. It’s for people who have addictions. And we all have some addiction—it might not be drugs or alcohol, it might be playing on your phone too much, right?
I think everybody has that addiction.
Probably. So I’m a Guided by Humanities person. In April, I was offered an early retirement package and elected not to take it, but while I was considering it, I decided that the minute I retire, I’m going to devote myself to Guided by Humanities. I’m very strong administratively, and I know I can help them.
Forgive me for asking, but when you took the grief class, was that in relation to grieving the loss of your limb? Or were you grieving the loss of someone in your life?
I was grieving the loss of someone in my life. But four years ago, through my church, I did take a grief class where they went around and asked what each of us was grieving for. I had my prosthetic off already, and I put it on the table and said: “I’m grieving the loss of my leg.”
I ask only because I think many people who lose a limb either don’t give themselves permission to grieve, or they’re even discouraged from doing so. I think for many people, the feedback they get is: “Be tough. Be strong. You got this.” So not everyone is able to properly grieve.
And the way I grieve is I busy myself. I find things that need to be done, decisions that need to be made, and I get busy rather than grieve. I think many of us, but especially women, have a challenging time with self-care. Guided by Humanity very much reinforces in all their classes that if you’re not taking good care of yourself, you’re not as available to others.
When we have the yoga class, the first thing they do is ask what’s going on in your body today and what do we need to work on. So you have your own specific things to work on. They go through the body mechanics and things while we’re doing the yoga, but we’re also given mantras and a lovely prayer at the end of each class. You just come away feeling calm, centered, and serene.
They’ll continue healing that particular area during the next class if you need to. They’re even open to being called or emailed outside of class. They’re available for you, and I really appreciate that. Because I lost my leg to diabetes, there’s a bit of a guilt factor. I had to get over knowing that I contributed to the loss of my limb. I have learned to come to terms with that and to be as healthy as possible for whatever life I do have left. I can contribute to others, and I can be kind to myself and forgive myself.
Self-care is not something our society excels at.
I’m a Baby Boomer, and we came from parents who were too busy surviving, making a living, and taking care of their family to address their own needs. I think a good deal of us have finally caught on that it’s okay to take care of yourself, it’s okay to let it be known what’s bothering you, it’s ok to get therapy. I have a granddaughter who’s 14, and we get together every week, but when she’s stayed up too late the night before or she’s worn herself out, she tells me: “I just can’t meet today.” And I really appreciate that about her. I appreciate that she’s honoring what she needs, what her body needs. Because we were taught, “Keep going, don’t let anything slow you down, do not show weakness.” So it’s a process of unlearning some of those things.
Learn more about Guided by Humanity’s online and in-person offerings at guidedbyhumanity.org/classes.
