Martha Gold-Dvoryadkin
Martha Gold-Dvoryadkin
Martha has been working as a Senior Physical Therapist since 2002 in a New York City District 75 public school for children with multiple handicaps. The students are challenged with a wide range of disabilities including cerebral palsy, Down’s Syndrome, spina bifida, seizure disorders, mental retardation, autism, and other neurological impairments and they range in age from 9-21. There are approximately 600+ students in the school, with about 300 who are wheelchair dependent. In addition to providing individual therapy sessions to her students, Martha was inspired by all the wonderful young individuals she works with, as well as her own personal yoga practice, to create a yoga program at the school in 2003, which she has affectionately termed “Yoga Wonderland.” The program has evolved and flourished within the school and has spread outside the walls of the school to other settings and populations. It started with five girls with mild to moderate cerebral palsy doing yoga and has grown to almost half of the students in the school experiencing yoga regularly. Some of the larger yoga classes that she presently leads are composed of as many as 50-60 students with mild to moderate disabilities in attendance. The children really adore the classes and can’t get enough of yoga and movement class with Martha and Martha has found her life path and can’t get enough of sharing yoga and movement with the students. For many of the students with severe disabilities, this is the only opportunity they have to socialize with other students who attend the school and to feel as though they are truly a part of a group experience. She has also trained and inspired other therapists within District 75 schools to develop and lead their own yoga/movement classes, to which they bring their own personal style and creativity. Many yoga programs within the five boroughs began (and continue today) in various schools as a result of her innovative and imaginative training.
Martha is a NYS licensed physical therapist and graduated with her Doctorate degree in Physical Therapy from NYU in 2001. She has taken several continuing education courses in various massage modalities and that coupled with her intuitive healing skills and compassionate nature has led to her to add massage therapy to her repertoire of skills, which she brings to her students. In her private practice, Martha works with clients of all ages and particularly enjoys working with individuals who are facing medical/physical challenges and/or are recovering from life threatening illnesses or accidents. She draws from her background of physical therapy, massage therapy and yoga to make an individualized plan unique to each and every person she works with. Martha was the proud recipient of a scholarship from Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in 2005 to become a Certified Kripalu Yoga Teacher and routinely takes continuing education classes, which encompass topics in physical therapy, yoga/children’s yoga, yoga therapy, dance/movement therapy, etc.
Martha is continually seeking out opportunities to learn and bring inspiration and growth to her work and yoga/movement classes. Her classes are based on traditional yoga guidelines, including practical techniques to teach breathing, asanas (yoga postures), meditation and relaxation. The sessions are imaginative, fun and include warm-up exercises and yoga sequences choreographed to music, singing, dancing and creative movement activities.
Her intention is to one day establish a home base for Yoga Wonderland, which will bring yoga to children of ALL abilities, focusing on children with special needs. She envisions this center as being a safe haven and community, where children of ALL abilities can come to participate in yoga classes and other quality of life enhancing activities (please see Vision).
If you would like to contribute to our mission and have resources and/or ideas you would like to share, please do not hesitate to contact Martha at Martha@yogawonderland.org
Namaste
