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Photos by L.G. Patterson
Whether you are dealing with trauma, stress, anxiety or just a long day, holistic healing in many forms is something all people can benefit from.
Catina Topash found her footing in yoga and holistic healing after her mother was diagnosed with cancer. “She and I started a wellness journey together through her cancer treatment and cancer diagnosis, and she and I did yoga training together,” Topash says. “As her cancer evolved, so did my interest and passion for yoga.”
Topash wanted to learn not only how yoga could affect the physical well-being but also how it could be used therapeutically. When her mother passed away in 2015, she really dove into yoga and the peace it can bring into one’s life. “I really thought ‘OK, I am going to take this to the nth degree and try to find ways to bring holistic healing to people through this amazing medium.’” Now, Topash is a certified yoga therapist, E-500 RYT, YogaFit senior master trainer, YogaFit Yoga Therapy faculty member, a sound healer and the Wilson’s Group fitness director. She has specialty yoga training in trauma, chronic pain, nervous system disorders, heart disease, diabetes, back pain, pre/post-natal, injury prevention and recovery, positive psychology, yoga for seniors and other areas.
While fitness and wellness are Topash’s current passions in life, her journey to get there was actually born through music. “I have a master’s degree in music,” she says. “So, my main thing was music, but I have always been into fitness.” After discovering her passion for yoga and healing, Topash realized she could combine her two loves and study sound yoga, bringing peace to people’s lives through vibration and sound. “I went down the sound bath and sound therapy path as well, and it was a really amazing time of awakening,” Topash says. “l thought, ‘Oh, I can marry my loves, and use both of these things I am so passionate about for healing.’”
Now, not only is Topash able to help people heal, but she is able to teach others how to heal. “Teaching others to become yoga teachers and yoga healers is so joyful to me,” Topash says. “But also opening people’s eyes to the fact that there are so many ways to heal is empowering. I love to empower people on their healing journeys.”
Topash’s passion lies in guiding individuals to live their best lives, encouraging them to discover their innate healing and happiness. Grounded in gratitude, she embraces each day with santosha, which is Sanskrit for contentment, and ensuring that she has a positive impact on her own life and those she influences.
So, it’s vital to Topash that people understand the benefits of yoga, sound therapy and other healing practices that are often misunderstood even though they have been around for more than 5,000 years. “Many people may not know what it is or how it works and how it can benefit you,” Topash says. Sound therapy specifically has healing powers to create harmony in the body. “Sound therapy comes in and creates harmony out of the dissonance in the body via the voice, musical instruments, etc.,” Topash says. Whether it’s using a sound bath, which
is a group setting, or during her one-on- one sound therapy sessions, Topash uses various instruments to create peace within the body. “Some people want a sonic massage and others want to find healing within sound therapy sessions.”
Topash says if you have been looking to begin your own healing journey through yoga or other holistic methods, don’t pay attention to the picture-perfect yoga poses you may see online.
“There is such a variety of styles and formats, and that yoga is also meditation and breathing practices; it’s not just about the poses,” she says. “Don’t be discouraged by the images you see on Instagram of people doing yoga. I work with people completely bedridden still doing yoga.”
Topash says yoga is truly for everyone. “You don’t have to look like everybody else, you don’t have to move like everybody else, as long as you are breathing and moving, it is working.”
Alongside her yoga practices, Topash and her husband, Bryan, co- own Breathe@JJ’s Folly Retreat Center and Bed and Breakfast in Fayette.
For more information on Topash, or to take one of her classes, visit wilsonsfitness.com.
What is a sound bath?
- Sensory Immersion: Participants are enveloped in various sounds and vibrations created by instruments.
- Relaxation and Stress Reduction: The therapeutic sounds have the potential to induce deep relaxation, helping to alleviate stress and tension.
- Mindfulness Practice: Participants are encouraged to focus on the present moment, using the sounds as a point of concentration.
