H.E.A.R.T. Non-Profit, Inc.
Donation protected
H.E.A.R.T. (an acroym for "Health, Exercise, Artistry, Recovery and Training”) is a collaborating team of individuals and businesses specializing in disciplines using movement, performing arts and therapy to (i) provide life changing opportunities and experiences for individuals, families and communities to heal and grow physically, psychologically, artistically and otherwise, and (ii) help people unite their skills, talents, experiences and training to achieve their full and unencumbered potential. The individuals involved in H.E.A.R.T. have recognized a need for these opportunities, which are not traditionally governmentally subsidized and are likewise not generally covered by health insurance companies, but are nonetheless crucial to physical and mental human health and overall well-being. With participation in the disciplines, practices and modalities of training promoted and provided by H.E.A.R.T., the Founders (defined infra) of H.E.A.R.T. have learned that people become more productive, energetic, fulfilled, happier with themselves and their other relationships and generally learn and grow in impressive and multi-faceted ways. The opportunities to be provided by H.E.A.R.T., and financed in full or in part by H.E.A.R.T., will include individual and group activities, programs and scholarships created by H.E.A.R.T.—or by other individuals, groups or entities approved by, and working with, H.E.A.R.T or otherwise donating services, time, assets or the like to H.E.A.R.T., with or without compensation. These Non-Profit Projects will be aimed at developing early and lifelong emotional, physical, psychological, artistic and other life skills to various individuals and/or groups, including institutional or community organizations, such as (by way of example and not limitation) victims of abuse and/or trauma, schools, the underprivileged, youth groups, those in acute need and / or those individuals or groups displaying such characteristics as integrity, honor, respect and a strong work ethic to improve their quality of life and the lives of others and otherwise displaying the merit to deserve these opportunities. Examples of disciplines to be encouraged and provided by H.E.A.R.T as part of its Non-Profit Projects include:
1) Holistic drug-free pain management (based upon realigning the body with positional release work, yoga therapy and other methods created by one of H.E.A.R.T.’s founders, Emily Sabo (hereinafter “Sabo” or a “Founder”) and implemented at her Yoga, Pilates, Aerial Arts and Pain Management studio, EKS Beachside Bodywork. Sabo’s unique methods are further described on her website www.eksbeachsidebodywork.com);
2) Yoga, Pilates and meditation training for overall health, wellness and stress management, including, without limitation, to increase bone-density, lessen adrenal fatigue and other forms of stress-related illnesses and health issues and also to yield other and further health benefits as described on Sabo’s aforementioned website (www.eksbeachsidebodywork.com) and as further described at www.bikramyogami.com , the website of another of H.E.A.R.T.’s founder’s, Suzanne Elliott—a coach for national and international yoga competitions, a proponent of yoga in schools, youth programs, sports programs, and otherwise bringing yoga and related modalities of movement for lifelong health into more mainstream venues and practices in western culture. Elliott’s business nurtures competitive yoga athletes from childhood into their 90s, providing them with an arena to learn with others and forward their individual and personal yoga practices with the support of other athletes, willing to go out on a limb and showcase their skills on a stage in front of friends, family and other inspired observers;
3) Performing arts programs and training, including, without limitation, aerial arts, dance, theatre, rhythmic gymnastics and other movement and non-movement based performing arts, such as those show-cased on the website of another of H.E.A.R.T.’s founders, Jennifer Drabik-Pierce, at www.orlandoaerialarts.com . Pierce is also Artistic Director and owner of Orlando Aerial Arts and Suspended Artistry and has vast experience, knowledge and training in the performing arts and brings that knowledge to the Non-Profit’s envisioned Programs and Non-Profit Projects. Pierce also has an encouraging, highly specific yet patient teaching style, fostering self-confidence, increased self-esteem and other overall positive life changes important to enriching Non-Profit Projects and Programs; such Programs in the performing arts may include, by way of example and without limitation:
o The creation of engaging shows to be presented at schools, community events, and other non-profit functions, fostering creativity, collaboration and communication for the performers involved in these productions;
o Programs to increase the public’s understanding and appreciation of the importance and value of the disciplines of circus arts, dance, and the contribution of these disciplines to the welfare of society as a whole, and the sponsorship and initiation of activities and research related to the aforementioned goals;
oEvents to bring together educators, guest presenters, and incorporating round table discussions, networking sessions, and performances with other regional, state, and national non-profit and profit organizations to teach, perform, create, advocate, evaluate, and support growth in the aerial dance /circus arts community; and
oThe creation of scholarships, grants or other sponsorships in furtherance of training for circus artists, aerial dancers and other performers who have achieved a high level of artistry, leadership, and academic success.
4) Psychotherapeutic modalities or other forms of therapy, which provide healing tools for people to develop psychological wellness and find their core qualities including creativity, calm, compassion, empowerment and strength, such as those forms of therapy as are employed by another of H.E.A.R.T.’s co-founders, Dr. Judith Siegler. Dr. Siegler specializes in trauma resolution and believes that, when provided with a safe and skilled environment, clients can heal past wounds and find self- leadership. To learn more about Dr. Siegler’s practice, visit the website of Center for Relationships and Trauma Resolution, www.crtr307.com . Dr. Siegler has found that the Internal Family Systems Model (hereinafter, “IFS”) developed by IFS founder Dr. Richard Schwartz is the most effective psychotherapeutic approach in trauma resolution, especially when combined with yoga and some of the other disciplines and modalities H.E.A.R.T. will promote and provide through its Non-Profit Projects and Programs. For example, Dr. Siegler has referred countless clients over the course of many years to Co-Founder Sabo (see first bullet point) for her brand of pain management and/or yoga therapy to be used in conjunction with Dr. Siegler’s therapy, which has proven to be a very effective collaboration of efforts. To learn more about IFS, visit the official IFS website at www.selfleadership.org, and to learn more about trauma in general and to find research supporting the role of, not only IFS, but also yoga and other modalities that H.E.A.R.T. may promote or provide for resolving trauma, Dr. Siegler recommends reading Bessel Van Der Kolk’s book entitled The Body Keeps the Score;
5) Capoeira training, enrichment and performance Programs. Capoeira is a Brazilian Martial Art, incorporating a rich heritage and culture, as well as beautiful acrobatics, dance, hand- made musical instruments and a very unique fighting style that was preserved by an enslaved people who transformed it into a dance and preserved it as a “game” still played today between two Capoeira practitioners (sometimes referred to as “Capoeiristas”) in a circle of other encouraging and on-looking Capoeiristas, providing music with their hands, hand-made instruments and chant-like songs and rhythms to which the beautiful, rhythmic, sometimes swift and acrobatic, and sometimes slow and graceful, “game” is played in the center of the circle. This form of training builds emotional and physical strength, lessens social anxiety, promotes communication and focus, creates responsible and respectful children and adults, creates a sense of community and belonging and has many other benefits all as further described and supported by the scientific research sited below in this section under the heading “Research supporting H.E.A.R.T.’s mission.” The Non-Profit’s own co-founder Renzo Souffrain, runs a very tight-knit family of Capoeiristas at his Capoeira Karkara in Florida, and believes strongly in the transforming nature of this tradition, practice and game, which has the potential to refocus, center and re-purpose the heart and soul of any person, young or old, willing to learn and looking to overcome obstacles of all shapes and sizes as well as deepen relationships and connections in his or her life. Because of its importance to Brazilian culture and tradition, in
2014, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (French: Organisation des Nations unies pour l'éducation, la
Florida Non Profit Articles of Incorporation science et la culture)—a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) based in Paris— granted Capoeira a special protected status as an "intangible cultural heritage" (see the UNESCO maintained website, unesco.org, specifically at http://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/?page=6&pg=13&sj=Intangible+heritage ; and see BBC News article reporting the intangible cultural heritage designation on November 26, 2014 at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-30219941 ). According to UNESCO, an “intangible cultural heritage” includes “traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, arts, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe...”. (See the UNESCO maintained website, unesco.org, specifically at http://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/?page=6&pg=13&sj=Intangible+heritage) Capoeira qualifies for this status because it is “an Afro-Brazilian cultural practice, simultaneously a fight and a dance, that promotes mutual respect and social cohesion....” (See the UNESCO maintained website, unesco.org, specifically at http://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/?pg=33&s=films_details&id=3696 ).
In summary, it is the goal and the intended work of the Non-Profit to help Non-Profit Beneficiaries grow and showcase new skills of all kinds and increase their mental and physical health and wellness by creating Non-Profit Projects or Programs, including, without limitation and, solely by way of example the following: hosting national youth and adult yoga competitions; creating programs in dance, aerial arts and other performance-based practices and training allowing aspiring performers young and old to better express themselves and realize their full artistic and physical potential; encouraging the adoption by schools of yoga for wellness, as a sport, or otherwise; creating therapy programs, incorporating trauma resolution, yoga, performance arts and/or the practice of capoeira and similar martial arts and musical training in programs combining the making and playing of instruments, appreciation for historic civilizations and comradery in training in groups each supporting the other in his or her training and development; and other similar programs for adults and youth alike. Intended Non-Profit Beneficiaries to benefit from these Programs include, without limitation, war veterans, victims of abuse and other sufferers of PTSD, trauma, bullying, low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, self-harm, eating disorders, drug abuse, suicide, suicidal ideation, hopelessness, loneliness, family conflicts, relationship conflicts, school age children in need of positive after school activities, which form beneficial life-long habits and more. By using the multi-disciplinary approach herein described, the Non-Profit has the potential to address some of the most critical epidemics in our communities. The Founders of this Non-Profit see no limit to the benefits the Non-Profit may provide through a wide variety of multi-faceted Non-Profit Projects.
Research supporting H.E.A.R.T.’s mission:
• “Athletics, playing music, dancing, and theatrical performances all promote agency and community. They also engage kids in novel challenges and unaccustomed roles...Several of my students run an after-school program in Brazilian capoeira in a high-crime area of Boston, and my colleagues at the Trauma Center continue the Trauma Drama program....The intense communal efforts force kids to collaborate, compromise, and stay focused on the task at hand....Our NCTSN [National Child Traumatic Stress Network, established by an act of Congress in 2001] programs are working: Kids become less anxious and emotionally reactive and are less aggressive or withdrawn; they get along better and their school performance improves; their attention deficit, hyperactivity and ‘oppositional defiant’ problems decrease; and parents report that their children are sleeping better. Terrible things still happen to them and around them, but they are now able to talk about these events; they have built up the trust and resources to seek the help they need. Interventions are successful if they draw on our natural wellsprings of cooperation and on our inborn responses to safety, reciprocity, and imagination.” [SOURCE: Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D., The Body Keeps the Score, Viking / The Penguin Group, copyright 2014, p. 355- 356]
“Children and adults alike need to experience how rewarding it is to work at the edge of their abilities. Resilience is the product of agency: knowing that what you do can make a difference.” Id.
“[S]cientific methods have confirmed that changing the way one breathes can improve problems with anger, depression, and anxiety5 and that yoga can positively affect such wide-ranging medical problems as high blood pressure, elevated stress hormone secretion,6 asthma, and low-back pain.7” [SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 5069-5072). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
o FN5&6:
§ [5] “P. Lehrer, Y. Sasaki, and Y. Saito, “Zazen and Cardiac Variability,”
Psychosomatic Medicine 61, no. 6 (1999): 812–21. See also R. Sovik, “The Science of Breathing: The Yogic View,” Progress in Brain Research 122 (1999): 491–505; P. Philippot, G. Chapelle, and S. Blairy, “Respiratory Feedback in the Generation of Emotion,” Cognition & Emotion 16, no. 5 (2002): 605–27; A. Michalsen, et al., “Rapid Stress Reduction and Anxiolysis Among Distressed Women as a Consequence of a Three-Month Intensive Yoga Program,” Medcal Science Monitor 11, no. 12 (2005): 555–61; G. Kirkwood, et al., “Yoga for Anxiety: A Systematic Review of the Research Evidence,” British Journal of Sports Medicine 39 (2005): 884–91; K. Pilkington, et al., “Yoga for Depression: The Research Evidence,” Journal of Affective Disorders 89 (2005): 13–24; and P. Gerbarg and R. Brown, “Yoga: A Breath of Relief for Hurricane Katrina Refugees,” Current Psychiatry 4 (2005): 55–67. [Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 8157-8158). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
§ [6] B. Cuthbert, et al., “Strategies of Arousal Control: Biofeedback, Meditation, and Motivation,” Journal of Experimental Psychology 110 (1981): 518–46. See also S. B. S. Khalsa, “Yoga as a Therapeutic Intervention: A Bibliometric Analysis of Published Research Studies,” Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology 48 (2004): 269–85; M. M. Delmonte, “Meditation as a Clinical Intervention Strategy: A Brief Review,” International Journal of Psychosomatics 33 (1986): 9–12; I. Becker, “Uses of Yoga in Psychiatry and Medicine,” in Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Psychiatry, vol. 19, ed. P. R. Muskin (Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, 2008); L. Bernardi, et al., “Slow Breathing Reduces Chemoreflex Response to Hypoxia and Hypercapnia, and Increases Baroreflex Sensitivity,” Journal of Hypertension 19, no. 12 (2001): 2221–29; R. P. Brown and P. L. Gerbarg, “Sudarshan Kriya Yogic Breathing in the Treatment of Stress, Anxiety, and Depression: Part I: Neurophysiologic Model,” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 11 (2005): 189–201; R. P. Brown and P. L. Gerbarg, “Sudarshan Kriya Yogic Breathing in the Treatment of Stress, Anxiety, and Depression: Part II: Clinical Applications and Guidelines,” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 11 (2005): 711–17; C. C. Streeter, et al., “Yoga Asana Sessions Increase Brain GABA Levels: A Pilot Study,” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 13 (2007): 419–26; and C. C. Streeter, et al., “Effects of Yoga Versus Walking on Mood, Anxiety, and Brain GABA Levels: A Randomized Controlled MRS Study,” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 16 (2010): 1145–52. [Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 8174-8178). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
• “There are thousands of art, music, and dance therapists who do beautiful work with abused children, soldiers suffering from PTSD, incest victims, refugees, and torture survivors, and numerous accounts attest to the effectiveness of expressive therapies. 18 ” [SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 4567-4569). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
o [FN 18: D. A. Harris, “Dance/Movement Therapy Approaches to Fostering Resilience and Recovery Among African Adolescent Torture Survivors,” Torture 17, no. 2 (2007): 134–55; M. Bensimon, D. Amir, and Y. Wolf, “Drumming Through Trauma: Music Therapy with Post-traumatic Soldiers,” Arts in Psychotherapy 35, no. 1 (2008): 34–48; M. Weltman, “Movement Therapy with Children Who Have Been Sexually Abused,” American Journal of Dance Therapy 9, no. 1 (1986): 47–66; H. Englund, “Death, Trauma and Ritual: Mozambican Refugees in Malawi,” Social Science & Medicine 46, no. 9 (1998): 1165–74; H. Tefferi, Building on Traditional Strengths: The Unaccompanied Refugee Children from South Sudan (1996); D. Tolfree, Restoring Playfulness: Different Approaches to Assisting Children Who Are Psychologically Affected by War or Displacement (Stockholm: Rädda Barnen, 1996), 158–73; N. Boothby, “Mobilizing Communities to Meet the Psychosocial Needs of Children in War and Refugee Crises,” in Minefields in Their Hearts: The Mental Health of Children in War and Communal Violence, ed. R. Apfel and B. Simon (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996), 149–64; S. Sandel, S. Chaiklin, and A. Lohn, Foundations of Dance/Movement Therapy: The Life and Work of Marian Chace (Columbia, MD: American Dance Therapy Association, 1993); K. Callaghan, “Movement Psychotherapy with Adult Survivors of Political Torture and Organized Violence,” Arts in Psychotherapy 20, no. 5 (1993): 411–21; A. E. L. Gray, “The Body Remembers: Dance Movement Therapy with an Adult Survivor of Torture,” American Journal of Dance Therapy 23, no. 1 (2001): 29–43. ] (SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 8029-8034). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.)
“The capacity of art, music, and dance to circumvent the speechlessness that comes with terror may be one reason they are used as trauma treatments in cultures around the world.” [SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 4571-4573). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
“There are dozens of scientific articles showing the positive effect of yoga for various medical conditions. The following is a small sample: S. B. Khalsa, “Yoga as a Therapeutic Intervention”; P. Grossman, et al., “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Health Benefits: A Meta-Analysis,” Journal of Psychosomatic Research 57 (2004): 35–43; K. Sherman, et al., “Comparing Yoga, Exercise, and a Self-Care Book for Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized, Controlled Trial,” Annals of Internal Medicine 143 (2005): 849–56; K. A. Williams, et al., “Effect of Iyengar Yoga Therapy for Chronic Low Back Pain,” Pain 115 (2005): 107–17; R. B. Saper, et al., “Yoga for Chronic Low Back Pain in a Predominantly Minority Population: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial,” Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine 15 (2009): 18–27; J. W. Carson, et al., “Yoga for Women with Metastatic Breast Cancer: Results from a Pilot Study,” Journal of Pain and Symptom Management 33 (2007): 331–41.” [SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 8178-8186). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
“Mainstream Western psychiatric and psychological healing traditions have paid scant attention to self-management. In contrast to the Western reliance on drugs and verbal therapies, other traditions from around the world rely on mindfulness, movement, rhythms, and action. Yoga in India, tai chi and qigong in China, and rhythmical drumming throughout Africa are just a few examples. The cultures of Japan and the Korean peninsula have spawned martial arts, which focus on the cultivation of purposeful movement and being centered in the present, abilities that are damaged in traumatized individuals. Aikido, judo, tae kwon do, kendo, and jujitsu, as well as capoeira from Brazil, are examples. These techniques all involve physical movement, breathing, and meditation.” [SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 3893-3898). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
“Effects of a weekly yoga class. After twenty weeks, chronically traumatized women developed increased activation of critical brain structures involved in self-regulation: the insula and the medial prefrontal cortex.” [SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 5179- 5181). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
“At least half of all traumatized people try to dull their intolerable inner world with drugs or alcohol. The flip side of numbing is sensation seeking. Many people cut themselves to make the numbing go away, while others try bungee jumping or high-risk activities like prostitution and gambling. Any of these methods can give them a false and paradoxical feeling of control. When people are chronically angry or scared, constant muscle tension ultimately leads to spasms, back pain, migraine headaches, fibromyalgia, and other forms of chronic pain. They may visit multiple specialists, undergo extensive diagnostic tests, and be prescribed multiple medications, some of which may provide temporary relief but all of which fail to address the underlying issues. Their diagnosis will come to define their reality without ever being identified as a symptom of their attempt to cope with trauma.... Patients like [these] continuously challenge us to find new ways of helping people regulate their arousal and control their own physiology. That is how my Trauma Center colleagues and I stumbled upon yoga...Our involvement with yoga started in 1998 when Jim Hopper and I first heard about a new biological marker, heart rate variability (HRV), that had recently been discovered to be a good measure of how well the autonomic nervous system is working... Heart rate variability measures the relative balance between the sympathetic and the parasympathetic systems... In healthy individuals inhalations and exhalations produce steady, rhythmical fluctuations in heart rate: Good heart rate variability is a measure of basic well-being.... Since the autonomic nervous system organizes arousal in both body and brain, poor HRV—that is, a lack of fluctuation in heart rate in response to breathing—not only has negative effects on thinking and feeling but also on how the body responds to stress. Lack of coherence between breathing and heart rate makes people vulnerable to a variety of physical illnesses, such as heart disease and cancer, in addition to mental problems such as depression and PTSD.2 ....[O]ur interest in yoga gradually evolved from a focus on learning whether yoga can change HRV (which it can)11 to helping traumatized people learn to comfortably inhabit their tortured bodies.” [SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 5096-5098). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
o FN 2: “M. Sack, J. W. Hopper, and F. Lamprecht, “Low Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia and Prolonged Psychophysiological Arousal in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Heart Rate Dynamics and Individual Differences in Arousal Regulation,” Biological Psychiatry 55, no. 3 (2004): 284–90. See also H. Cohen, et al., “Analysis of Heart Rate Variability in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Patients in Response to a Trauma- Related Reminder,” Biological Psychiatry 44, no. 10 (1998): 1054–59; H. Cohen, et al., “Long-Lasting Behavioral Effects of Juvenile Trauma in an Animal Model of PTSD Associated with a Failure of the Autonomic Nervous System to Recover,” European Neuropsychopharmacology 17, no. 6 (2007): 464–77; and H. Wahbeh and B. S. Oken, “Peak High-Frequency HRV and Peak Alpha Frequency Higher in PTSD,” Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback 38, no. 1 (2013): 57–69.” [SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 5013-5042). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
o FN 11: “B. A. van der Kolk, “Clinical Implications of Neuroscience Research in PTSD,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1071, no. 1 (2006): 277–93. [SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 8192-8194). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
A copy of our IRS 501(c)(3) approval is included below:
1) Holistic drug-free pain management (based upon realigning the body with positional release work, yoga therapy and other methods created by one of H.E.A.R.T.’s founders, Emily Sabo (hereinafter “Sabo” or a “Founder”) and implemented at her Yoga, Pilates, Aerial Arts and Pain Management studio, EKS Beachside Bodywork. Sabo’s unique methods are further described on her website www.eksbeachsidebodywork.com);
2) Yoga, Pilates and meditation training for overall health, wellness and stress management, including, without limitation, to increase bone-density, lessen adrenal fatigue and other forms of stress-related illnesses and health issues and also to yield other and further health benefits as described on Sabo’s aforementioned website (www.eksbeachsidebodywork.com) and as further described at www.bikramyogami.com , the website of another of H.E.A.R.T.’s founder’s, Suzanne Elliott—a coach for national and international yoga competitions, a proponent of yoga in schools, youth programs, sports programs, and otherwise bringing yoga and related modalities of movement for lifelong health into more mainstream venues and practices in western culture. Elliott’s business nurtures competitive yoga athletes from childhood into their 90s, providing them with an arena to learn with others and forward their individual and personal yoga practices with the support of other athletes, willing to go out on a limb and showcase their skills on a stage in front of friends, family and other inspired observers;
3) Performing arts programs and training, including, without limitation, aerial arts, dance, theatre, rhythmic gymnastics and other movement and non-movement based performing arts, such as those show-cased on the website of another of H.E.A.R.T.’s founders, Jennifer Drabik-Pierce, at www.orlandoaerialarts.com . Pierce is also Artistic Director and owner of Orlando Aerial Arts and Suspended Artistry and has vast experience, knowledge and training in the performing arts and brings that knowledge to the Non-Profit’s envisioned Programs and Non-Profit Projects. Pierce also has an encouraging, highly specific yet patient teaching style, fostering self-confidence, increased self-esteem and other overall positive life changes important to enriching Non-Profit Projects and Programs; such Programs in the performing arts may include, by way of example and without limitation:
o The creation of engaging shows to be presented at schools, community events, and other non-profit functions, fostering creativity, collaboration and communication for the performers involved in these productions;
o Programs to increase the public’s understanding and appreciation of the importance and value of the disciplines of circus arts, dance, and the contribution of these disciplines to the welfare of society as a whole, and the sponsorship and initiation of activities and research related to the aforementioned goals;
oEvents to bring together educators, guest presenters, and incorporating round table discussions, networking sessions, and performances with other regional, state, and national non-profit and profit organizations to teach, perform, create, advocate, evaluate, and support growth in the aerial dance /circus arts community; and
oThe creation of scholarships, grants or other sponsorships in furtherance of training for circus artists, aerial dancers and other performers who have achieved a high level of artistry, leadership, and academic success.
4) Psychotherapeutic modalities or other forms of therapy, which provide healing tools for people to develop psychological wellness and find their core qualities including creativity, calm, compassion, empowerment and strength, such as those forms of therapy as are employed by another of H.E.A.R.T.’s co-founders, Dr. Judith Siegler. Dr. Siegler specializes in trauma resolution and believes that, when provided with a safe and skilled environment, clients can heal past wounds and find self- leadership. To learn more about Dr. Siegler’s practice, visit the website of Center for Relationships and Trauma Resolution, www.crtr307.com . Dr. Siegler has found that the Internal Family Systems Model (hereinafter, “IFS”) developed by IFS founder Dr. Richard Schwartz is the most effective psychotherapeutic approach in trauma resolution, especially when combined with yoga and some of the other disciplines and modalities H.E.A.R.T. will promote and provide through its Non-Profit Projects and Programs. For example, Dr. Siegler has referred countless clients over the course of many years to Co-Founder Sabo (see first bullet point) for her brand of pain management and/or yoga therapy to be used in conjunction with Dr. Siegler’s therapy, which has proven to be a very effective collaboration of efforts. To learn more about IFS, visit the official IFS website at www.selfleadership.org, and to learn more about trauma in general and to find research supporting the role of, not only IFS, but also yoga and other modalities that H.E.A.R.T. may promote or provide for resolving trauma, Dr. Siegler recommends reading Bessel Van Der Kolk’s book entitled The Body Keeps the Score;
5) Capoeira training, enrichment and performance Programs. Capoeira is a Brazilian Martial Art, incorporating a rich heritage and culture, as well as beautiful acrobatics, dance, hand- made musical instruments and a very unique fighting style that was preserved by an enslaved people who transformed it into a dance and preserved it as a “game” still played today between two Capoeira practitioners (sometimes referred to as “Capoeiristas”) in a circle of other encouraging and on-looking Capoeiristas, providing music with their hands, hand-made instruments and chant-like songs and rhythms to which the beautiful, rhythmic, sometimes swift and acrobatic, and sometimes slow and graceful, “game” is played in the center of the circle. This form of training builds emotional and physical strength, lessens social anxiety, promotes communication and focus, creates responsible and respectful children and adults, creates a sense of community and belonging and has many other benefits all as further described and supported by the scientific research sited below in this section under the heading “Research supporting H.E.A.R.T.’s mission.” The Non-Profit’s own co-founder Renzo Souffrain, runs a very tight-knit family of Capoeiristas at his Capoeira Karkara in Florida, and believes strongly in the transforming nature of this tradition, practice and game, which has the potential to refocus, center and re-purpose the heart and soul of any person, young or old, willing to learn and looking to overcome obstacles of all shapes and sizes as well as deepen relationships and connections in his or her life. Because of its importance to Brazilian culture and tradition, in
2014, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (French: Organisation des Nations unies pour l'éducation, la
Florida Non Profit Articles of Incorporation science et la culture)—a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) based in Paris— granted Capoeira a special protected status as an "intangible cultural heritage" (see the UNESCO maintained website, unesco.org, specifically at http://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/?page=6&pg=13&sj=Intangible+heritage ; and see BBC News article reporting the intangible cultural heritage designation on November 26, 2014 at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-30219941 ). According to UNESCO, an “intangible cultural heritage” includes “traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, arts, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe...”. (See the UNESCO maintained website, unesco.org, specifically at http://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/?page=6&pg=13&sj=Intangible+heritage) Capoeira qualifies for this status because it is “an Afro-Brazilian cultural practice, simultaneously a fight and a dance, that promotes mutual respect and social cohesion....” (See the UNESCO maintained website, unesco.org, specifically at http://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/?pg=33&s=films_details&id=3696 ).
In summary, it is the goal and the intended work of the Non-Profit to help Non-Profit Beneficiaries grow and showcase new skills of all kinds and increase their mental and physical health and wellness by creating Non-Profit Projects or Programs, including, without limitation and, solely by way of example the following: hosting national youth and adult yoga competitions; creating programs in dance, aerial arts and other performance-based practices and training allowing aspiring performers young and old to better express themselves and realize their full artistic and physical potential; encouraging the adoption by schools of yoga for wellness, as a sport, or otherwise; creating therapy programs, incorporating trauma resolution, yoga, performance arts and/or the practice of capoeira and similar martial arts and musical training in programs combining the making and playing of instruments, appreciation for historic civilizations and comradery in training in groups each supporting the other in his or her training and development; and other similar programs for adults and youth alike. Intended Non-Profit Beneficiaries to benefit from these Programs include, without limitation, war veterans, victims of abuse and other sufferers of PTSD, trauma, bullying, low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, self-harm, eating disorders, drug abuse, suicide, suicidal ideation, hopelessness, loneliness, family conflicts, relationship conflicts, school age children in need of positive after school activities, which form beneficial life-long habits and more. By using the multi-disciplinary approach herein described, the Non-Profit has the potential to address some of the most critical epidemics in our communities. The Founders of this Non-Profit see no limit to the benefits the Non-Profit may provide through a wide variety of multi-faceted Non-Profit Projects.
Research supporting H.E.A.R.T.’s mission:
• “Athletics, playing music, dancing, and theatrical performances all promote agency and community. They also engage kids in novel challenges and unaccustomed roles...Several of my students run an after-school program in Brazilian capoeira in a high-crime area of Boston, and my colleagues at the Trauma Center continue the Trauma Drama program....The intense communal efforts force kids to collaborate, compromise, and stay focused on the task at hand....Our NCTSN [National Child Traumatic Stress Network, established by an act of Congress in 2001] programs are working: Kids become less anxious and emotionally reactive and are less aggressive or withdrawn; they get along better and their school performance improves; their attention deficit, hyperactivity and ‘oppositional defiant’ problems decrease; and parents report that their children are sleeping better. Terrible things still happen to them and around them, but they are now able to talk about these events; they have built up the trust and resources to seek the help they need. Interventions are successful if they draw on our natural wellsprings of cooperation and on our inborn responses to safety, reciprocity, and imagination.” [SOURCE: Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D., The Body Keeps the Score, Viking / The Penguin Group, copyright 2014, p. 355- 356]
“Children and adults alike need to experience how rewarding it is to work at the edge of their abilities. Resilience is the product of agency: knowing that what you do can make a difference.” Id.
“[S]cientific methods have confirmed that changing the way one breathes can improve problems with anger, depression, and anxiety5 and that yoga can positively affect such wide-ranging medical problems as high blood pressure, elevated stress hormone secretion,6 asthma, and low-back pain.7” [SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 5069-5072). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
o FN5&6:
§ [5] “P. Lehrer, Y. Sasaki, and Y. Saito, “Zazen and Cardiac Variability,”
Psychosomatic Medicine 61, no. 6 (1999): 812–21. See also R. Sovik, “The Science of Breathing: The Yogic View,” Progress in Brain Research 122 (1999): 491–505; P. Philippot, G. Chapelle, and S. Blairy, “Respiratory Feedback in the Generation of Emotion,” Cognition & Emotion 16, no. 5 (2002): 605–27; A. Michalsen, et al., “Rapid Stress Reduction and Anxiolysis Among Distressed Women as a Consequence of a Three-Month Intensive Yoga Program,” Medcal Science Monitor 11, no. 12 (2005): 555–61; G. Kirkwood, et al., “Yoga for Anxiety: A Systematic Review of the Research Evidence,” British Journal of Sports Medicine 39 (2005): 884–91; K. Pilkington, et al., “Yoga for Depression: The Research Evidence,” Journal of Affective Disorders 89 (2005): 13–24; and P. Gerbarg and R. Brown, “Yoga: A Breath of Relief for Hurricane Katrina Refugees,” Current Psychiatry 4 (2005): 55–67. [Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 8157-8158). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
§ [6] B. Cuthbert, et al., “Strategies of Arousal Control: Biofeedback, Meditation, and Motivation,” Journal of Experimental Psychology 110 (1981): 518–46. See also S. B. S. Khalsa, “Yoga as a Therapeutic Intervention: A Bibliometric Analysis of Published Research Studies,” Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology 48 (2004): 269–85; M. M. Delmonte, “Meditation as a Clinical Intervention Strategy: A Brief Review,” International Journal of Psychosomatics 33 (1986): 9–12; I. Becker, “Uses of Yoga in Psychiatry and Medicine,” in Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Psychiatry, vol. 19, ed. P. R. Muskin (Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, 2008); L. Bernardi, et al., “Slow Breathing Reduces Chemoreflex Response to Hypoxia and Hypercapnia, and Increases Baroreflex Sensitivity,” Journal of Hypertension 19, no. 12 (2001): 2221–29; R. P. Brown and P. L. Gerbarg, “Sudarshan Kriya Yogic Breathing in the Treatment of Stress, Anxiety, and Depression: Part I: Neurophysiologic Model,” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 11 (2005): 189–201; R. P. Brown and P. L. Gerbarg, “Sudarshan Kriya Yogic Breathing in the Treatment of Stress, Anxiety, and Depression: Part II: Clinical Applications and Guidelines,” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 11 (2005): 711–17; C. C. Streeter, et al., “Yoga Asana Sessions Increase Brain GABA Levels: A Pilot Study,” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 13 (2007): 419–26; and C. C. Streeter, et al., “Effects of Yoga Versus Walking on Mood, Anxiety, and Brain GABA Levels: A Randomized Controlled MRS Study,” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 16 (2010): 1145–52. [Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 8174-8178). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
• “There are thousands of art, music, and dance therapists who do beautiful work with abused children, soldiers suffering from PTSD, incest victims, refugees, and torture survivors, and numerous accounts attest to the effectiveness of expressive therapies. 18 ” [SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 4567-4569). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
o [FN 18: D. A. Harris, “Dance/Movement Therapy Approaches to Fostering Resilience and Recovery Among African Adolescent Torture Survivors,” Torture 17, no. 2 (2007): 134–55; M. Bensimon, D. Amir, and Y. Wolf, “Drumming Through Trauma: Music Therapy with Post-traumatic Soldiers,” Arts in Psychotherapy 35, no. 1 (2008): 34–48; M. Weltman, “Movement Therapy with Children Who Have Been Sexually Abused,” American Journal of Dance Therapy 9, no. 1 (1986): 47–66; H. Englund, “Death, Trauma and Ritual: Mozambican Refugees in Malawi,” Social Science & Medicine 46, no. 9 (1998): 1165–74; H. Tefferi, Building on Traditional Strengths: The Unaccompanied Refugee Children from South Sudan (1996); D. Tolfree, Restoring Playfulness: Different Approaches to Assisting Children Who Are Psychologically Affected by War or Displacement (Stockholm: Rädda Barnen, 1996), 158–73; N. Boothby, “Mobilizing Communities to Meet the Psychosocial Needs of Children in War and Refugee Crises,” in Minefields in Their Hearts: The Mental Health of Children in War and Communal Violence, ed. R. Apfel and B. Simon (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996), 149–64; S. Sandel, S. Chaiklin, and A. Lohn, Foundations of Dance/Movement Therapy: The Life and Work of Marian Chace (Columbia, MD: American Dance Therapy Association, 1993); K. Callaghan, “Movement Psychotherapy with Adult Survivors of Political Torture and Organized Violence,” Arts in Psychotherapy 20, no. 5 (1993): 411–21; A. E. L. Gray, “The Body Remembers: Dance Movement Therapy with an Adult Survivor of Torture,” American Journal of Dance Therapy 23, no. 1 (2001): 29–43. ] (SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 8029-8034). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.)
“The capacity of art, music, and dance to circumvent the speechlessness that comes with terror may be one reason they are used as trauma treatments in cultures around the world.” [SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 4571-4573). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
“There are dozens of scientific articles showing the positive effect of yoga for various medical conditions. The following is a small sample: S. B. Khalsa, “Yoga as a Therapeutic Intervention”; P. Grossman, et al., “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Health Benefits: A Meta-Analysis,” Journal of Psychosomatic Research 57 (2004): 35–43; K. Sherman, et al., “Comparing Yoga, Exercise, and a Self-Care Book for Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized, Controlled Trial,” Annals of Internal Medicine 143 (2005): 849–56; K. A. Williams, et al., “Effect of Iyengar Yoga Therapy for Chronic Low Back Pain,” Pain 115 (2005): 107–17; R. B. Saper, et al., “Yoga for Chronic Low Back Pain in a Predominantly Minority Population: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial,” Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine 15 (2009): 18–27; J. W. Carson, et al., “Yoga for Women with Metastatic Breast Cancer: Results from a Pilot Study,” Journal of Pain and Symptom Management 33 (2007): 331–41.” [SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 8178-8186). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
“Mainstream Western psychiatric and psychological healing traditions have paid scant attention to self-management. In contrast to the Western reliance on drugs and verbal therapies, other traditions from around the world rely on mindfulness, movement, rhythms, and action. Yoga in India, tai chi and qigong in China, and rhythmical drumming throughout Africa are just a few examples. The cultures of Japan and the Korean peninsula have spawned martial arts, which focus on the cultivation of purposeful movement and being centered in the present, abilities that are damaged in traumatized individuals. Aikido, judo, tae kwon do, kendo, and jujitsu, as well as capoeira from Brazil, are examples. These techniques all involve physical movement, breathing, and meditation.” [SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 3893-3898). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
“Effects of a weekly yoga class. After twenty weeks, chronically traumatized women developed increased activation of critical brain structures involved in self-regulation: the insula and the medial prefrontal cortex.” [SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 5179- 5181). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
“At least half of all traumatized people try to dull their intolerable inner world with drugs or alcohol. The flip side of numbing is sensation seeking. Many people cut themselves to make the numbing go away, while others try bungee jumping or high-risk activities like prostitution and gambling. Any of these methods can give them a false and paradoxical feeling of control. When people are chronically angry or scared, constant muscle tension ultimately leads to spasms, back pain, migraine headaches, fibromyalgia, and other forms of chronic pain. They may visit multiple specialists, undergo extensive diagnostic tests, and be prescribed multiple medications, some of which may provide temporary relief but all of which fail to address the underlying issues. Their diagnosis will come to define their reality without ever being identified as a symptom of their attempt to cope with trauma.... Patients like [these] continuously challenge us to find new ways of helping people regulate their arousal and control their own physiology. That is how my Trauma Center colleagues and I stumbled upon yoga...Our involvement with yoga started in 1998 when Jim Hopper and I first heard about a new biological marker, heart rate variability (HRV), that had recently been discovered to be a good measure of how well the autonomic nervous system is working... Heart rate variability measures the relative balance between the sympathetic and the parasympathetic systems... In healthy individuals inhalations and exhalations produce steady, rhythmical fluctuations in heart rate: Good heart rate variability is a measure of basic well-being.... Since the autonomic nervous system organizes arousal in both body and brain, poor HRV—that is, a lack of fluctuation in heart rate in response to breathing—not only has negative effects on thinking and feeling but also on how the body responds to stress. Lack of coherence between breathing and heart rate makes people vulnerable to a variety of physical illnesses, such as heart disease and cancer, in addition to mental problems such as depression and PTSD.2 ....[O]ur interest in yoga gradually evolved from a focus on learning whether yoga can change HRV (which it can)11 to helping traumatized people learn to comfortably inhabit their tortured bodies.” [SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 5096-5098). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
o FN 2: “M. Sack, J. W. Hopper, and F. Lamprecht, “Low Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia and Prolonged Psychophysiological Arousal in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Heart Rate Dynamics and Individual Differences in Arousal Regulation,” Biological Psychiatry 55, no. 3 (2004): 284–90. See also H. Cohen, et al., “Analysis of Heart Rate Variability in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Patients in Response to a Trauma- Related Reminder,” Biological Psychiatry 44, no. 10 (1998): 1054–59; H. Cohen, et al., “Long-Lasting Behavioral Effects of Juvenile Trauma in an Animal Model of PTSD Associated with a Failure of the Autonomic Nervous System to Recover,” European Neuropsychopharmacology 17, no. 6 (2007): 464–77; and H. Wahbeh and B. S. Oken, “Peak High-Frequency HRV and Peak Alpha Frequency Higher in PTSD,” Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback 38, no. 1 (2013): 57–69.” [SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 5013-5042). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
o FN 11: “B. A. van der Kolk, “Clinical Implications of Neuroscience Research in PTSD,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1071, no. 1 (2006): 277–93. [SOURCE: Kolk MD, Bessel van der. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Kindle Locations 8192-8194). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
A copy of our IRS 501(c)(3) approval is included below:
Organizer
Emily Sabo
Organizer
Indialantic, FL
