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Dates
Friday 05/16/2025 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Saturday 05/17/2025 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Saturday 05/17/2025 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Sunday 05/18/2025 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Sunday 05/18/2025 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Pricing
$200.00 Gut Health and Yoga with Christina Unger - full weekend
$30.00 Gut Health and Yoga with Christina Unger - Friday night
$50.00 Gut Health and Yoga with Christina Unger - Saturday morning
$50.00 Gut Health and Yoga with Christina Unger - Saturday afternoon
$50.00 Gut Health and Yoga with Christina Unger - Sunday morning
$50.00 Gut Health and Yoga with Christina Unger - Sunday afternoon

Price: $200 full weekend/$50 per session/$30 Friday night only

Digestion is how we break down food to produce nutrients for energy, growth, and cell repair. We know that emotions have physical effects on the body. Our very language reflects the connection between physiology and emotion… “butterflies in the stomach,” “love-starved,” and “gnawing hunger.” Many digestive diseases, especially diseases of gut-brain interaction (DGBIs), have a component of miscommunication between the gut and the brain. When something disrupts the communication between the brain and the gut, the brain may misinterpret normal signals. This miscommunication can cause the body to become hypersensitive to stimuli detected by nerves in the gut, causing pain, a state of hypervigilance, catastrophizing of symptoms, anxiety, depression, and sympathetic stimulation that, in the long term, is harmful and causes physical changes in the body.

A well-designed Hatha yoga class offers movement, breathing, meditation, and relaxation. With practice, yoga can help to regulate the autonomic nervous system, decrease stress and anxiety, improve vagal tone, and promote circulation to the gut. Yoga helps individuals distinguish sensations and experiences from their thoughts and emotions about these experiences, strengthening the attention centers in the cerebral cortex while decreasing activity in the amygdala, a part of the limbic system associated with fear and anxiety. Yoga can help strengthen and balance the physical body and simultaneously help change negative patterns of thought and behavior. Spiritually, yoga helps us develop intimacy with ourselves and connect better with others.

In this workshop, we explore the effects of stress on the GI tract, describe DGBIs and how they show up in individuals, recognize the benefits of yoga for treating DGBIs, and explore how the asanas, breathing, and meditation can restore balance in the gut and brain. 

This workshop is designed to give you an understanding of the intimate connection between the gut and brain and to provide you with some yogic tools to help foster a healthy gut-brain relationship. Friday night will be a Yoga practice focused on digestive health. Saturday and Sunday will consist of discussion on digestive health AND yoga practices to foster healthy digestion.

FRIDAY 6-8 pm: Friday Night Smooth Moves to Soothe the Irritated Gut!

Join Christina for a yoga practice that focuses on yoga postures, breathing, and meditation to promote digestive health. This practice will explore multiple yogic modalities to nurture and improve communication between the gut and brain.

SATURDAY 10 am - 1 pm: Mind Your Gut

What are the disorders of the Gut-Brain Connection (DGBIs), and how do the

gut and brain communicate?

Takeaways:

~Recognize that many disorders fall under the umbrella of DGBIs.

~Know that DGBIs are very common, with 40% of people worldwide having some form of DGBI.

~Understand that the current model to understand the development and pathophysiology of DGBIs is a biopsychosocial model and that yoga has positive effects in all these realms.

SATURDAY 2-5 pm: Gut Feelings

Stress plays a role in the pathophysiology of DGBIs. Learn why yoga

is therapeutic in modifying the stress response and bringing the gut and brain into

balance.

Takeaways:

~Understand the enteric nervous system’s (ENS) role in regulating digestion.

~Understand the effects of stress on the digestive tract.

~Develop an appreciation and understanding of how the 8-limbed path of yoga can be therapeutic in those with DGBIs.

SUNDAY 10 am - 1 pm: The Microbiome: Our Body, Ourselves, Our Bugs

A look at the role of the microbiome in digestive health and the role of food as medicine.

Takeaways:

~Recognize the role the gut microbiota have in regulating the vagus nerve and learn some techniques to stimulate the vagus nerve.

~Understand why dysbiosis is associated with disorders of the gut and brain.

~Understand that yoga and diet are important factors in maintaining a healthy microbiome.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON 2-5 pm: Bliss for the Belly

Looking at the benefits of Yoga for those with digestive issues through the lens of the koshas.

Takeaways:

~Consider using the Pancha Maya Kosha Model as an approach as therapy for Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction.

~Understand how conflicts that have their origin in the manomaya kosha can lead to the development of disease.

~Describe yoga practices that help to balance the koshas and restore the body and mind to balance.

Christina Unger

Christina began her journey into the world of yoga over 15 years ago and although she expected it to impact her external body, she never realized how it would put her in touch with her heart and spirit. She believes that  the philosophy of yoga was a part of her all along.

Yoga balances the analytic and artistic sides of Christina. She worked as a Nurse Practitioner in Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases for 13 years,  and her love for science is balanced by her passion for nature, art, and dance. Her yoga practice is inspired by her training in ballet and the multiple styles of yoga she has studied over the years, as well as her experiences as a Nurse Practitioner. She also finds inspiration for her classes by being outside in nature. 

Her wish is to use her experience and knowledge to guide students toward optimal wellness through gaining awareness of body, mind, and spirit.

When not at yoga, Christina gravitates to the water  with her love, Christopher, where she finds peace and a sense of wonder. She also enjoys being outside on her bike or playing tennis. She loves spending time with her family.

Over the years she has been inspired and taught by many  talented teachers. She completed her 200 hour training at Easton Yoga with Alicia Rambo Wozniak.  She has attended workshops with Sean Johnson,  Max Strom, Jamie Elmer, Elena Bower, Jason Crandall,  Sean Corne, Jurian Hughes, Natasha Rizoupoulis, and David Swenson. She extends gratitude to all her teachers.

“I continue to go with the flow… who knows where the current will carry me?”