Abbie / Britton M.A.

I am Abbie Britton — M.A. / E-RYT 500

I am Britton Rx

Abbie Britton is that rare healer and yoga therapist who is expertly trained in both the allopathic and alternative medicine fields. The combination of her high credentials, deep intuition, scientific approach and 40 year experience fixing bodies on every level, are what set her apart. She is a clinical practitioner who is comfortable and happy working with the traditional medical arena, and in the more authentically esoteric realms. She is an expert in three categories: Bodywork, physical training, trauma & substance abuse recovery. She sets herself apart in her ability to generate diagnostics, provide profound treatment and oversee ongoing program management. Her areas of focus in her healing practices and training sessions are: Chronic pain, Trauma, Sports Injury and Substance Abuse Disorders. Her approach to her patients is threefold: Awareness, alignment and action. A complete team player, she believes in referrals and inspiration from other practitioners.

Credentials and Teachers

Britton has impeccable credentials and training. She’s been shaped, taught and mentored by the greats: Dr. Larry Payne, creator of the prestigious Loyola Marymount University Yoga Therapy program; Dr. Ananda Baliyoga Bhavanani, International Center for Yoga Therapy and Research, Mahatma Gandhi Hospital in Pondicherry, India; Dr. Ganesh Rao, Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute and Research Center, Lonvala, India; Dr. Swamy Venturupalli, Director, The Attune Clinic for Autoimmune Research and Development out of Los Angeles’ Cedar’s Sinai Hospital.

She received her Master’s Degree and a special Yoga Therapy Certificate through the uniquely scientific and philosophically based Yoga Studies Program at Loyola Marymount University in California under the directorship of Dr. Christopher Chapple. Additionally she is a Sanskrit scholar under the professorship of Dr. Urmila Patil during the post graduate program. She is also a Latin scholar as a result of her Bachelor’s degree from Barnard College, Columbia University in New York City. Her Master’s Thesis, written, executed and researched at Loyola Marymount University, is entitled: Ancient Science, Modern Recovery (see downloaded PDF).

Yoga Therapy

Yogic therapy goes way beyond physical therapy. It addresses the whole life including current and past circumstances as they expose themselves in somato-psychic anomalies. It is about transformation of and through injury and dis-ease, not just change in tissue. While physical therapy treats and rehabs the point of injury to change an area of the body to a healed state; Yoga Therapy digs into all the systems affected by circumstance(s) to engage the whole being and promote optimization. Her population includes but is not limited to NFL, NBA, professional dancers, endurance athletes, high powered executives and actors in the entertainment field and a variety of human beings at varying life stages including both families and individuals. Impeccable confidentiality is a given.

History

Britton began her career as a dancer and studying dancers at Bennington College in Vermont at the age of 18. After two years she returned to her home in New York City and studied under Romana Kryzanowksa, Joseph Pilates’ disciple and director of The Pilates Studio. Pilates at that time was a therapeutic system called Crontology, particularly used by dancers from the Martha Graham and George Balanchine schools. Britton also studied at the Fokine School of Ballet and at the Martha Graham school under master instructor Tim Wengerd. This experience brought her to the revelation that she did not want to be a dancer, she wanted to heal them.

At the age of 25 she graduated Cum Laude from Barnard College, Columbia University, with a bachelor’s degree in dual disciplines of Art History and Women’s Literature. Upon graduating she became a much-accomplished journalist for both newspapers (WWD/W) and magazines (Self, Harper’s Bazaar, Mirabella, Mademoiselle, Mode). She was awarded benchmark magazine of the year for her Creative and Editorial Direction for both Mode and Code Magazines. During 25 years as a high-powered journalist she had the opportunity to interview and absorb teachings from a variety of fitness and body intellects and experts all over the country and she began developing and practicing Britton Rx, her signature system of total body movement and treatment. Alongside her work as a journalist she became a fitness professional working with both groups and individuals one on one. (She was a single mother of two feisty boys and needed three jobs).

She is an athlete at heart and was an accomplished horse trainer, endurance runner, speed skater and obstacle runner. An athlete who treats athletes has recognition, compassion and know-how. As such her work with athletes (professional and amateur) comes from insider experience in gait analysis, movement potential, breath support and mental preparations. Her yogic studies and practice in the Anusara (alignment and heart themed) and Yin (therapeutic) traditions provided her with a clear language and application for Britton Rx. Her teachers, Anthony Benenati and Tara Judelle guided her to a wealth of knowledge in yoga’s scientific healing, movement and philosophical approaches. Britton is one of only a few masters in Yin Yoga, a therapeutic tradition which uses long-held, floor-based postures and breath control to expand space around the joints, tendons and ligaments to realign the entirety of bodily systems. She has studied extensively in the Gitananda Lineage of Yoga Therapy. Britton’s meditation apprenticeship was under Princeton University’s Dr. Les Fehmi, creator of the Open Focus Meditation technique. Britton is a regular practitioner and teacher of meditation and pranayama (breath restraints) in all its forms.

During her post graduate work at Loyola Marymount University, she studied at the world class Kaivalyadhama Yoga Research Clinic, Mahatma Gandhi Hospital and the Ananda Ashram in India. Her work there was an immersion in all aspects of yogic practices and how to apply them to enhance the treatment of a number of dis-eases: Cancer, diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, and the modern-day mystery diseases of autoimmune and inflammation. The draw for her was to treat conditions, as Dr. Bhavanani taught her, from the point of view of “solutogenesis” as opposed to “pathogenesis.” All Britton Rx modalities include some combination yogic methods of: Pranayama (breath), Asana (therapeutic movement), Mudra (postural seals) Mantra (chant) and Nada (sound).

Britton is the highest level of yoga instructor E-RYT 500, a teacher’s teacher, which requires over 500 hours of training and 3,000 hours of public teaching. She is also a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists.

11th Step Yoga

At the age of 22, struggling with addiction and trauma, Britton became clean and sober. Her 43 years of recovery combined with her yogic, fitness training and bodywork expertise, lead her 15 years ago to the creation of 11th Step Yoga (11SY). This was and is the first-ever and only addiction recovery meeting with a yogic format sanctioned by Alcoholics Anonymous. She developed a series of postures, breath and meditation techniques which address serotonin and dopamine depletion, central nervous system disorders and detoxification at the heart of recovery from Substance Abuse Disorder and its origin, Trauma.

Each 90-minute 11SY session interweaves a recovery theme from the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. She defines trauma per Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk—a situation in which you cannot help yourself nor ask for help. This includes the devastation of free fall addiction. 11SY is a volunteer program which has run on ground (now successfully through teleconference) for 15 years. During this time Britton has created a handbook and trained multiple teachers in recovery to develop their own groups. 11SY is donation only—pay what you can or free to anyone who needs it. It is available to individuals in recovery, the recovery curious and their families and addresses any substance from food to sex to drugs to obsessive compulsive thoughts. It calms cravings and impulses and provides in depth, ongoing relief skills. The central directive of 11SY is to address mind/brain dis-ease nexus through the tissues of the body and its processes. The goal is to inspire each student to practice unity, recovery and service in all aspects of their lives.

Britton believes that it is through an expert community that whole healing happens. Thus, she engages a close group of experts, doctors and practitioners in nutrition, psychiatry, allopathic medicine and orthopedics. She provides referrals in all these areas to her patients and students.

Family

Britton is the daughter of Academy Award winning actress, Estelle Parsons. She is also the mother of retired NFL Offensive Line starter Eben Britton (Jacksonville Jaguars and Chicago Bears) and Augustus Britton, screen writer and novelist. She resides in both California and Geneva, Switzerland.

References upon request.