About Diamond Pathways

Mickie Diamond

After several years of working in parallel careers as a social worker and a yoga teacher, I decided to integrate my practice by combining both disciplines. I found that when appropriate, offering techniques such as breathing exercises, imagery, meditation, and gentle yoga poses, traditional approaches to psychotherapy can be enhanced by offering clients a non verbal dimension to access feelings as well as find comfort in their lives.

I believe that each person has something special to share with the world as well as to discover within themselves. My ultimate goal as a therapist is to help clients overcome barriers that prevent them from obtaining important components they feel are missing from their lives. I have observed that when people overcome long-term obstacles, they gain a sense of empowerment and begin to take advantage of a new set of options.

Mickie is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a Registered Yoga Teacher. She obtained her Master’s Degree from George Warren Brown School of Social Work in St. Louis in 1999. Mickie has been working as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker since that time and received her Certification as a Cognitive Behavioral Therapist in 2009. She is currently working with a research team at Western Psychiatric Institute dealing with issues related to depression. Mickie has served as a Stress Management Specialist and Group Support Facilitator for the Dean Ornish Program for heart disease reversal for Jefferson Hospital for seven years.

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Yoga Training

Mickie is a Registered Yoga Teacher and a Certified LifeForce Yoga Practitioner

Mickie began practicing yoga when she was 17 and was present at the opening of one of the first Western Schools of Yoga, The Integral Yoga Institute on 14th Street in New York City. She fell in love with yoga and was influenced by the gentle and loving approach of Swami Satchidananda. When working at the Sivananda Vendanta Center in Canada, she observed a 91 year old woman standing on her head and had to admit to herself that this woman was in better shape than she was. At that point she made a commitment that yoga would always be part of her life.

As Mickie developed her Social Work career she was mindful of the practical applications of yoga when it came to enhancing the mental, physical, and spiritual health of individuals. In 2000 she was able to realize a dream when she studied with Joseph Lepage, the founder of Integrated Yoga Therapy and received her Registered Yoga Teacher certification. Mickie has received additional training with Certified Inyengar Instructor Sara Azarius of Yoga on Centre. She trained with Sonia Sumar, Yoga for the Special Child, as well as Amy Weintraub, Yoga for Depression, where she received her LifeForce Yoga Certification. With the goal of studying with other psychodynamically oriented yoga practitioners, Mickie has become certified in the technique of Yoga Nidra studying with Richard Miller, Ph.D., founder of irest. The technique of Yoga Nidra as well as Lifeforce Yoga offers students the opportunity to deal with anxiety, depression, and stress management by using breathing exercises, visualizations, yoga postures, vibrational chants, and deep yoga meditation.

Mickie feels blessed to be able to work with clients and to be able to share the wonderful tools she has accumulated over the years as both a yoga teacher and a therapist.