The Avielle Foundation's Brainstorm Experience will host internationally known yoga teachers, Ray Crist, Kathryn Templeton, Tao Porchon Lynch, and David Schouela, as well as trauma specialist Dr Bessel van der Kolk, as headliners in the sixth annual Newtown Yoga Festival.

The Brainstorm Experience is a year-long series bringing the community together in a stimulating and engaging environment in which learning, connection, and inspiration can provoke imagination as well as enhance understanding of the brain. These experiences will bring a diverse group of thoughtful leaders, advocates, and celebrities from across society to Newtown to offer unique perspectives on the care, science, strength, and vulnerability of the brain.

The sixth annual Newtown Yoga Festival will take place Saturday, August 25, from 9 am to 4 pm, at NYA Sports & Fitness, 4 Primrose Street. The suggested donation is $50, and children under 16 years old attend for free. To register online, visit newtownyogafestival.org.

Kicked off in 2013 with yoga personality Seane Corn as a means to help the Newtown community cope with the aftermath of the December 14, 2012, Sandy Hook School Shooting, the Newtown Yoga Festival impacts Newtown and surrounding communities by sharing yoga, music, and mindfulness with hundreds. Proceeds from the festival go to offering free meditation and mindfulness classes for members of the Newtown community.

Back by popular demand, 100-year-old yogi and author of Dancing Light: The Spiritual Side of Being Through the Eyes of a Modern Yoga Master, Tao Porchon Lynch will host a lunch and learn with festival attendees.

Founder of The Jaguar Path, Ray Crist is a dynamic yoga teacher who has been initiated as a healer and teacher by the Q'ero shamans in the Andes of Peru. Mr Crist will lead a community class.

David Schouela is on the teaching faculty for the Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga certificate program offered through the Trauma Center in Brookline, Mass. Mr Schouela will be leading a community class, as well.

Kathryn Templeton, also back by popular demand, is a psychotherapist and ayurverdic practitioner as well as a master teacher in the field of Drama Therapy, and she specializes in the treatment of individuals with anxiety, depression, and complex trauma. Ms Templeton will lead a community class.

Dr Bessel van der Kolk, author of the groundbreaking book The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, has spent his career studying how children and adults adapt to traumatic experiences, and he has studied and developed a range of potentially effective treatments for traumatic stress in children and adults. Dr van der Kolk will kick off this year's festival with opening remarks.

The outdoor courtyard will be accessible to the public for free and feature live music, food, and retail vendors and a live auction.

For more information, e-mail suzy.deyoung@aviellefoundation.org or karenjpierce@earthlink.net and register online at newtownyogafestival.org.

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