Yoga Therapy
Yoga Therapy is a client-focused approach to managing and improving health used extensively in the East. All yoga is therapeutic, but not all people have the ability to practice in the form that is taught in most classes. Yoga therapy is not the same as offering modifications in a class. In yoga therapy sessions, the class is modified to fit the client and designed around specific challenges and strengths that the individual presents. In some cases, such as chronic back pain, yoga is a proven tool that often brings complete relief of symptoms. In others, such as chronic diseases and mental illness, yoga therapists work in concert with other health care providers to help reduce symptoms and accelerate healing. This is the case in a hospital setting where restorative poses and the smallest of movements or stillness combined with breath awareness works to alleviate pain and quiet the nervous system. In all cases, yoga therapy can help you live more fully regardless of your condition. Yoga therapists focus on the whole person, not just their physical condition, and can offer specific tools and individualized support in a one-on-one setting which differs from traditional physical and psychological health care settings. Because much of our daily experiences are stored in the body, yoga therapy can help you learn to pay attention to what is happening in the body at that moment, which may eventually help you generalize this awareness and attention to many other aspects of your life.
Restorative Yoga
Restorative yoga might best be described as a supported, conscious body/mind relaxation practice. When supported with props, the body and nervous system relaxes and opens, releasing tension and stored-up toxins that can cause illness. Restorative poses offer benefits to both the body and mind, for conditions ranging from insomnia, anxiety and depression to asthma, chronic pain, migraines and PMS/perimenopause/menopause.
Chest-opening poses, for example, encourage breath and prana(energy) to flow through the entire body. Forward bends gently lengthen all the muscles of the back body which can do wonders for chronic back problems. Done in sequence, a restorative yoga practice will bring your whole body into a deeply relaxed state, and allow your mind to become quiet and reflective, with your mental, psychological, and emotional bodies in blissful balance often facilitating emotional release.
Some current definitions of yoga therapy-Excerpted from the International Association for Yoga Therapists (IAYT)
"Yoga therapy is that facet of the ancient science of Yoga that focuses on health and wellness at all levels of the person: physical, psychological, and spiritual. Yoga therapy focuses on the path of Yoga as a healing journey that brings balance to the body and mind through an experiential understanding of the primary intention of Yoga: awakening of Spirit, our essential nature." Joseph Le Page, MA, Integrative Yoga Therapy (USA)
"Yoga therapy is a self-empowering process, where the care-seeker, with the help of the Yoga therapist, implements a personalized and evolving Yoga practice, that not only addresses the illness in a multi-dimensional manner, but also aims to alleviate his/her suffering in a progressive, non-invasive and complementary manner. Depending upon the nature of the illness, Yoga therapy can not only be preventative or curative, but also serve a means to manage the illness, or facilitate healing in the person at all levels." TKV & Kausthub Desikachar
"Yoga therapy, derived from the Yoga tradition of Patanjali and the Ayurvedic system of health care refers to the adaptation and application of Yoga techniques and practices to help individuals facing health challenges at any level manage their condition, reduce symptoms, restore balance, increase vitality, and improve attitude." Gary Kraftsow, American Viniyoga Institute
"Yoga therapy is the adaptation of yoga practices for people with health challenges. Yoga therapists prescribe specific regimens of postures, breathing exercises, and relaxation techniques to suit individual needs. Medical research shows that Yoga therapy is among the most effective complementary therapies for several common aliments. The challenges may be an illness, a temporary condition like pregnancy or childbirth, or a chronic condition associated with old age or infirmity." Robin Monro, Ph.D. Yoga Biomedical Trust (England) "Yoga therapy consists of the application of yogic principles, methods, and techniques to specific human ailments. In its ideal application, Yoga therapy is preventive in nature, as is Yoga itself, but it is also restorative in many instances, palliative in others, and curative in many others." Art Brownstein, M.D
Yoga Therapy
*elevates mood
*reduces anxiety and stress
*better breathing
*flexibility and body alignment
*increased strength
*improved circulation
*relieves aches and pains
*improves energy
*releases toxins
*recalibrates the spine
*improves the physical and spiritual/energy body
*focus on the present
*Arthritis (RA & OA)
*ADHD
*Cancer
*Rehabilitation for spine, knees and hips
*Gastrointestinal Disorders
*Alzheimer's/Dementia