Yoga Therapy

Yoga therapy is the ancient science of Yoga that focuses on health and wellness at all levels of the person. The Yoga Therapist serves as a guide in the students’ journey of healing and self-discovery, creating a safe and supportive environment for the student to access his/her own innate healing resources. Yoga provides an endless supply of practices to support wellness. These include body sensing, Yoga postures, breath awareness and control, guided relaxation, meditation and much more. Each practice is unique and guided by the student’s needs.

All Yoga can be therapeutic, but not all people have the ability to practice Yoga in the form that is taught in most public classes. The variety of styles, intensity, and focus and difficulty level is abundant. An individual that is not well-informed about Yoga can easily end up in the wrong class and create more issues rather than find a source of self-healing as they intended. We offer modifications in classes to accommodate individuals with needs, thereby modifying the student’s practice and ability to participate in class. Though often confused as the same, modification within a preset sequence is not the same as Yoga Therapy. Yoga Therapy is student centered—the teaching is designed around the specific challenges and strengths that the client brings to the mat. We offer Yoga Therapy sessions based on evidence-based practices completely tailored to the individual.

Current Definitions of Yoga Therapy from Pioneers in the Field

(excerpted from International Association for Yoga Therapists)

“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 on the nature of the illness, Yoga Therapy can not only be preventive or curative, but can also serve as 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 ailments. 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, PhD, Yoga Biomedical Trust, England

“Yoga Therapy consists of the application of Yogic principles, method 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 others.” Art Brownstein, M.D.