Yoga for Health

As a highly integrative approach to health, yoga therapy is fast gaining worldwide recognition for its biopsychosocial offering within healthcare. Yoga therapy involves the application of yoga and mindfulness practices to alleviate physical and mental health conditions, with a view to cultivating health and promoting self-care in the long-term,

Yoga is so much more than just stretching; it offers the opportunity to explore the physical body within the context of mindfulness, conscious breathing and somatic awareness, providing a peek into a realm of deeper knowing—beyond the thinking mind through which we so often define our experience of the world. 

An Emerging Profession

Whilst the use of yoga practices to promote health and well-being may well be as ancient as yoga itself, only in relatively recent years has yoga therapy come to the fore as an evidence-based treatment approach for chronic health conditions. Over the last thirty years or so, a surge of scientific studies has formed a concrete evidence-base in support of the wisdom passed down by ancient yogis, galvanising the emerging field of yoga therapy. 

Person-Centred

As a person-centred and holistic approach, yoga therapy places the individual at the centre of the therapeutic trajectory, in a process that considers all aspects of a person’s life and history—not just the results of a blood test or pathology report. Yoga therapy therefore truly moves beyond one-dimensional treatment approaches; it seeks to address not only the primary symptoms of suffering but also the underlying causes, whilst increasing overall self-care as a means of preventing recurrence. 

Yoga therapists draw on the principles of yoga and a wide range of yogic practices and assessment skills, underpinned by a solid foundation of biomedical understanding and psychotherapeutic training. Unlike a typical yoga class, the client-centred nature of yoga therapy sessions requires a thorough intake prior to initiating treatment; yoga therapists will undertake a multifaceted assessment of a client’s needs, including diet, lifestyle, sleep quality, mobility, flexibility, strength, energy levels, quality of breath, psychological state of mind and connection to intuition, wisdom and what brings them a sense of joy. 

A personalised prescription of practices is then offered, which may include postures, breathing techniques, meditation, reflection, visualisation, relaxation techniques and the promotion of behavioural changes. To help motivate clients to use yoga therapy tools both on and off the mat, yoga therapists also provide a solid foundation of psychoeducation; the idea is that with an understanding of the mechanisms behind practices and their effects, clients are much more likely to integrate them into daily life at home. 

Top-Down & Bottom-Up

One of the most powerful features of yoga therapy (particularly when compared with other therapeutic offerings) is that it offers a unique blend of top-down and bottom-up approaches. In other words, yoga therapy cultivates mindfulness (of the mind) to affect the brain and body, whilst also providing somatic (body-based) practices to affect the mind. This is particularly important given that the mind and emotions interact profoundly with the body’s nervous system, which in turn has an inextricable link with the immune system and our experience of disease.

Given that so many mental and physical health problems are linked to a lack of resiliency and flexibility in the autonomic nervous system, nervous system regulation is a vital piece of any health puzzle. And so this delicate dance between self-regulation and mindfulness is at the heart of yoga therapy; cultivating the ability to find balance between staying with what is present while also intelligently altering the aspects of experience in our control. 

A Comprehensive Toolbox

By offering tools that help to either alter experience—through self-regulation—or bolster skills that allow us to stay with experience—through mindful awareness—yoga therapy empowers clients with a comprehensive toolbox. Above all, just knowing that we have both top-down and bottom-up tools in our back pocket is truly empowering, and over time, the practices of yoga therapy lend to a sense that we’re equipped to face anything that arises.