As a growing number of Americans seek out alternative treatments to address their health concerns, yoga’s popularity has accordingly grown. More and more, medical professionals are recommending yoga to their patients, but quite often these recommendations lack specificity. Yoga Therapy has become a bit of a catchphrase lately, though there are some misconceptions about what it is and how it works.
What is Yoga Therapy?
Yoga Therapy is a bio-psycho-social-spiritual approach to health and wellness that adapts yogic principles and practices to the needs of each individual. This approach is unique because it considers the person as a whole and addresses all aspects of life, rather than looking only at individual body parts or symptoms. Therapeutic yoga practices stretch and strengthen the musculoskeletal system, change neurological processing, and regulate the nervous system. These practices include :
The International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT), founded in 1989, has developed thorough competency-based educational standards and a rigorous accreditation process for Yoga Therapy training programs. Certification in Yoga Therapy requires 1,000 hours of training.
How Does Yoga Therapy Work?
Yoga Therapy considers the whole person as a complex system of five interconnected sheaths, or koshas, that veil our true self. From the grossest to the subtlest, the koshas include:
The Yoga Therapy process begins with an assessment of the individual through the lens of the koshas, from which the Yoga Therapist designs a treatment plan to address specific concerns tailored to each client’s goals. The treatment plan addresses health challenges through one or more koshas. The koshas are interconnected and dependent on one another; thus, yogic tools used in one kosha affects the other koshas. Yoga Therapy is intended to empower the individual to take an active role in their health and wellness to ease suffering and promote healing.
How Can Yoga Therapy Help You?
Yoga therapy can address a variety of conditions including:
