Yoga is increasingly being used as a therapy worldwide to promote positive health and to prevent and manage illness.
Yoga therapy is a systematic approach to improving health and well-being. It is not focused on curing symptoms but seeks to understand the underlying mechanisms which cause the symptoms. Health is understood as an expression of balance within the body, mind and spirit. Yoga therapy is an approach which offers an understanding of what each individual needs to be balanced.
Yoga therapy is a type of therapy that uses yoga postures, breathing exercises, meditation, and guided imagery to improve mental and physical health. The holistic focus of yoga therapy encourages the integration of mind, body, and spirit. Modern yoga therapy covers a broad range of therapeutic modalities, incorporating elements from both physical therapy and psychotherapy.
At the core of a yoga therapy treatment plan are yogic practices such as asana, pranayama and concentration/meditation combined with changes in lifestyle and nutrition. What is it that makes yoga such a profound and effective ‘tool’, one that has now been recognized as having the capacity to help people? I have come to recognize that the effect of yoga is threefold. I call these three combined aspects ‘the Yoga Therapy Effect’; these includes:
The relaxation effect
The activation effect
The awareness effect
The relaxation effect
Most of the people I meet who don’t include yoga or any other spiritual practice
into their daily lives, live with high levels of stress. Some are aware of this, others not – they are used to stress and believe that they need it to function. They are simply addicted to stress because they have forgotten the beautiful feeling of being relaxed. Mind you, relaxed does not mean lazy!
Thus in general, many people can benefit greatly from simply (re)gaining the ability to relax. We are mentally and physically exhausted by our conditioned beliefs that we need to do, do, do, and perform, perform, perform. This is instilled in us from a very young age.
Some people find it very difficult to relax as they have many worries, anxieties and emotions stored up in their physical, energetic and mental bodies. They might need a different approach to find full relaxation – for example, dynamic meditation in which different emotions are being activated and released through movement or laughing, crying, or shouting. Explaining these particular techniques is beyond the scope of this book, however there are many sources of information available on that.
The activation effect
Transformation, change, and movement are the key to health; diseases develop due to certain states of mind, behaviour, lifestyle and habits, and without addressing them, lasting health cannot happen. The person seeking your help must have an authentic and deep desire to transform; without personal motivation and dedication, change and healing cannot happen.
The beautiful effect of yoga is that it not only relaxes us, but it ‘wakes’ us up, activates us in a healthy way. You could even say that in a relaxed way we feel energized. Thus, this activation happens at both broad and very subtle levels of our being. On a physical level, yoga practices activate our blood, and lymph to stream – improving blood and lymph circulation, thereby improving the health of all of our organs and promoting the release of toxins. Connective tissue is being squashed and twisted, and in these tissues too, toxins are being ‘activated’ to start moving. You can read more about this in the chapters on the cardiovascular system.
Energetically, yoga promotes well-being. Ask most people who practice yoga and they will tell you that they feel more energized, motivated, and creative. In yoga we acknowledge the concept of ‘prana’, the subtle energy which flows in our bodies. Like a stiff muscle, stagnated lymph, or blood clots, prana can get stuck in places. Our different yoga practices wake up the prana, improve its flow and remove blockages. This is why we feel our whole day has a different quality to it when we start our day with a yoga practice. Many, many people have told me that their days are so much better now that they do yoga, and that they feel more awake and alert. While yoga first of all removes the unnecessary tension in the body and mind, at the same time it improves the flow and quality of different fluids and energy in the body. A well-rounded yoga routine balances relaxing and activating practices and encourages both effects. However, at a therapeutic level, some people are clearly very stressed out and need to start off with full relaxation(even if they are not aware of this themselves). Others may need the opposite and require movement to break through stagnation and depression.
The awareness effect
After the initial relaxation and activation, we have more space to cultivate awareness. Awareness is actually the foundation to everything we do in yoga. Chanting a mantra, doing a pranayama practice or an asana routine without bringing presence and awareness to this very moment is not yoga. Sure, our minds might wander in and out of thoughts now and again – of course they do, this is the nature of the mind – it is our responsibility to keep observing exactly that, again and again, moment after moment. And gently bring it back. Or, even better, observe what your most frequently recurring thoughts are and what underlying beliefs and conditionings cultivate these thoughts. Once we have recognized, observed and understood how a thought takes us out of the moment, maybe coming to a certain realization and insight, we can make a change. Allowing yourself to observe your mind and its products is
much different from your typical rumination and daydreaming. The difference is: awareness. We are looking at the thoughts, rather than diving into them, or drowning in them. If any emotion comes up, like anxiety or fear, we can no longer think rationally (more about that in the chapter on the nervous system). But if we can stay neutral, if we do not judge ourselves, but merely look at what’s happening, keeping our distance, it is usually much easier to see what is happening and what needs to be done (or not done) to overcome a difficult situation in our lives, or to make the changes that we have wished for over a long period of time. Our lives are happening now. It does not start after your pension, it does not start on the weekend with a glass of wine, it does not start next year after you have finished that project. It is now, in this moment. Life is a collection of moments and we can make the most of it by bringing presence in each and every single moment. Yoga is the practice of bringing awareness in each and every moment. Yoga is like kindergarten, and once we’ve done it, we have to bring what we’ve learned and experienced into our daily lives, encounters and communication. We need to do this as much with others as with ourselves! We spend most of our time communicating with ourselves, so let’s do it with awareness. Only then can you become aware of what you are telling yourself the whole day through, and you may be inspired to change.
Yoga therapy is the process of empowering individuals to progress toward improved health and well-being through the application of the teachings and practices of Yoga.
From Yoga to Yoga Therapy
The three effects of yoga manifest simultaneously which is what makes yoga unique, and thus moves yoga practice beyond most other types of treatment and sports. However, it is possible as a therapist to put more emphasis on one or the other, as well as to focus more on the physical, mental or energetic layers of the body and their symptoms. This is where a therapists comes in: recognizing what the person sitting in front of you needs at that particular time. Maybe somebody first needs relief from very intense pain and then simply, some medication is needed. After, you can start looking and working with this person on the underlying causes the symptoms. What is causing this weakness, this imbalance? What mental
component or habit is feeding this? What about somebody’s lifestyle and dietary habits? So, rather than simply ‘prescribing’ a combination of asana, pranayama and meditation, yoga therapy goes much further and looks into habits – ranging from mental to physical habits, lifestyle, daily routine and diet.
For Whom Might Yoga Be Useful to Incorporate in Therapy?
• Clients who report dissociation
• Clients who report anxiety in or outside of session (e.g., normal fidgeting up to a panic attack)
• Clients whose body language indicates guardedness (e.g., arms folded)
• Clients who report disordered eating or eating disorders
• Clients who endorse a history of prolonged abuse and/or trauma exposure
• Clients who struggle to establish rapport
• Clients who report maladaptive thoughts (e.g., “I can’t do anything right”)
• Clients who lack self-esteem