What is Yoga Therapy?

I’d like to share Amanda Pfennig’s article from the Huffington post.

“Yoga therapy involves the adaptation and application of traditional yoga techniques and practices, including poses, pranayama and meditation, to help individuals facing health challenges at any level manage their condition, restore balance and move towards optimum overall well-being. While all yoga can be therapeutic on some level, there is a major distinction between traditional yoga classes and yoga therapy sessions. And with more healthcare practitioners referring their patients to yoga, educating the medical community, yoga teachers and potential students on the differences is extremely relevant as many yoga classes may aggravate rather than alleviate symptoms for an individual.”

Is Yoga a Therapy?

Ganesh Mohan on Yoga as Therapy

The foundation of yoga is self-management. A yoga teacher cannot practice yoga in place of her student. The student has to do it herself, whether it be exercises on the mat, breathing, or meditation.

Traditionally, the methods of yoga were not intended as treatment. Yoga was intended to be a journey of self-transformation. Yet, when does healing end, and self-transformation begin?

Health is balance. Extremes in body or mind are rarely healthful. Thus the science of therapeutic yoga lies in using the skills of working with the body-mind complex to restore balance.

If I have back pain, I may not be able to sit in meditation comfortably. The skill of alignment, stabilization, strengthening, better posture in daily life, gentle release, breathing, and stress reduction, can all help to bring the function of the back to a better balance. A yoga teacher can teach this; if taught appropriately and practiced sincerely, back pain usually does reduce.

This is as much yoga as it is therapy. Perhaps, such “yoga therapy” is even more “yoga” than a pain-free individual putting his leg behind his head or dropping back into a wheel pose. After all, the goal of yoga is fundamentally to reduce suffering and improve quality of life, and that is the goal of any therapy too.

The skills of self-care are both preventive and healing. Yoga as a holistic self-management skill is valuable in both health and disease, whether we label it therapy or fitness.

– Ganesh Mohan

What is yoga as therapy useful for / För vad kan yoga som terapi användas?

Yoga som terapi kan användas för

ryggbesvär, högt blodtryck, ledbesvär, PTSD, skolios, parkinson, artrit, förbättrad hållning, immunnedsättning, idrottsskador, stress, viktminskning, förbättrad andhämtning, sömnbesvär, osteoporos, depression och ångest, fibromyalgi, muskelsjukdomar, skelettsjukdomar

Yoga as therapy is useful for

back care, high blood pressure, joint pain, PTSD, scoliosis, parkinson’s disease, arthritis, poor posture, immune function, sports Injuries, stress related issues, weight loss, breathing difficulties, sleep issues, musculoskeletal conditions, osteoporosis, depression and anxiety, fibromyalgia

The Lancet – Should your patient be doing yoga?

Should your patient be doing yoga?

Source: The Lancet

Author: Adrian Burton

“Yoga has been suggested as a treatment for disorders ranging from anxiety to multiple sclerosis. The scientific evidence regarding its benefits, however, is weak. But does this mean yoga should be ignored as a potentially useful complementary therapy? And what might be the pitfalls awaiting the physician who prescribes it? Adrian Burton investigates.”

Sattva Is Our Natural State

“Sattva is the state of mind that all of us want to be in – complete and fulfilled. Yoga and Ayurveda suggest that this is our natural state of mind, and rajas and tamas represent aberrations, deviations from this natural state.”

A.G. and Indra Mohan

Yoga Therapy – A Guide to the Therapeutic Use of Yoga and Ayurveda for Health and Fitness