For many people, the term ‘yoga therapy’ is not immediately clear.
‘Yoga’ is most commonly associated with physical postures: flexible bodies holding difficult shapes, or perhaps gentler movement on a mat. The word ‘therapy’ may suggest psychotherapy or counselling.
“‘Yoga therapy’ is neither a generic yoga class nor psychotherapy with yoga added to it.”
It is the therapeutic application of the principles and practices of yoga, used to support a person in working towards particular physical and mental health goals.
It begins with the person
It begins with the person: what has brought them to yoga therapy, what they would like to work towards, their health circumstances, and what is realistic within their everyday life. Understanding this distinction is important, because it changes what one can reasonably expect from yoga therapy.
Someone may come to yoga therapy because anxiety, burnout, or low mood is affecting daily life. Another person may be living with persistent pain, disrupted sleep, fatigue, or the effects of sustained stress. Someone else may be managing a chronic health condition and simply wants to establish a practice that supports their health more consistently.
The same starting point, a different practice
The starting point may appear similar, but the practice need not necessarily be the same. Two people with the same health challenge may require different exercises and tools. Their physical capacity, sleep, energy, medication, and lifestyle all influence what is appropriate.
The diagnosis or presenting concern provides important context. The characteristics of the person living with it shape the nature of the work you do together. This is why an initial practice is a starting point rather than a prescription set in stone. Something that looks appropriate in theory may prove too demanding in practice. Another seemingly simple exercise may turn out to be particularly useful. This process of understanding, practising, observing, and adjusting is central to yoga therapy.
A shared piece of work
It also means that you are an active participant in our work together. The yoga therapist brings knowledge, training, structure, and professional judgement, and your experience provides essential information about what happens when the practice becomes part of your everyday life.
Working alongside your healthcare
Yoga therapy is complementary care. If you are receiving medical, psychological, physiotherapy, or other healthcare, that treatment continues. Yoga therapy does not replace appropriate clinical care or require you to discontinue prescribed medication or treatment.
Its role is different. It offers a structured way of working with aspects of your experience that may be influenced through regular practice, within the scope of yoga therapy.
That practice can involve much more than physical postures. And understanding that wider range is important, because the popular image of yoga represents only a small part of what yoga can include.