Growing research confirms yoga therapy’s promise to offer relief from several chronic and debilitating conditions. Yoga isn’t just about flexibility or stress relief—it appears to reach deep into our biology, reshaping gene expression related to aging, immunity, stress, and even reproductive health. It’s a powerful testament to how lifestyle choices can influence our molecular well-being.
The yogic therapy model is unique because it addresses every aspect of life rather than considering each body part or system separately. Yoga Therapy is a safe way to work with the natural healing capacity of the body and mind to optimize well-being.
All yoga is potentially therapeutic and healing; however, yoga therapy is the specific application of different yogic tools. These tools include postures/exercises, breathwork, meditation techniques, and more—all designed to address an individual’s mental, physical, and emotional needs.
Yoga Therapy meets people where they are, connecting them to their innate healing potential. As a result, yoga therapy clients report experiencing improved mood, decreased stress, less chronic pain, and more.
Yoga Therapy meets people where they are, connecting them to their innate healing potential. As a result, yoga therapy clients report experiencing improved mood, decreased stress, less chronic pain, and more. Check out this client testimonial to hear how yoga therapy helped her to overcome many health obstacles including a broken wrist, frozen shoulder, a diabetes diagnosis, and a feeling of having lost her way after the pandemic.
Research has proven that yoga therapy can affect the nervous system by improving our self-regulating ability. The practice uses methods that work via both the mind and the body, known as top-down & bottom-up regulation.
Top-down regulation uses cognitive tools like meditation and motivational interviewing to affect the state of the body. In contrast, bottom-up regulation uses the body, through movement and breathing techniques, to change the state of the nervous system and affect thoughts and emotions.
In short, yoga therapy provides a toolkit to help support regulation and resilience in the mind-body system. Yoga therapy is the use of these tools by a trained practitioner.
A general yoga class can ease everyday aches and pains. However, a yoga therapy session goes much further and is tailored specifically to the individual!
Examples of the areas where yoga therapy can help are:
Overall Well-being
Many seek yoga therapy to help manage or decrease stress. In addition, yoga therapy can help support those who want to change unhealthy habits and behaviors and improve their mood, ability to concentrate, and sleep.
Healthy Aging
Many of us can use support for a healthy aging process. For example, yoga benefits osteoporosis and may help balance and fall prevention. Check out this article for eight ways yoga helps mature adults age more gracefully.
Neurological Issues
We have learned that the brain can change throughout our lives. Thanks to neuroplasticity, the symptoms caused by health conditions like stroke, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (M.S.), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and other neurological disorders can be affected by yoga therapy techniques.
Having a lifelong neurological condition is challenging both mentally and physically. Sometimes, the symptoms change, or yoga therapy practices help individuals change their relationship with themselves and the conditions with which they live.
Yoga therapy is a supportive long-term therapy that helps create a more peaceful relationship between the body and mind. It provides those with daily symptoms and progressive neurological disease with a personalized approach to self-care, focusing on improving their day-to-day quality of life.
One pilot study on Parkinson’s disease (P.D.) found that “yoga appears to improve physiological and non-motor factors that can affect the quality of life over a relatively short time for P.D. participants.”
A study from Rutger’s University “indicates that yoga helps improve the quality of life for those with multiple sclerosis.”
“[T]hose who participated were better able to walk for short distances and longer periods, had better balance while reaching backward, fine motor coordination, and could go from sitting to standing. Their quality of life improved in perceived mental health, concentration, bladder control, walking, and vision, with decreased pain and fatigue.”
Mental Health
According to yoga, what happens in the body happens in the mind. Therefore, we can use targeted practices in the body to affect the mind and vice versa. Yoga therapy can assist in mood regulation and promote emotional balance. Yoga is an adjunctive therapy for anxiety, depression, trauma, PTSD, insomnia, and other conditions.
Chronic Pain
According to the NIH, “Chronic pain is pain that lasts more than several months (defined as 3 to 6 months, but longer than “normal healing”). It is a widespread problem.
There are many interactions and causes of chronic pain, both physical and emotional. Unfortunately, this complexity makes it hard to treat successfully.
Results from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey show that:
- About 25.3 million U.S. adults (11.2 percent) had pain daily for the previous three months.
- Nearly 40 million adults (17.6 percent) had severe pain.
- Individuals with severe pain had worse health, used more health care, and had more disability than those with less severe pain.”
The American College of Physicians recommends yoga as an alternative to prescription drugs for chronic low back pain. Several other organizations have agreed and published their positions in resources such as Moving Beyond Medications.
Many types of pain respond positively to gentle movement, including adaptive yoga. For example, research has shown a link between reduced pain and movement in patients with fibromyalgia. In addition, other yoga techniques like meditation and breathing practices can help to change a person’s relationship and how they experience chronic pain.
Support for Chronic Illness
For those living with these diseases, the reality is often chronic pain, fatigue, impaired mobility, neurological dysfunction, dietary restrictions, and troublesome and embarrassing symptoms.
Living in this way daily, in and out, also increases the likelihood that these individuals may experience anxiety, depression, and decreased social interaction.
Flare-ups occur even in the most well-managed scenario, and getting things back under control can often be challenging. While yoga is not a cure or a management plan, the scientific evidence is mounting that it can benefit in conjunction with medical therapies.
Therapeutic yoga therapy can effectively support people dealing with illnesses like cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and heart disease. However, regardless of the type of chronic illness, they all bring stress, which can worsen symptoms and lengthen recovery times. Yoga helps relieve stress and the effects of stress on the body and mind.
Yoga Medicine shares exciting research findings on the benefits of therapeutic yoga for chronic illness.
How to get started with Therapeutic Yoga
As a trauma informed yoga therapist and Nationally Board-Certified Health & Wellness Coach, Hope has in-depth training to enable her to help her clients to achieve their goals and live a better life. Together, with her clients they determine what is truly important and where the client needs to start.
Often, clients know they need to change and heal but do not know where or how to start. In addition, they do not understand the underlying issues that repeatedly bring them back to the same place.
Hope creates a safe environment for the client’s healing, working with clients to address their specific goals while considering any limitations. Every session and journey look different, but here are some of the possibilities that may be used in any combination:
- Movement can range from gentle to vigorous
- Breathing Practices & Techniques
- Meditation & Visualization practices
- Physical postures to address areas of imbalance and discomfort
It depends on what each individual needs to increase health and well-being – mentally, physically, and emotionally.
For more information or to get started on your journey to your best self contact Hope.
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