What is Yoga Therapy?
Yoga therapy is a process of empowerment, merging Western medical and psychological knowledge with Eastern yoga practices and philosophy. Yoga therapy utilizes physiological postures, fascial release, breath work, and meditation to help individuals facing health challenges at any level manage their condition, reduce symptoms, restore balance, increase vitality and energy, improve sleep quality, and improve mindset. It can be preventative, restorative, curative, or palliative.
Whenever there is tension, it needs attention.
Gabor Mate
Research has shown that yoga therapy is among one of the most effective contemporary therapies for chronic physical and emotional conditions that persist despite conventional medical treatment. It can address a wide range of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual conditions, psychological or somatic dysfunctions ranging from emotional distress to back problems. All approaches recognize the human being as an integrated body-mind system, which can function optimally only when there is a state of dynamic balance.
Yoga therapy is beneficial for (but not limited to):
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Recovering from trauma, grief and loss, anxiety, depression, insomnia,
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Recovering from physical illness or injury,
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Increasing strength, flexibility, and mobility,
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Improving diaphragm strength for asthma, COPD, and other respiratory conditions,
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Working through chronic pain,
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Degenerative nervous system disorders,
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Correcting biomechanical misalignment in the body,
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Preparing for sport,
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Improving motivation, energy, and overall sense of well-being.
As no 2 people are alike, Yoga Therapy respects individual differences in age, culture, religion, physiology, occupation, mental and physical health, goals, and daily activities. Unlike conventional treatments, yoga therapy works to address the root cause of the ailment. Trauma, anxiety, fear, depression, and grief can and will manifest as physical ailments and tension, and the only way to alleviate that is to address the source.