What is Yoga Therapy?

Instead of starting with a particular style of yoga or a standard set of poses, yoga therapy starts with you: what you’re dealing with, what matters to you, and what you hope might change. We use tools from Classical Yoga—movement, breathing exercises, mindfulness and meditation, guided relaxation, and even a little yoga wisdom—choosing and adapting what makes sense for you, and leaving aside what doesn’t.

Yoga therapy can work alongside medical care when that’s part of the picture. IAYT-certified yoga therapists have specialized training in adapting Yoga to the individual. That includes knowing how health conditions, injuries, medications, and other considerations may affect what we do.

People start yoga therapy for all sorts of reasons. You might be dealing with pain, stress, a health concern, or changes in how you feel and function. You might want a more individualized approach to staying healthy and capable as you age—or simply be looking for more from Yoga.

A Whole-Person Approach

Of course, there’s often more than one thing going on. A problem in one area of life can tug at others. Pull at one thread, and the fabric of life starts to pucker.

Consider an older woman with knee pain. Her limp may be obvious. Less obvious is how that limp jams up her back, how pain interrupts her sleep, and how draining it all is. Everyday life gets trickier. She may walk less, or leave family celebrations earlier than she’d like. The knee is affecting more than just how she moves.

“What did your doctor say?” the yoga therapist would ask, because licensed healthcare professionals diagnose and medically treat disease or injury, not yoga therapists. Yoga therapy doesn’t take the place of that work; it complements it.

So, if we aren’t looking at an MRI of her knee to see whether it’s arthritis, bursitis, or a torn meniscus, how does yoga therapy approach the problem?

We start with some medical history, watch how she moves, and ask how her knee affects her day: Is it tough to step down a stair? How’s her balance? Is it affecting her sleep? We recommend seeing her doctor if needed and are careful not to work at cross-purposes with care she’s receiving, including any physical therapy. Then we might work on strength, mobility, and balance for more comfortable (maybe even joyful!) movement.

Yoga is just so adaptable. If the knee problem is stubborn, at least loosening up her back may make sleep more comfortable, and building strength might make it easier to stand at a party.

Working with movement also builds self-awareness. She may notice patterns in what makes the pain better or worse. And if a painful day gets her mind spinning on “what ifs” at 2 AM, breathing and relaxation practices might help with the stress and make it easier to sleep.

This interconnectedness is part of Classical Yoga’s understanding of the person: what happens in the body, breath, mind, energy, and our deeper sense of ourselves doesn’t happen in isolation. Her knee pain has tugged at those connections. But those same connections can also become pathways for healing.

There may be more than one way in, and sometimes the positive effects build on one another. Whether or not the knee itself improves, more sleep plus a more comfortable back plus a little more energy? Now we may be getting somewhere. Maybe even far enough to make that family gathering a little easier—and a lot more enjoyable.

Another person with knee pain, even with the same diagnosis, will have a different life, goals, concerns, resources, and experiences. Their yoga therapy may look very different.