Yoga is commonly practiced as a routine that helps in improving physical fitness and sometimes as a means to stress management. Those who have been practicing yoga for a while can attest to the physical and physiological benefits that the practice brings. There is growing awareness that yoga can be effectively used as therapy in treating a variety of ailments, including hypertension, diabetes, heart conditions etc.
Yoga therapy is a process of impelling individuals to progress towards improved health and wellbeing by following teachings and practices of Yoga. Yoga therapy is the framework to create a bridge between the biomedical community, the integrative health community, and patient-centric care. It is an assessment tool and an application tool. The International Association of Yoga therapy defines Yoga Therapy as the progress that empowers the patient to improved health and wellbeing through the application of tools and teachings of Yoga. Yoga isn’t a fixate model, it is there to instil some physical and mental practices so that a person can stimulate their own self-healing within their body.
Yoga therapy can be called as the golden standard to diagnose and to treat diseases. Yoga has the potential/ ability to fix every chronic disease in the human body, as they are the consequence of an un-aligned body and a spoiled lifestyle. According to WHO health report, chronic diseases are the major causes of death and disability Worldwide. In India chronic diseases are projected to account for 53% of all deaths. Chronic diseases are caused by risk behaviours and an unconscious lifestyle. To cause a reversal of consequences of an unconscious life lived, Yoga therapy is used to bring the body back into alignment through Yoga postures and an altered lifestyle.
Essentially Yoga therapy incorporates the idea of prana or energy that flows through our bodies. The healing process involves addressing any energy blockages which can result in emotional and physical imbalances. The therapists focus their attention on individuals’ symptoms and how yoga techniques can be used to relieve them. Therapeutic sessions are customized to meet an Individual’s unique needs. During the therapy sessions, the therapists use their training, knowledge, and experience to choose yoga practices that will benefit the Individual.
Studies have shown that Yoga therapy is effective for a range of physical and emotional issues. Various medical journals have revealed research as to Yoga’s multi-tiered benefits. In fact, the evidence and support of Yoga therapy is so great that in the USA cardiologist, Dr. Dean Ornish developed a Yogic based intervention that can reverse heart disease. His program was so successful that it is now covered by public health insurance!
According to one of the great masters of yoga therapy from the 1900s, TVK Desikachar; “Yoga therapy is a self-empowering process, where the care-seeker, with the help of the Yoga therapist, implements a personalized and evolving Yoga practice, that not only addresses the illness in a multi-dimensional manner, but also aims to alleviate his/her suffering in a progressive, non-invasive and complementary manner. Depending upon the nature of the illness, Yoga therapy can not only be preventative or curative, but also serve a means to manage the illness, or facilitate healing in the person at all levels.”
Yoga therapy aligns the unique and precise health needs of the client with yoga practices which the yoga tradition and also medical science finds to have particular curative effects. For example, with lower back pain, there are very specific yoga positions and postures for strengthening and supporting the back and even soothing the symptoms of a herniated disc. Likewise, with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), there are gentle, specialized ways of regulating the nervous system and fostering the return of awareness of the body. In Autism Spectrum Disorders, specific yoga postures can be used to reduce heightened sensory arousal and promote emotional regulation.
Sessions may include breathing techniques, postures, meditation, relaxation techniques, or the promotion of behavioral changes.
At Midway seeker, we use Yoga therapy to provide benefit to the Individual’s specific health problem resulting in alleviation to their physical as well as mental health.