What is Yoga Therapy?

In brainstorming recently with a social worker colleague on how to develop our private therapy practices, we were both charged with the question of how to explain what we do in the course of lan elevator ride -- in other words, short, sweet and to the point! In reviewing my web site, I realize that the answer is right there, though it may not stand out right now. Yoga therapy seeks to find the places where energy is either trapped or depleted and uses breath, movement, sound, visualization, meditation and thought power to restore balance.

That's it! What makes it so interesting, in my opinion, is that each of us is such a complex web of mind, body and spirit that starting in one area often leads to another. Working to free up some energy in chronically tight muscles may eventually result in the release of stored-up emotions and thoughts that keep us psychologically bound. I will offer a personal example: for months I was suffering from lower back pain and restriction on the ride side (which I have been told relates to moving forward with our life). I've kept at it with Yoga, breath, awareness, everything I could think of, as well as staying on top of my own psychological process. It was getting worse and worse -- which made it really hard to be a good Yoga teacher! Finally, a the breakup of a recent relationship, including the recognition of my own patterns that helped to ruin things, simply flattened me. I spent plenty of time crying over the loss. One day the crying got out of control and suddenly it felt like deep grief related to something else -- I had enough self-awareness to realize it was grief long held but never expressed over the death of my mother, which was 20 years ago last month. After the crying that day ran its course, I suddenly experienced a freedom in my back that I had not felt in a very long time. Now the challenge is to integrate this awareness and use it to truly move forward.

Thus is the power and beauty of Yoga therapy -- a process that works holistically, honoring the unique entity that is each one of us, and which can have profound, lasting results.