Yoga Therapy vs. Yoga Class
Have you tried yoga therapy?
By: Jennie Lee (huffingtonpost.com) – Yoga therapy is a holistic form of alternative medicine that applies the entire science of yoga to effect health and healing on an individual basis. It addresses issues that confront people mentally, emotionally and spiritually, as well as physically, through a personalized engagement with the vast ancient system of well-being that is yoga.
People undertake yoga therapy for a variety of reasons: to rejuvenate their bodies, to feel less stress, to cultivate emotional balance, to calm their minds, and to become reacquainted with their inner soul nature. In whatever way one feels imbalanced yoga therapy can effect positive change by supplying tools to expand vitality and self-awareness. Like most holistic approaches, yoga therapy incorporates different treatment protocols for different people, even if the presenting issue or symptom is the same.
While standard yoga classes provide a more generalized approach to movement, and sometimes to meditation, “Yoga therapy adapts the practice of yoga to the needs of people with specific or persistent health problems not usually addressed in a group class,” according to Larry Payne, Ph.D., director of the Yoga Therapy RX program at Loyola Marymount University.
As an overview, there are three general categories of yoga therapy, although they all interrelate. The first type is similar to physical therapy, using basic movements (Asana) to rehabilitate injury, moderate chronic pain or help someone regain functional energy. There are innumerable scientific studies that show evidence-based research on yoga’s physical benefits.
The second aspect of yoga therapy is similar to psychotherapy, and uses mental and emotional principles and practices to help individuals deal with change, loss, anxiety and other internal struggles. Because emotional experiences have an effect on the physical body, this treatment correlates to psycho-neuroimmunology, a branch of psychology that studies the interaction between the nervous, endocrine and immune systems. It explains some of the subtleties of psychosomatic medicine and how the body reflects our internal state of thought and feeling.
The application of yogic techniques to affect specific changes in vital functioning of the body’s organs and systems allows the individual to shift from unconscious response mode to chosen response in tense or challenging circumstances. An example would be the application of a breath exercise (pranayama) to balance and reset the parasympathetic nervous system’s “fight or flight” response, thereby helping to combat anxiety or depression.
As the body and mind are interrelated, so are the first two categories of yoga therapy. Many physical symptoms are indicative of underlying emotional issues that need resolution. It has been said that “our biography becomes our biology” so yoga therapy offers relief on the physical level and inquiry on the psychological level. When the body’s natural wisdom is accessed, emotional release occurs and healing begins at a deeper level.
The third aspect to yoga therapy addresses the spiritual component of our nature. Sacred texts of all spiritual paths and religions acknowledge that human beings have soul energy within. Yoga philosophy professes that the problems in our lives stem from our…
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