Has the term yoga therapy or yoga therapeutics sparked curiosity? Let me tell you a bit about it.
I'll start with some of the differences between taking a group yoga class verses a yoga therapy class. Public yoga classes commonly reach large numbers, teachers tend to use blanket cues, moving at a quicker pace and often students have to skip over certain postures or exercises that might not work for their current body or their health history or level of experience. Yoga therapy, even group classes, take into count everyone in the room and the teacher has a pretty good idea of students injuries, health history and experience level. Yoga therapy group classes tend to move at a slow to moderate pace depending on the theme of the class and there are options available for everyone.
One on one yoga therapy sessions begin with an in depth intake. During an intake clients are asked questions about their current health history, medications and supplements they might be taking, previous injuries and anything else they might have going on in their body that would be helpful to know. Then we discuss personal goals through yoga therapy. Some common goals from clients are to get through a night of sleep without waking up in pain, to be able to reach things in the top cabinet, to take less medication for high blood pressure or insulin. Others can be for better athletic performance, to be able to continue hiking into their 80's, to shorten their recovery time or simply be in less pain. Some clients want to address depression, anxiety or stress management.
After the initial intake the first session takes place, that can include anything from yoga postures, breathing techniques, meditations, self massage, hands on adjustments and restoratives. Yoga therapy creatively uses props like blocks, blankets, chairs, different size balls, straps and more! During this session notes will be taken and then given to the client at the end, to have something to refer back to during our time apart and continue their practices.
Continuing sessions after that will involve adding onto what we have learned, finding things that the client enjoys and alternatives to what isn't working. Commitment to at least three yoga therapy sessions after the intake is recommended. The first session is shortly after the intake, then the following can be weekly or twice monthly. Many clients see results after just one session, but in order to maintain progress creating new patterns and habits are what sustains the goal.
Yoga therapy is a highly personalized approach to help individuals reach their goals. It is a holistic approach to empowering those who might not feel comfortable in a typical public yoga class or the means to get to those classes. One on one yoga therapy sessions can be done in locally in person, or online from the comfort of ones home, or a mixture of both. Yoga therapy doesn't just look at one thing, it looks at many things, because everything is connected and healing is not linear.
I hope after reading this you have a better understanding of what yoga therapy is, and if youre interesting in booking an intake and creating a plan just for you, you can head to my website and book an intake.
Suffering is finite and love is infinite.
Take the step today towards a better quality of life.
Namaste.
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