As a physical therapist, I have always appreciated the saying “if it’s physical, it’s therapy”.  I first saw this in PT school and it still holds true today. However, 25 years into physical therapy practice, I can appreciate the meaning more deeply.  

Yoga therapy became an offering at Jade about 15 years ago.  We were fortunate to have a yoga instructor (thank you Laragh Kavanaugh!) that helped us to learn the therapeutic benefits of yoga and then to consider how it might be helpful for our patients. While yoga is often associated with flexibility, it  is a form of movement that can promote strength, flexibility and balance as well as cognitive clarity. These other benefits make it beneficial for all.  So what is therapeutic yoga?

First, it is yoga with the intention of observing an individual and offering yoga poses  or modifying yoga postures that will support health and well being. But it also goes a step further.  Therapeutic yoga considers the limitations of an individual in order to move past those limitations. 

In a therapeutic yoga one on one, the yoga therapist will first start by talking to the student about what they would like to focus on, any areas of challenge, and what they hope to achieve in yoga or a broader goal in movement/exercise. The instructor will then build a yoga sequence with the student giving feedback about how postures feel.  In real time, yoga postures are modified to the needs of the student.  Sometimes that means shifting the focus to engagement and activation in the posture to promote strength and sometimes it means deepening or easing a posture for flexibility.  Additionally, the student is receiving feedback from the therapist about alignment, cues for breathing and encouragement if there is a challenge to be worked through. Communication is the key to successfully progressing in yoga therapy and building an individual practice.

Sometimes yoga therapy is about quieting the mind through gentle movement, meditation and supported postures. There is significant physical and psychological benefit to practicing a softer form of yoga. It can help to reduce chronic pain and harmful elevated muscle tone by quieting the nervous system. Yoga therapy can also help with anxiety, depression and insomnia, again, by helping to regulate the nervous system.

Lastly, our therapists provide a home yoga sequence to practice after a yoga one on one.  This allows students to go home and practice what they have learned.  When the student returns, their therapist is able to look at their progress, give continued feedback as needed and progress or modify postures.