What is yoga therapy?

Yoga therapy is the professional application of traditional yoga practices, like meditation, breathwork, mindfulness, and philosophy, with adaptive physical postures and techniques to promote healthy living, optimize physical function, and alleviate mental, emotional, and existential suffering in people experiencing chronic health conditions within a therapeutic relationship.

It is often delivered in personalized one-to-one and small group sessions. The personalized nature of therapeutic yoga serves to meet clients where they are in their needs and level of physical function, as opposed to applying a one-size-fits-all protocol to their therapy plan.

Yoga therapy empowers individuals to take an active role in improving their health, often when an illness has left them feeling powerless.

Major health systems such as Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, and Duke have well-established therapeutic yoga programs.

Therapeutic yoga serves to maximize benefit and minimize harm… thus promoting a balance between effort and ease.

What is lifestyle medicine?

Lifestyle medicine is an approach to healthcare that focuses on addressing the root causes of chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, and several types of cancer, by encouraging healthy behaviors and choices. This holistic approach emphasizes the importance of nutrition, physical activity, stress management, restorative sleep, and positive social connections in preventing and treating illness.

By promoting these positive habits, lifestyle medicine aims to improve overall well-being and quality of life. Its evidence-based strategies empower individuals to take an active role in their health, ultimately leading to long-term benefits.

make time for your wellness… or be forced to make time for your illness.

experience

lifestyle optimization

When we combine therapeutic yoga with research-based therapeutic lifestyle changes, we open the door to sustainable and practical methods to take charge of our own health and optimize our well-being, thus…

Reducing symptom burden and chronic stress.

Optimizing physical function.

Improving sleep, mood, and mental health.

Enhancing immune function and hormonal balance.

Supporting healthy aging.

Lowering the risk of chronic diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes.

Experiencing healthier living with positive long-term effects.

research studies

“Yoga, CBT Provide long-term improvement in insomnia, worry”

A trial of community dwelling older adults, over the age of 60, showed improvement in insomnia, anxiety, and worry, after completing 20 sessions of yoga over 10 weeks. Improvements in anxiety and worry were similar to CBT (cognitive based therapy). CBT was shown to be superior to yoga for insomnia. These results persisted 6 months after completion of the trial.

“yoga for chronic chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy”

A randomized controlled trial consisting of primarily women with a history of stage I-IV breast, colorectal, or gynecologic cancer, compared an 8-week yoga intervention to a wait-list control group. The yoga intervention group showed an improvement in self-reported neuropathic pain factors, such as severity of pain, sensory impairments (ie, tingling, numbness), motor impairments (weakness), and overall physical function. They also experienced improvement in sleep difficulty, depression, and anxiety.

“the effectiveness of yoga in modifying risk factors for cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome”

A systematic review analyzed RCTs of variable populations-healthy adults with risk factors for cardiovascular disease, young patients with hypertension, older adults with coronary artery disease, and adults with type 2 diabetes. Compared to aerobic exercise, yoga showed equal effectiveness for reducing weight, BMI, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, triglycerides, LDL, total cholesterol, and fasting blood glucose.

“interheart study: effect of potentially modifiable risk factors associated with myocardial infarction in 52 countries”

This study evaluated patients who were admitted to hospitals for their first heart attack and identified 9 significant worldwide risk factors for acute MIs.
These factors were smoking, lipids, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, diet, physical inactivity, alcohol consumption, and psychosocial factors (stress, mental illness, isolation, addictions).

“reduction in the incidence of type 2 diabetes with lifestyle intervention or metformin”

A landmark trial compared metformin to a lifestyle intervention program with the goal of 7% weight loss (via low calorie/low fat diet, 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week, and counseling on health behavioral modification) or placebo, in 3,234 patients with prediabetes. Metformin decreased incidence of progression to diabetes by 31%; whereas, the lifestyle program decreased incidence by 58%.

“can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease? the lifestyle heart trial”

This study showed lifestyle interventions of a a 10% fat, whole food plant based diet, aerobic exercise, stress management, smoking cessation, and group psychosocial support reversed plaque stenosis (narrowing) of coronary arteries. This reversal continued at 1 year and 5 years; whereas, the control group experienced worsening in stenosis.

 FAQs

  • Yoga therapy is often one-to-one. The instructor of a contemporary yoga class formats content and delivers it to a large, mostly healthy group of people of varying experiences with yoga; however, a yoga therapist personalizes and tailors sessions to the client and his/her experience of their health condition, often at a less strenuous pace.

    Whereas the focus of a yoga class may be on the techniques, the focus of a yoga therapy session is on the individual and his/her health condition.

  • Yes! Yoga therapy meets a person where he or she is and adapts the practice to the person. Many therapeutic yoga practices may be performed in a chair or a reclined position, while still offering many physical, mental, and emotional benefits.

  • At this time, yoga therapy is not covered by health insurance. However, health savings account funds may be used for yoga therapy.

  • For more information on lifestyle medicine, check out: The American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

    For more information on yoga therapy, check out: Yogatherapy.health.