What are the benefits of therapeutic yoga?

Traditional yoga is much more than a simple exercise: Its objective is to improve the state of health of the person, both physical and emotional, psychological and spiritual. These objectives are reinforced in what we now call “therapeutic yoga” by incorporating into practice the most advanced knowledge of anatomy and physiology, as well as contributions from disciplines such as osteopathy and physiotherapy.

Current therapeutic yoga can modify and adapt traditional postures to enhance their effect, reduce risks and adapt them to the needs, pathologies and biomechanical characteristics of each person.

Both practitioners and therapists start from the premise that the body has abundant resources and full capacity for self-regulation and self-balancing. From there, therapeutic yoga gives special relevance to the correct body alignment and the development of an awakened consciousness.

Therapeutic yoga: complete and 100% personalized treatment

Therapeutic yoga is fully consolidated as a new branch of yoga. It has its origin in the need of many people around the world to find a practice that fits their ailments.

And since each person is different, therapeutic yoga adapts to morphological, pathological and/or psycho-emotional particularities of each practitioner. This is the only way to achieve the best results in the evolution of health processes.

In addition, the instructor of this discipline, who never diagnoses, is linked to a health professional and relies on his diagnosis and guidance in order to create a individualized program.

Therapeutic yoga does not replace the work of a health professional, but complements it with postural re-education, physical and respiratory exercises or meditative practices.

It could be considered as a discipline of re-education of the individual, that allows you to replace the habits that you have been acquiring and that are harmful from a biomechanical point of view, with others focused on improving your physical and psycho-emotional state of health.

As such, this discipline not only encompasses the body and the movements that are made on the mat, but also the global way in which you experience life and relate to yourself and others to carry out a healthy and balanced life.

What is a therapeutic yoga session like?

Classes are usually individual or in small groups where it is possible to meet the needs and characteristics of each one of the practitioners. An exercise plan to do at home is provided.The intensity adapts to each person. It may be gentle or require effort (for example, in the case of an abnormal curvature of the back in a young person).Body alignment is essential. For this reason, and to avoid imbalances, if necessary supports are used, such as cushions, blankets, chairs or the wall. Manual therapies are not performed on the practitioner, unless the yoga instructor is also a physiotherapist or osteopath.Avoiding pain is a golden rule. When it comes to emotional pain, tools are incorporated to treat it: mantras, meditation, visualizations, etc.

Proven indications of therapeutic yoga

With therapeutic yoga you can treat any imbalance. For example, Jnani Chapman applies different methods of therapeutic yoga at the University of California Osher Center for Integrative Medicine to people with cancer, heart problems, and other chronic illnesses.

It is ideal for the state of form and the athletes problems. Sports scientist LeRoy Perry has applied it with great success in the training of Olympic athletes and sports teams, which improve their performance and physical and mental well-being.

Personalized classes can treat everything from herniated discs to hyperlordosis and lumbar and cervical rectification, abdominal toning, osteoporosis, scoliosis, osteoarthritis of the spine and knee, low back pain, sciatica, etc.

It can also be beneficial to those who suffer from fibromyalgia, migraines, asthma, hypertension and obesity.

It is also indicated in mood disorders. The psychotherapist Ira Israel uses it against depression, anxiety, insomnia and other psychological disorders.

How has therapeutic yoga developed?

Let’s do some history. Therapeutic yoga practice dates back to the yogis of the early 20th century, teachers most have never heard of, such as Shri Yogendra, Swami Kuvalayananda, and Shri Rama Mohan Bramachari, who was the teacher of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, the father of modern yoga.

Krishnamacharya modified some classical asanas for therapeutic purposes to suit different bodies. In addition, he advocated the use of props that his successor, BKS Iyengar, developed in her yoga school. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Kaivalyadham Health and Yoga Research Center was founded in India, a center that sought coordinate yogic traditions with modern science.

Krishnamacharya’s son, TKV Desikachar, came to the United States in the 1970s and trained the first generation of therapeutic yoga instructors. This line of teaching arrived in Spain with the academy PhysiomYoga, which has been training yoga instructors and health professionals since 1997.

The change is in you

You are the real protagonist of your treatment with therapeutic yoga. This practice is also a powerful preventive tool, both from a physical and psychological point of view. You just have to play the right keys to stimulate self-regulation and the recovery of the person’s integral balance. In this process the absolute protagonist is the practitioner, you.

You must realize that your health and well-being depend on you, of your daily habits, such as body posture, the movements you make, diet, personal relationships and the relationship with your own mental dynamics (stress, nervousness, sadness, disappointment, fear, anger…).

Yoga recognizes that whatever change you desire begins and develops from consciousness. Consequently, therapeutic yoga helps you find a new way to explore and treat yourself.

When you fully trust the intelligence of your body to find your own balance and strength, you stop falling into passivity and do not delegate all responsibility for healing to the therapist or doctor. And it is that the changes occur when you awaken a new attitude, when you understand that you cannot continue with the same habits waiting for the pain to disappear without further ado.

The constancy in the practice of postural and respiratory exercises, together with development of an alert and acute consciousness, plus your own will, will lead you to a new attitude towards physical, mental and emotional challenges. And the independence of your habits and behavior patterns will lead you to freedom and happiness.