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By Christine Badalamenti Smith
Did you know the original intention of yoga was to use the body and the breath to unlock mysteries and work purposefully with our consciousness and mind? Long before we had language about regulating the nervous system, the founders of this many-thousands-of-years-old practice from India employed it with masterful skill and efficacy.
Yoga didn’t originate as a way to tone or limber the body (that came later); it was to harness one’s focus and energy and awaken to a state of being that is balanced, equanimous, and contented.
According to its original goals and approach, yoga therapy is just yoga. It’s not yoga instruction like you’ll find in a studio or gym. It’s a therapeutic service to support all kinds of conditions, life experiences, and personal goals. Participants engage this therapy to work with anxiety, depression, grief, burnout, chronic stress, chronic pain, medical conditions, relationships with the body, relationships with food, interpersonal relationships, work goals, self-growth, and more.
Yoga therapy is a bottom-up, body-first approach to mental health and thriving. Practitioners start by partnering with the body and the nervous system to learn about their mind and behavior, uncover tools for self-regulation, and create a sense of safety and personal power. With the body, we become profoundly present and aware without judgment, narratives, or conditioning. We learn to accept what is and make choices that are not limited by stories from our past, stories we tell about ourselves, or fears. We seek the freedom that comes from letting those things go.
Yoga therapy is a practice. It’s something we get better at with time, and it can go from a thing you learn to a thing you do to the way you are.
There are eight limbs of yoga according to the Ashtanga tradition. Only one of them is movement. People are sometimes surprised to find there can be a fair amount of talking in a session. Most yoga therapists incorporate conversation, embodiment, and breathwork into each session. A yoga therapist will consider everything from daily self-care to nourishment, to movement, to relationships, work, play, and more. This holistic, embodied approach to therapy helps people feel different first, so new ways of thinking and new patterns of behavior are more accessible and happen more organically.
Many yoga therapists work with individuals, couples, and groups. Most people will attend sessions weekly or at another rhythm, and some yoga therapists offer programs and intensives to meet the unique needs of their clients.
To learn more about yoga therapy, check out the International Association for Yoga Therapists at www.iayt.org.
Christine Badalamenti Smith, MS, C-IAYT is an internationally certified yoga therapist practicing in South Burlington, East Calais, and online as the owner of OGGI BE Yoga Therapy & Rewilding,
