Absolutely! Yoga is one of many complementary and alternative healing approaches and works well with many other therapies such as acupuncture, massage, nutrition, Ayurveda, and chiropractic. It complements Western medicine as well. In yoga therapy, whatever helps the student can be part of their practice. Yoga therapists use the tools of yoga – asana, breathing, chanting, meditation, visualization — to name a few. These tools often support and enhance other approaches to improvement.

It is not the same thing. I encourage taking yoga asana classes, but they are for a group of people, all of whom have different body types, conditions, mindsets. In a yoga class, you are receiving instruction on how to do the poses and these are typically generalized for all of the students in the room, not you specifically. Also, the poses are only a fraction of what yoga therapists use to help someone. Yoga therapy focuses on the individual and so is practiced on an individual basis. You are unique in your history, how you live, what’s important to you, how you heal, and your endurance or tone. All of this (and more) gets taken into account when you decide to get well with yoga therapy. It is a journey; a very individualized journey to awareness and wellness.

Yoga therapy is about reducing pain, not increasing it. Yoga therapy does not adhere to the adage of “no pain, no gain.” Quite the opposite. If any activity causes any pain, we stop and find a different approach. There is always a different approach.

How long depends on what the condition is and how much time you have to devote to the practice. More frequent, regular practice will render faster results. Many students see improvement in as little as 3 weeks. Yoga as a healing practice works, and it takes time. In yoga therapy, we are most often changing old patterns that got the student to the point of discomfort or pain in the first place. And we are replacing those patterns with new, healthy ones. This takes time. We add new practices slowly, over time, so that you can incorporate them and so that the new practices become the new patterns. As you continue, the improvements do as well.

Physical therapy focuses on the systems of the body. Typically physical therapists are concerned with a particular body part and work on the muscles, bones, ligaments, and tendons around that body part to give relief to the patient. Yoga therapy works well with physical therapy, but it goes far beyond. For example, if the physical therapist is trying to get the patient to have less rounded shoulders, the PT may give exercises to strengthen the pectoral and stomach muscles. The yoga therapist would build on this and help the student improve his/her posture through improving the student’s body awareness, understanding why the student emotionally may be “closing in,” improving his/her confidence, and having the student do an asana practice to improve the entire body’s fluidity.

Yoga has its roots in India where many people follow the Hindu religion; yoga itself is not a religion. It is a system of healing the mind, body, and spirit. Yoga developed over 5,000 years ago and is a systematic, even scientific, approach to help those who were suffering. The tradition of yoga therapy is based on the Yoga Sutras, a sort of guidebook for creating a joyful and healthy life. The Yoga Sutras are over 2,500 years old.

Maintaining regular doctor visits is prudent. However, medical doctors may focus on the single condition, often without taking into account the whole person and what else is happening in the patient’s body and mind. Yoga therapists are more holistic and often are able to help the student determine why they got sick in the first place, thereby preventing future recurrences. Yoga therapists consider the whole lifestyle and changes to it that can help not only reduce or eliminate the condition, but also improve the student’s overall health and well being.

IAYT is a professional organization that provides research in the field of yoga, professional development for yoga therapist and is the organization that certifies yoga therapists. IAYT certification provides recognition to yoga therapists that meet or exceed an established set of standards. It is a quality control mechanism whereby through a credible, objective, peer-review process a public stamp of approval is given to highly trained yoga therapists. Additionally, the requirements for ongoing certification help the wider community have confidence as IAYT certified yoga therapists (C-IAYT) make a professional contribution to health, healing and integrative healthcare environments. Certified yoga therapists must adhere to the IAYT Code of Ethics and the IAYT Scope of Practice.