How yoga therapy helps
"Yoga therapy is the process of empowering individuals to progress toward improved health and well-being through the application of the teachings and practices of Yoga." A yoga therapy session includes a formal assessment, goal setting, lifestyle management, and yogic movement and breathing techniques.
~International Association of Yoga Therapists, IAYT
95% of physiological and psychological diseases are either caused by or exacerbated by our body's response to stress.
Yoga therapy reverses stress.
Anything that causes mental, physical, emotional or spiritual stress---yoga calls "suffering."
A yoga therapist's job is to help relieve suffering.
Most people imagine headstands and twisted poses when they hear the word "yoga." Yoga is much more than that. And yoga therapy is even more still.
Western science recognizes that more than 95% of physiological and psychological diseases are either caused by or exacerbated by our body's response to stress. Your body interprets "stress" is anything with a "too" infront of it: too tired, too hungry, too angry, too sad, too skinny, too inactive, too active, too much pain, etc. etc.. Stress can cause a dysregulated nervous system.
It is difficult to manage anything with a dysregulated nervous system, either a common cold or pulled muscle, or terminal cancer. Yoga therapy is a biopsychosocial-spiritual approach to wellness that is extremely effective at re-regulating the nervous sytem.
In addition to postures, breathing techniques and ways to focus the mind, yoga therapy includes yogic views on nutrition, sleep hygiene, and emotional and spiritual health. Repairing relationships or learning how to bring meaning to one's life are also under the yoga therapy umbrella.
Sometimes, just having a person with time available to listen to how you are struggling can relieve an immense amount of stress, and be the catalyst toward healing.
A yoga therapist is also trained to work in conjunction with your other health practitioners, and to read and intepret medical records and reports. A yoga therapist certified by the International Association of Yoga Therapy (C-IAYT) will have at least 1000 hours of yoga therapy training.
Yoga therapist Simone Palmieri, C-IAYT, has a unique body of knowledge. She has dealt with a variety of health conditions in her own body and managed them with yoga therapy. A yogic approach has helped her with chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, stage III colon cancer, anxiety, depression, dysautonomia, back pain, cervical stenosis, long Covid, and even a broken wrist.