What is Yoga Therapy? Personalized Healing at Nokomis Yoga
Written by: Solveig Corbin, CSYT, Yoga Therapist and Owner/Director of Nokomis Yoga
Yoga therapy is personalized yoga! A yoga therapist uses yogic techniques such as therapeutic poses and adjustments, breathing practices, self inquiry and other healing yoga practices and wisdom, to help people with pain, promote healing and improve a person’s overall function, vitality and well-being.
Yoga therapy addresses the whole person, body, mind and spirit. Conditions aren’t diagnosed, but symptoms are alleviated by understanding and alleviating core constrictive patterning that are at the root of the condition.
Yoga Therapy helps with:
- Back pain or stiffness, neck pain or stiffness, hip pain
- Muscle tension
- Limited flexibility
- Arthritis
- Stress and anxiety
- Sleep issues
- Fatigue or burnout
- Injury recovery
- Repetitive stress
- Nervous system dysregulation
- Grief stored in the body
The goal is to help you feel better, move with greater ease and ultimately become free of your constrictions.
Types of sessions vary between clients, depending on what is needed, and depending on the therapist’s background and training.
Each practitioner brings their own training, experience, and perspective to the work. In my practice, I draw on more than 1,000 hours of Svaroopa® Yoga and Yoga Therapy training and over 15 years of working one-on-one with clients. This experience allows me to recognize patterns and choose the techniques that are most likely to support each person’s unique needs.
What happens in a yoga therapy session with you?
To start with, I have you come to the studio and fill out a health history form which we discuss in detail. I then assess you to determine which methodology will work best for you to begin with.
Depending on what you need most to start, I may give you a series of therapeutic poses to learn and practice daily at home, or teach you a breathing practice as a home practice, or give you an Embodyment® session, which is gentle, hands-on healing to release tensions in your spine and whole body.
The next time, the same techniques may be used or poses/breathing reviewed.
Pose Yoga Therapy may be applied if you have a specific area of your body you need work on. You would be lying on your back or belly for the poses (generally). Blankets and props are given for support and alignment and I give you deep adjustments in each pose. There is rest time between each pose for you to feel and incorporate the effects.
Another type of session which is optional but can be extremely beneficial, would be Self Inquiry (Vichara) which is a process of deep listening on my part as you talk to me about what is weighing on your mind. This is getting into the deeper yogic practices of quieting your mind.
I recommend that you come once or twice a week for any chronic condition and do your home practice, which I will give you, daily or twice daily.
Why do people choose yoga therapy?
Many people choose yoga therapy because it helps calm the nervous system, shifting the body-mind out of chronic stress and into a state of ease and peace.
It has been said that “no problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”
In yoga therapy sessions, as the nervous system calms, you enter a deeper healing state of consciousness, creating the conditions for the body’s constrictions to soften and release.
Who can benefit from yoga therapy?
- If you are experiencing pain and are frustrated that it isn’t going away
- Have pain that hasn’t responded to other treatments
- Feel overwhelmed by stress or anxiety
- Can’t sleep
- Are experiencing chronic muscle tightness
- Don’t feel ready for a group yoga class
- Want a holistic approach to your health and well-being
- Want to improve posture
- Want to improve body awareness
Maybe you don’t fit into any of these categories, but you are just feeling off, and want to feel better. You can feel a whole lot better in your body and experience the bliss and joy of your own being by freeing up the constrictions that keep you stuck.
To set up a free 30 minute consultation, contact Solveig Corbin, CSYT at info@nokomisyoga.com
For more information go to: Yoga Therapy
