Yoga Therapy

 

What is Yoga Therapy?

In essence, yoga therapy is a healthcare practice that uses yoga techniques to address specific health problems. You might think of traditional yoga as emphasizing physical fitness, whereas yoga therapy focuses on health and healing.

Doctors and healthcare providers often recommend yoga therapy for people managing conditions like chronic illnesses, age-related conditions, and mental health issues.

It’s especially helpful for developing your self-awareness when you are navigating some new change in your life, whether age or illness-related. Along with my expertise as an occupational therapist, yoga therapy sessions with me include:

  • Asanas, or physical postures
  • Pranayama, or breathing practices
  • Meditation, mantra (sound, word or phrase), and mudra (posture or movement of the hands)

You might be thinking that yoga is for the young and svelte. Yoga therapy is for every body, young and old, every illness and injury. Through the right combination of tools and wisdom, I can provide the hope and safe encouragement to empower you toward better health.

Yoga Therapy For Common Conditions

Yoga therapy focuses on healing from the inside out. It supports you and your health plan, bolstering you in your specific goals.

Yoga therapy may be right for you if you have:

  • Chronic illness
  • Chronic pain
  • Poor circulation
  • Limited mobility
  • Depression & anxiety
  • Dementia & memory loss
  • Hypertension & high blood pressure
  • Decreased lung function

Yoga therapy can help you:

  • Eliminate, reduce, or manage symptoms
  • Improve bodily functions
  • Prevent the underlying causes of illness
  • Improve health and wellbeing

It’s important to recognize that yoga therapy is just one element of your healing process and I’m one member of your healthcare team. I’ve worked in modern healthcare for decades and know how to support the goals of you and your healthcare providers.

Testimonials

“After the removal of my left lung, I hoped that yoga therapy would help with my breathing. I had many old injuries in my shoulder, hips, and knees as well as arthritis in my hands. Claudia helped improve my breathing and my mood. Yoga therapy also improved my balance, flexibility, and ability to get up and down better. Most of all, it has kept me playing pool, which is the only sport I can participate in and really enjoy.”

– Mark S.

What To Expect

To get started, you and I have an introductory call for you to share your story and ask questions. Then we schedule our first session where I identify areas of treatment and develop a personalized plan. You may leave that initial session feeling intrigued and hopeful about what’s to come.

In each one-on-one session, we’ll practice exercises and techniques that support your individual wellbeing. I may also give gentle, nonjudgmental feedback on what I’m seeing in you. I’ll then provide recommendations for ways to continue your practice in between our sessions together. You’ll soon find this time incredibly rewarding and will look forward to deepening your practice.

The initial 90-minute session is $105, and each subsequent 60-minute session is $65. I do not take insurance. You do not need a medical referral for us to begin work together.

Periodically I facilitate group workshops with clients that may benefit from deeper community and connection. As my client, you’ll be the first to know of these kinds of opportunities.

Yoga Philosophy

The word yoga means “union,” or the connection of the mind, body and spirit. Peace within ourselves. I love yoga therapy because it takes all the good stuff of yoga and applies it to medical science.

Although yoga therapy has been practiced in India for centuries, yoga therapy in the West is an emerging field. There have been renowned studies, articles, books, and publicly-funded research with the National Institute of Health that prove the effects of yoga therapy.

The thing that I like most about yoga therapy is that it harnesses the power of our own self-awareness. In yoga philosophy, there are five layers to the human being: body, mind, breath, intuition, and the heart. In a sense, yoga therapy brings science into the framework of what it means to be human.