All about yoga therapy..
About yoga therapy..
Yoga therapy is unique as it considers the individual as a whole person by addressing mind, body, breathing, emotions and our purpose in life. An embodied therapy that explores the adaption of yoga practices to emphasise a deeper awareness of what you are experiencing and offers you practical tools and practices in the form of yoga movements, breathing, philosophy, self awareness, meditation and mindfulness to encourage and empower individuals to be an active participant in improving their own mental and physical health.
Throughout life, your body responds to all experiences, holding your stories and history. The tissues of your body are wise and smart, often remembering insights and knowledge which your mind may have forgotten. When you feel joy and love, your body will respond to the emotion, holding the memory or feeling either consciously or subconsciously. The same is true if you have felt fear, trauma, PTSD, depression and anxiety. Your physical body, breathing and emotions will have respond to these challenging feelings, rooting themselves into the tissues of your body.
If challenging feelings impact or restrict how you are living, yoga therapy can offer you tangible practices and tools to use in your daily life, helping to bring ease to difficulties you feel and offering you a way to move through and past unhelpful experiences and sensations.
Yoga therapy is different to a general 1:1 yoga session or a high street class. Yoga therapy isn’t about being flexible or making fancy postures with your body that you might have been led to believe. Yoga therapy is a prescriptive transformational journey that empowers individuals with practical and helpful tools for you to use in your day to day life. You will be offered particular practices for their known benefit and during a session we may explore elements or a combination of breath work, mindfulness, focus practices, physical stretches to release tension, meditation, lifestyle reflection, journaling, voice work and relaxation techniques. Tangible yoga tools to ease difficulty in mind, body or emotions, into a welcomed state of calm and balance, helping you to feel good, in control, and regain the joy of life again.
Yoga therapy can support individuals with the following conditions as either stand alone therapy or alongside Counselling and Psychotherapy with the therapist at Hertford Counselling Services:
Anxiety
Arthritis
Adults with autism
Anger management
Back pain
Bereavement
Breathing / respiratory issues
Carers
Chronic fatigue syndrome/ME
Dissociation
Depression
Fatigue
Frozen Shoulder
Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD)
Health anxiety
Irritable bowel syndrome
Long covid
Peri / Menopause
Panic attacks
PTSD and other trauma-related issues
Sciatica
Sleep disorders /insomnia
Stress
Tension headaches
Those affected by cancer
This blog was written by our yoga therapist Paula Malloy