Blog
Get access to resources for doctors and clinicians, yoga therapy insights for individuals, and the latest research in integrative health care.
What Is Yoga Therapy?
Yoga therapy offers a unique approach to healing that aims to improve mental and physical health. Yoga therapists guide clients through a range of yoga practices, including movement, breathing, chanting, affirmations, and meditation, which have been clinically proven to be effective in therapeutic settings.
Yoga Therapy for Breast Cancer: A Compassionate Companion Through My Treatment Journey
In sharing my story, my hope is twofold: that clinicians may recognize yoga therapy as a powerful tool for their patients navigating cancer treatment, and that individuals facing breast cancer, or those supporting someone who is, might see yoga therapy as a gentle yet transformative avenue of care.
5 Reasons to Try Prana Nidra: The Restful Practice You Need Right Now
By Christine Saari, MA, E-RYT, C-IAYT The holiday season can bring joy—but it can also leave us depleted. Stress, fatigue, and emotional challenges can feel even heavier during a time when we're expected to show up for family, friends, and ourselves. For anyone...
Prenatal Yoga Therapy: A Holistic Journey for Expecting Parents
Prenatal yoga therapy empowers expecting parents to connect deeply with themselves and their growing baby. Through breathing practices, gentle postures, and mindful movement, this practice addresses physical discomfort, manages stress, and nurtures emotional resilience during this transformative time.
Does Medicare Advantage Provide Yoga Therapy Coverage for Older Adults?
For many older adults, chronic pain and health conditions can limit the ability to enjoy life fully. But here’s some fantastic news: yoga therapy is now more accessible than ever, thanks to reimbursement through Medicare Advantage plans.
Yoga Therapy, Stress Management & The Autonomic Nervous System
We take a deep dive into the Autonomic Nervous System, how it functions, and its role in optimizing whole person health and stress management.
Chronic Pain Relief Through Yoga Therapy
Chronic pain is a complex and often misunderstood condition that affects millions of people worldwide. Yoga therapy is emerging as an integrative approach to chronic pain management.
Integrating Yoga Therapy and EMDR To Support Trauma Recovery: Three Methods
This article explores how yoga therapy can complement and enhance the EMDR process, providing a more integrated approach to trauma recovery.
Yoga Therapy for Depression: A Safe and Effective CAM Option
This article explores how yoga therapy helps alleviate depressive symptoms, including its role in reducing inflammation. It also discusses yoga therapy’s role in addressing prenatal depression and comorbid conditions like hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and anxiety.
Understanding and Correcting Dysfunctional Breathing to Support Healthy Physiology
This article explores how our experiences and survival instincts shape our breathing patterns over time, the concept of dysfunctional breathing, and the transformative potential of breathwork.
The Rise of Meditation in Mental Health: Leveraging Neuroscience in Clinical Practice
As meditation gains wider acceptance and clients increasingly seek out these services, mental health clinicians are rising to meet the challenge. Many clinicians currently integrate weekly mindfulness exercises into sessions with clients. However, a critical question arises: ‘Is one moment of mindfulness per week sufficient?’
The Beginner’s Guide to Meditation for Mental Health
Meditation has become a wellness buzzword, especially as efforts to optimize mental health gain traction. So why is it so hard to make it a regular thing? Let’s bust some common myths about meditation and shed light on why it’s worth giving it a try.
Breathwork: A Drug-Free Approach to Managing Panic Attacks
Panic disorder affects 1 to 3 percent of the population. The condition not only inflicts immense personal suffering, but also strains our healthcare system significantly. Breathwork offers a promising solution with its low cost, accessibility, and rapid effectiveness.
Memory Issues? Improve Your Working Memory with 3 Yoga Therapy Techniques Backed by Science
For individuals with working memory problems, daily life becomes a constant struggle to organize thoughts and carry out tasks efficiently. In this article, explore three yoga therapy techniques scientifically proven to enhance working memory.
When There Are No Words: Yoga Therapy Beyond Postures for 3 of Life’s Toughest Challenges
Through the lens of three case studies, this article offers a nuanced perspective on how yoga therapy tailors coping skills to the individual. Rather than prescribing a one-size-fits-all solution, the intention is to illustrate the diverse options available when confronted with extreme stress.
The Rise of Yoga Therapy for PTSD: A Transformative Approach Surpassing Traditional Therapies
We report on a comprehensive study highlighting the efficacy of yoga for PTSD, and discuss how yoga therapists use these same techniques when working one-on-one with their clients.
Need a Quick Mental Reset? Try Alternate Nostril Breathing
By Christine Saari, MA, C-IAYT You may have heard of alternate nostril breathing, a simple yet powerful ancient Yoga technique that has garnered renewed attention with the growing popularity of breathwork in supporting overall health. Also known as “nadi shodhana”,...
Nasal Breathing in Yoga Therapy for Neurological Conditions
In this article, we examine the therapeutic potential of nasal breathing in yoga therapy and expore the effect of nasal breathing on neurological conditions such as stroke, brain surgery, traumatic brain injury, and psychogenic issues.
The Five Kosha Yoga Nidra Method: Your Personalized Health Solution
Yoga nidra is a transformative personalized practice that’s gaining recognition in healthcare. The Five Kosha Yoga Nidra Method is gaining recognition for its potential to support health and healing for a wide array of physical and mental health conditions.
Yoga Nidra as Medicine: A Holistic Approach for Health and Healing
Therapeutic yoga nidra is remarkably versatile in addressing various health conditions. Read on to discover how using yoga nidra as medicine has the potential to revolutionize our approach to health and healing, and why yoga therapists frequently recommend it to help clients with a wide range of health issues.
Connecticut’s Victim Compensation Program: Integrating Fully Reimbursable Yoga Therapy for Trauma Recovery
Connecticut’s Victim Compensation Program (VCP) an exciting and innovative way to provide victims of crimes with full reimbursement for integrative therapies not typically covered by insurance, such as yoga therapy. What’s noteworthy for clinicians is that, unlike most insurance programs, VCP makes yoga therapy fully accessible by covering its costs.
The Science Supporting Yoga Therapy for Trauma Recovery
The transformative power of yoga therapy in trauma recovery rests on a growing body of research that underscores its multifaceted benefits for healing. Read on for a summary of research that supports the use of yoga therapy in trauma recovery.
Yoga Therapy for Trauma Recovery: Your Questions Answered
Yoga therapy works by helping individuals re-establish a felt sense of safety. In doing so, it allows the autonomic nervous system to regain its resilience and its ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
A Professional’s Guide to Beating Burnout with Yoga Therapy
By Christine Saari, MA, C-IAYT The Pressing Concern of Professional Burnout The very essence of a professional's role, whether in healthcare or other sectors, involves being consistently committed, often going above and beyond to meet job demands. Unfortunately, this...
The Magic of Adhi Mudra Meditation
By Christine Saari, MA, E-RYT, C-IAYT Finding Ground Amidst Seasonal Changes As the warmth of summer fades and we inch into September, particularly here in the Northeast, a subtle chill enters the air. The leaves prepare for their vibrant finale, and a certain type of...
Why 4-7-8 Breathing Might Be Fueling Your Anxiety – And What to Do Instead
This article demystifies the power of breathwork in managing anxiety, challenging popular techniques like the 4-7-8 breath and introducing the more effective 4-0-6-2 approach. It offers guidance on how to navigate breathwork and emphasizes the value of personalized support from a yoga therapist for mastering these techniques and improving mental health.
The Transformative Power of Yoga Therapy for Patients with Health Anxiety
Discover the transformative power of yoga therapy for health anxiety management. This comprehensive guide unpacks how yoga therapy, using the five koshas, can enhance traditional treatment plans and provide mental health clinicians with an additional tool to support their clients. Explore yoga therapy’s potential, from understanding health anxiety to integration into comprehensive treatment plans.
The Role of Yoga Therapy in Managing Long COVID Symptoms
Research suggests that approximately one in every five individuals who contract COVID-19 may experience long-lasting symptoms. Yoga therapy has demonstrated potential in mitigating the effects of Long COVID and similar conditions like ME/CFS, supporting the healing process.
Discover the Power of Prana Nidra for Chronic Fatigue
Prana Nidra, a practice centered around energy, offers hope for those battling chronic fatigue. It is a unique form of yoga nidra, where we achieve a state of deep relaxation while remaining fully aware in order to enter healing brainwave states.
Prescribing Peace: Integrating Yoga Therapy into the Treatment of Disc Herniation Pain
As a physician, you’re likely aware that effective pain management is a significant priority for patients suffering from disc herniation and back pain. You may or may not be familiar with the growing recognition of yoga therapy as a promising and effective option to manage symptoms of herniated discs, including pain.
Reclaiming Bone Health: Yoga Therapy’s Role in Osteoporosis Care
By Christine Saari, MA, E-RYT, C-BDYT. In this article, we explore the research behind the use of yoga therapy to work with the physical and emotional challenges associated with a diagnosis of osteopenia or osteoporosis. Discover four ways yoga therapists work with clients to support them during their treatment. Learn what it’s like to begin a yoga regimen with no prior experience, and incorporate these practices into your daily life.
How Yoga Therapy Can Help Your Patients Manage Anxiety
By Sara Merrick-Albano, E-RYT, C-IAYT As a medical professional, you probably see patients every day with anxiety, regardless of your specialty. Anxiety is a normal response to the stress that comes with making medical decisions, such as choosing treatment options,...
How Can Yoga Therapy Help with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis)?
By Sara Merrick-Albano, E-RYT, C-IAYT Autoimmune diseases like Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis affect patients in different ways for each individual. As the exact causes of these diseases are unknown, it can be challenging to provide symptom relief. The good...
Yoga Therapy For Psychosomatic Conditions
Do you have a health condition that is chronic and seems to have no solution? Have you been to multiple doctors without receiving a satisfactory diagnosis that could explain your symptoms? Read on to discover how yoga therapy is emerging as an evidence-based complementary health care option to empower people to reduce, manage, or even transform their relationship to stress, even finding relief from stubborn health conditions with no obvious medical explanation.
How Can Yoga Therapy Help Mitigate Symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis?
By Sara Merrick-Albano, E-RYT, C-IAYT Multiple Sclerosis (MS) can be a daunting diagnosis for patients, and affects over 2.3 million people.1 Yoga therapy, a recognized form of complementary medicine (CAM), can be an effective tool to help mitigate symptoms of MS. It...
When Breathwork Is A Bad Idea: A Guide for Using Breathwork Therapeutically with Clients
By Christine Saari, MA, C-IAYT Clinicians are beginning to recommend breathwork as a complement to traditional mental health care such as talk therapy and medication. The terms "breathwork" and "pranayama" are used here synonymously to refer to breathing...
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