There are a number of reasons why someone might want to understand the difference between yoga and yoga therapy – whether they are a yoga professional considering the next steps in their career, or an individual looking for specialist support in introducing yoga into their lives.
While yoga and yoga therapy do sit side by side in their place as a form of self care and exercise, there are many factors which are considered to make yoga therapy distinct from the wider practice.
Yoga: A Background
The practice of yoga originated in India around five thousand years ago, and is a form of exercise and spiritual practice which centres around a series of poses and methods of meditation which supports physical and mental wellbeing. Key elements include asanas (poses), pranayama (breathing exercises) and mindfulness meditation.
The earliest written treatise on yoga is the two thousand year old Yoga Sutra, authored by the Indian sage Pantanjali, which explores yogic philosophy and acts as a guide for mastering the mind, managing emotions and achieving spiritual expansion. This text provides the framework of all modern forms of yoga and this tradition is not primarily focused on improving fitness, but instead is a method through which to build connection between mind, body and spirit.
Typically practiced in groups led by a trained teacher, yoga today can be found in a vast variety of forms and can be practised by people with many different motivations – whether that’s a desire to cope better with the stress in their lives, build their physical strength and flexibility or simply as a means meeting new people. Yoga in itself can be hugely effective in helping people improve their health and wellbeing, and as a mind-body practice can help people achieve a greater sense of calm, better health and increased self-esteem.
Understanding The Distinguishing Features of Yoga Therapy
There are many definitions that attempt to capture the emerging field of yoga therapy, but at The Minded Institute we feel that it’s TKV Desikachar that best encapsulates its breadth:
“A self-empowering process, where the care-seeker, with the help of the Yoga therapist, implements a personalized and evolving Yoga practice, that not only addresses the illness in a multi-dimensional manner, but also aims to alleviate his/her suffering in a progressive, non-invasive and complementary manner. Depending on the nature of the illness, Yoga therapy can not only be preventative or curative, but also serve as a means to manage the illness, or facilitate healing in the person at all levels.”
As is the case in many similar fields, while thought leaders endeavour to tease out distinctions, drawing a hard line between yoga and yoga therapy has not been a straightforward task. Both can be therapeutic, and take place either in a group setting or one-to-one, and naturally they share techniques and an overarching rationale. However, the key differences include:
- When visiting a yoga therapist, the client will be subject to a detailed assessment in advance of embarking on any practice.
- An individualised treatment plan will be drawn up, which may be modified as the treatment progresses according to client response.
- Any qualified yoga therapist will have completed far more comprehensive training than a yoga teacher, with necessary skills including:
- The ability to read and understand medical diagnoses.
- Familiarity with a broad range of physical and mental health conditions, with a basic understanding of typical disease states and associated symptoms, the effects of medications, and associated contraindications.
- The knowledge of what yoga practices to prescribe, relevant to any particular diagnosis.
- A comprehensive understanding of the roles of other health professionals, who can be referred to when a client needs additional support and/or the yoga therapist is not qualified to address aspects of their condition.
However, while the role of a yoga therapist is distinct from that of a yoga teacher in a variety of ways, the difference between yoga and yoga therapy isn’t necessarily as clear cut. It is possible to argue that any time a person uses yoga to relieve or overcome a health condition, that they are engaging in yoga therapy.
For many people, a driving motivation to take up yoga is to improve their general wellbeing, strength and flexibility. However, a significant number also do so in order to help manage or improve a specific physical or mental health condition. As the popularity of yoga in general rises (according to the International Yoga Federation, 300 million people now practise yoga worldwide), the fact that yoga can improve health has become established in the public psyche.
Using an integration of yoga and mindfulness that translates scientific research into effective practices, yoga therapy offers a comprehensive, cutting-edge and compassionate approach to supporting health. A yoga therapist’s role is to listen to their clients in order to form a full picture of the symptoms that trouble them, identifying the most appropriate yogic methods (often in conjunction with other pharmaceutical and therapeutic treatments) to manage these symptoms.
Yoga therapy also aims to empower the individual by helping them overcome their health challenges and gain independence, taking a more active role in their self-care with accessible and easy-to-apply methods. Through substantial training and academic work, yoga therapists gain the medical knowledge and psychotherapeutic skills to meet people’s changing needs, and provide yogic techniques appropriate to their client’s health status.
What is the Place of Yoga Therapists In Healthcare?
While yoga is a healthy pursuit that can benefit it’s practitioners in its general form, yoga therapy is an evolving field which focuses on using evidence-based yogic practices in the treatment of specific health conditions. As a therapeutic practice, yoga therapy aims to bridge the world’s of yoga and healthcare, and can be applied both as a form of physical therapy (for example, in relieving back pain) and as a mental health support (for instance, as an adjunct treatment for PTSD).
As such, yoga therapy is highly informed by medical physiology, psychology and neuroscience. This provides a sound, evidence based rationale for using yoga as an adjunct therapy in a variety of mental and physical health conditions, and also gives yoga therapists the knowledge needed to safely tailor a yoga program to the particular needs of their client.
While yoga therapy can be used in a group setting, the experience of a client seeking the help of a yoga therapist will be distinct from that they would find in a general yoga class. Yoga therapy aims to treat the whole person by taking an individualised approach, with each course designed around a client’s specific needs, looking to address the root cause of their health issues and guide them on a path to restored wellbeing. While relieving a client’s symptoms is a primary aim, yoga therapy also looks to address the root cause of their illness, and provide a sustainable way to manage it.
Yoga therapists can become a key part of the wider healthcare community, but both the efficacy and acceptance of yoga therapy in this field is dependent on maintaining the highest possible standards and understanding the scope of yoga therapy within the wider context.
The International Association of Yoga Therapists have created a Scope of Practice document (which you can find in full here) in order to define the breadth and limitations of a yoga therapist’s role in healthcare. For anyone interested in training as a yoga therapist, we highly recommend reading the full document, but as a broad overview a yoga therapist is qualified to:
- Use their education, training and experience to responsibly practice.
- Use qualitative/quantitative yoga therapy assessment tools to ensure the safety and appropriateness of a yoga therapy intervention and create a treatment plan.
- Develop a therapeutic plan/provide advice within the yoga therapy framework that takes into account the client’s needs, goals, learning style, life circumstances and access to resources such as time and equipment.
- Guide clients through their treatment plan over the course of weeks or months, and make modifications where necessary.
Why is Yoga Therapy Important?
A myriad of factors in the modern world – which include influences as diverse as greater mental health pressures to advances in medical technology – contribute to the health challenges of the 21st century. While COVID-19 has proven that society can still be shaken by communicable disease, lifestyle diseases, mental illness and survivorship still represent complex issues that we must tackle going forward.
Human progress in medicine has been one of our greatest achievements, but those living with chronic physical and mental health issues – or dealing with the health impacts of surviving acute illness such as cancer – may need further support than that provided by traditional medicine.
A person’s health is often an intricate picture, encompassing tangible issues such as socioeconomic standing and less easy to define factors such as their own perception of their symptoms. With health services under increasing pressure and doctors sometimes lacking the time to deal with patients beyond what can be addressed in a short appointment, yoga therapy offers time-poor health professionals another service they can refer to that lets patients feel their concerns are being taken seriously.
Yoga therapy can ease the strain on health services through a range of mechanisms. Firstly, it provides another tool for health professionals to support patients facing difficult or co occurring illnesses, particularly in cases where they have proved treatment resistant to frontline methods. Secondly, yoga therapy helps people feel truly listened to – over the duration of a course, the patient gains access to a professional whose first job is to understand the whole picture concerning their health, and has the time needed to do so.
Yoga therapy also prioritises wider wellbeing, which can improve health markers over a broad scope of issues – for instance, someone using yoga therapy in their treatment plan for panic attacks could also find that their blood pressure improves. The potential to address ancillary challenges which worsen health outcomes, such as loneliness and stress, also means that yoga therapy can not only address acute symptoms but give people the tools to cope over the long term and prevent further problems from developing.
By learning safe and appropriate yogic techniques that they can take into their everyday lives, those who have accessed yoga therapy become more self-sufficient, easing the burden both on individuals and doctors.
For people wanting to train as yoga therapists, please see our options for yoga therapy training in a Professional Diploma in Yoga Therapy.
For yoga and health professionals who want to understand more about yogic techniques for specific health conditions, please see our courses page.
