What Does a Yoga Therapist Do, Really?
Most yoga practitioners do not call themselves yoga therapists. As a yoga therapist, the question I hear most often from yoga practitioners is, “What exactly IS yoga Therapy?” But ask any one of them, Does yoga make you feel better? Has yoga helped you solve life’s problems? Has your health improved since you’ve been practicing yoga? Do you feel more sure of life’s meaning because of yoga? Invariably, the answer will be yes. So why are there so many yoga practitioners who reject or at least question the idea of yoga therapy?
Yoga Alliance Position On Yoga Therapy
Maybe it’s because Yoga Alliance, a well-known registry for yoga teacher training (YTT) programs and yoga teachers, distanced itself and its members from yoga therapy in 2016. Based on a consultation with Law 360 to assess ”the Legal Risk of Unregulated Yoga Therapy,” Yoga Alliance enforced new policies banning the use of words like therapy and healing on the profiles and websites of registered users. Yoga Alliance even requires yoga therapists to post a disclaimer reading, “[t]he yoga therapy components are not derived from [their] status as an RYT® with Yoga Alliance Registry.” Legalities aside, this policy and disclaimer created a perhaps unintended tension between yoga practitioners/educators and yoga therapists if not also, perhaps, an unreal distinction between yoga and yoga therapy.
Is There Really a Difference Between Yoga and Yoga Therapy?
Maybe doubts about yoga therapy arise from attempts to carve out a definition of yoga therapy distinct from the definition of yoga. After all teachers of yoga have been applying yoga philosophy for hundreds of years to help people improve their lives and know their real nature. And yet the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT), which offers certification to yoga therapists and accredits yoga therapy schools, created a new definition carving out “yoga therapy” in June 2020:
Yoga therapy is the professional application of the principles and practices of yoga to promote health and well-being within a therapeutic relationship that includes personalized assessment, goal setting, lifestyle management, and yoga practices for individuals or small groups.
This definition is obviously for official, legal purposes. Should a law need to be passed or a court case somehow involve yoga therapy, it helps to have an official definition. But, aside from being a bit ambiguous, this definition does not tell an actual human what yoga therapy is, or does, or how it will work in their life.
Definitions of Yoga and Yoga Therapy
Socio-Economic Issues With Yoga Therapy
In addition to the above, I’ve heard from yoga practitioners, many of whom are licensed therapists or massage therapists in addition certified yoga teachers, that a yoga therapy license is an extravagance affordable only to people of privilege. From such practitioners, there are also questions about whether the training is sufficiently comprehensive to justify the designation “therapist.” These are questions that deserve consideration and discussion. Some communication around these issues is happening within IAYT and yoga therapy programs around the world. IAYT is also working to back their certifications with more robust standards.
How Does Yoga Therapy Work?
Before becoming a yoga therapist, yoga had been profoundly therapeutic in my own life, not through “yoga therapy” per se, but through yoga practice and application of yoga philosophy to the problems of daily life. Still I was curious about whether yoga therapy might offer another layer or lens through which to experience yoga. So I decided to try a yoga therapy session to experience for myself how it might work and what it had to offer that was different from a yoga class or even private yoga. The following story is about the questions I had and the answers I found.
How Do I Book a Yoga Therapy Session?
To book a yoga therapy session, I looked online for a yoga therapist in my area, but I didn’t find any online. So I asked around and found someone who gave me an email address and phone number of a yoga therapist she had seen. This yoga therapist did not have a website. I wrote to her and asked about having a session. The yoga therapist, we’ll call her Sue, responded quickly with her availability and nothing more. I was game, so I responded and we settled on a date and time. Sue then wrote that she works out of a yoga studio sometimes, but would prefer to meet at her house.
How Much Does Yoga Therapy Cost?
In her email, Sue told me that her rate was $90 per hour and that she recommends 90 minutes. Health insurance did not cover the yoga therapy session. I replied that $135 out of pocket was beyond my budget, and asked for a 60-minute session. Sue did not address the money, but stated that I should allow more than 60 minutes — so she could get to know me.
What Happens In a Yoga Therapy Session?
When I arrived at Sue’s house for the session, she greeted me at the door. She let me in and talked about her home and the changes she had made to it, knocking out this wall, adding that window, etc. As she talked about her renovations, a man arrived out front and began to walk toward the door. Sue immediately said, with theatrical gravity, “It’s okay, he is safe!” I had no idea what that meant or why the theatrics, but I said, “Okay.” She let the so-called safe man in the house and he went somewhere. Aside from his alleged safeness, I had no idea who he was, why he was there, or where he went.
The session was held in the attic of Sue’s bungalow. She showed me to the area set aside for the session and asked me to “begin my practice.” I sat cross-legged. Sue sat across from me. Moments passed in silence. Then Sue asked in a serious tone, “Is that how you would like to begin your practice?”
Hmmmm . . .
I was not sure what she meant. But I considered for a moment or two, and decided that I would rather, at that point, be a curled up in a ball. So I did. I moved my body into child’s pose. We could have stopped right there and talked about that. But we didn’t. Instead I moved my body through a series of shapes some recommended by Sue and some based on how I felt. And sometimes Sue offered hands-on assistance, not to “correct,” but rather, to stay with or deepen the experience. And we talked. Mostly I talked. Sue asked questions or reflected back what I had said, or what she heard, or saw, or sensed me saying.
After the session, Sue told me that she specializes, almost exclusively, in working with women who have experienced sexual trauma. It was then that I realized one thing that had happened. Rather than working with me as me, this yoga therapist was working with me as a type, the type she typically or maybe exclusively works with.
Perhaps it was that combined with being in the homey environment of a bungalow attic with a low ceiling that made me feel like a child subjected to an adult’s limited frame of mind. Perhaps that is why my body responded by taking a child’s pose. At the end of the session, Sue had asked what my take away was. Though I felt a bit annoyed, I also felt the desire to be nice, to please, to think about what it all meant for awhile on my own, and to end the session. I said that I was grateful. This was true. I was grateful, for the experience. Though I felt somewhat confused and that $90 was a bit steep for the understanding I came away with. Was it?
What’s the Benefit Of Yoga Therapy?
Even now as I write this, my understanding of what happened in this yoga therapy session deepens. When did I hand over authority to Sue as “the adult”? When did I take on the role of “the child”? How did I not notice this when it was happening? How does this relate to what has happened in my life, and what is happening in my life now? When I look back, the most salient nugget of this experience that helps me put it all together is the shape of my body and feeling. The rest of the facts sort of dance around like mischievous sprites pointing, “See, see?!”
The structure and intention of the session itself is what helped me to see. There was more time and more space to be and to notice. There was someone there to hear me, and to reflect me back to me. And there was closure, or at least an opportunity for closure was provided. These are not things you get in a yoga class or even a private yoga session, which most likely will focus on teaching you how to do poses “the right way.”
So what does a yoga therapist do? What did Sue do? To be sure, she made a few mistakes. If she had initially told me that she specialized in sexual trauma, I might not have gone to her or at least I would have known this was her lens. And the convenience of working in her home while easier for her, had an effect on me, the client, and my experience. Being in someone’s home is a personal experience, particularly when they over share about their renovations. For another, the attic and low ceiling were limiting. What if I had wanted to begin my “practice” in a headstand, or warrior, or simply standing? For that matter, why call it a practice when it is supposed to be a therapy session? And stating that a man is safe with no other introduction or context under the circumstances was odd at best.
Was this all intended to be therapeutic? Who knows. But given that I got to see and reflect on how I showed up in these circumstances physically and emotionally, it was. And this is worthwhile. In sum, my experience of yoga therapy from the perspective of the client is that it can heighten and intensify the experience of the present moment with the added benefit of having someone to talk to about it, and someone to hold space just for you.
If you’re still curious, read Megan’s story about how yoga therapy helped transform anxiety attacks from moments of fright to moments of intense insight.