Meaning of Therapeutic yoga

Therapy means ‘treatment intended to relieve or heal a disorder’- definition by Google and we don’t have to tell you the meaning of yoga because everybody knows about it but the question is what really is this therapeutic yoga?

Many yoga teacher training in India offers therapeutic yoga and before illustrating exactly what is this yoga, we have to tell that this type of yoga is more concerned with teachers who are training to yoga aspirants as they will give therapy to learners, now coming to the meaning- therapeutic yoga is that type of yoga which requires consciousness from the yoga teachers to identify individual problems of individual learners and focusing on curing that problem. Think of this as a normal therapy session with a consultant who individually and personally tries to solve your problems.

Now it is very important for yoga teachers and students to differentiate between therapeutic yoga ad normal yoga which is therapeutic in nature got confused?

Don’t worry, just read this example- as you all may know that yoga is therapeutic in nature for e.g. – normal yoga can help in back injury when a person constantly do yoga for a long time, this is called normal way of doing yoga but it can transformed into therapeutic yoga just by changing the approach of teacher who will help that person by individually choosing yoga poses for back and completely healing that injury in a short span of time.

In other words, we can also say that when a teacher provides therapy with yoga then this is called therapeutic yoga.

Evolution, further more

Now, therapeutic yoga doesn’t stop there but goes further beyond simple individualization into more complexes and in depth diagnosis. What we have illustrated above is the 1st step towards knowing therapeutic yoga and the 2nd step is finding the problems of every student by their yoga teacher, these problems can range from depression to minor paralysis or simple cuts to broken bones, as you have all know that health issues requires medical attention be it minor or major health issue, so it is needed on the part of yoga teacher to ask about their students medical treatment carefully and then building up their schedules according to it so therapeutic yoga will perform the work of helping hand in curing health issues with medical treatment, it is important because medical treatment is essential in curing and yoga shouldn’t go in other direction compared to medical treatment because it will worsen the health of a person rather than curing him/her.

3rd step or identification of therapeutic yoga class is that the teacher of that class will have the personal long experience (through any medium) of therapy which is/are needed by yoga students, as an example think of yoga teacher A as being specialist in depression issues on the other hand teacher B has knowledge about neurology, so they both can contribute their knowledge combined with yoga in the form of therapeutic yoga but this can be applied only in their field of specialization not in each and every field.

Please note that yoga teacher don’t have to possess degree in various fields to perform therapeutic yoga, all they have to do is gain the CORRECT and PROPER knowledge about a particular field.

Our Therapeutic Yoga Program

A proper therapeutic yoga class is the one which have everything organized from small details to big issues; a therapeutic yoga class can include yoga practitioners having different issues or a class in which every practitioner have the problems that falls under one category for e.g. – neurology, musculoskeletal, etc. although later one is more widely accepted.

At our yoga teacher training in Goa at Mahi Yoga, we teach therapeutic classes by building up their base of knowledge about a particular field by imparting them full knowledge about organs, their functions, possible diseases related to it, complete anatomy, mind influence on diseases and vice versa- this approach help us in building their base on which their house of experience will stand on, we do all of it by teaching them just like different teachers teaches a class full of students in a school.

Then we proceed further by teaching what is essential for this type of class like- personal understanding among teachers and students; how to manage every student’s personal need efficiently, how to become an effective teacher by knowing the right time to take decisions regarding their students.

At first we start by basics then we proceed ahead by teaching moderate yoga poses and at last when students become accustomed to yoga routine, we teach them more complex asanas and pranayam thus, working at a steady pace to not to overwhelm them and at the same time equipping them with full knowledge which they need.

Small Conclusion

Therapeutic yoga is a new edition to yoga but it is very favorable to both teachers and students as they both gain something from it and this type of yoga is not restricted to only physical aspect but also contains mental and spiritual aspects as well, meaning therapeutic yoga can be attended by a person who needs some peace of mind or need to get rid of alcohol or want to get closer to god and unravel the mystery of purpose of human life on this earth.