Yoga Therapy
for Mental Health and Wellbeing
“It's crucial that we learn how to apply yoga to the person, not the person to yoga.”
~ Beth Gibbs
Yoga, a complementary medicine
Australia has one of the most advanced medical systems in the world, yet many people struggle with at least one chronic condition, for which there is no real medical solution. Modern medicine has failed to address the multifactorial issues that lie at the root of most chronic diseases. Especially when it comes to mental health.
There is an urgent need for cost-effective, complementary approaches to address lifestyle-related non-communicable diseases and the related burden of chronic stress.
Much of our mental health treatment system in Australia is focused on the treatment of mental illness – rather than on promoting mental health.
Yoga as a personalized therapy, offers a comprehensive embodied way of understanding the nature of the human mind, and how this relates to our mental health, empowering one to explore ways to modify behavior and lifestyle choices and embody a healthy resilient nervous system.
A wealth of evidence-based research has consistently demonstrated that yoga, as an effective ‘mind-body’ medicine can both prevent and manage chronic health issues.
Yoga therapy is a newly emerging, self-regulating complementary and integrative healthcare (CIH) practice. It is growing in its professionalization, recognition, and utilization with a demonstrated commitment to setting practice standards, educational and accreditation standards, and promoting research to support its efficacy for various populations and conditions.
“Yoga is strong medicine but it is slow medicine. Don’t expect overnight cures with yoga (though for many people it does start to yield benefits right away). One major difference between yoga and many other approaches to healing is that yoga builds on itself, becoming more effective over time. This is not true of most drugs or surgery, which often gradually diminish in effectiveness. In this sense yoga is something like learning to play a musical instrument: the longer you stick with it and the more you practice, the better you get and the more you will get out of it.” —Timothy McCall, MD, Yoga as Medicine
Why psychiatrists are recommending
trauma sensitive yoga to their patients.
The complex and personal nature of trauma is why yoga therapy provides such an effective approach intreating PTSD and Complex trauma. Practice can be tailored to meet the individual where they are, creating safe embodied experiences. Yoga Therapy offers an extensive toolkit of movement, mindfulness, and breath practices which can be adapted to meet the individual at any stage of their recovery.
Trauma Sensitive Yoga Therapy recognises the advances in research that support the need for embodied experiences and a compassionate understanding of the role the nervous systems plays in survival responses.
The Myth of 'Normal'
“So much of what we call abnormality in this culture is actually normal responses to an abnormal culture. The abnormality does not reside in the pathology of individuals, but in the very culture that drives people into suffering and dysfunction.”
— Gabor Maté
The reasons for yoga therapy’s growing acceptance among the medical community can be simplified to the following factors…
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The need for a cost-effective, alternative approach to help tackle the growing health epidemic across the world
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Yoga’s growing popularity among the general public ensure its health benefits are widely recognized and accepted
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A wealth of evidence-based research has consistently demonstrated its effectiveness across a variety of physical and mental health conditions
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By improving self-reliance, patients can become more responsible for their own health that in turn reduces the demands placed on health care practitioners
With the field of yoga research now blossoming, it is clear that this age-old practice seamlessly influences so many factors vital in mental health, and therefore, unsurprisingly, yoga’s highest efficacy is in mental health improvement.”
-Heather Mason
"I want to see yoga therapy become a profession, with educational and quality standards in place. I also want Yoga Therapy to be recognized by institutions and professionals in other fields, such as medicine, mental health, physical therapy, social welfare, and education".
KENDRA BOONE F - TCTSY, C-IAYT, C-AAYT