Branching off traditional Hindu spiritual discipline, yoga therapy uses yoga postures, breathing exercises, meditation, and guided imagery to improve mental and physical health. This holistic focus of yoga therapy encourages the integration of mind, body, and spirit.

What is Yoga Therapy?

Yoga therapy is utilising asanas (postures), pranayama (breath), meditation (dhyana) in order to achieve relaxation. ​ ​ ​ Yoga therapists help target our emotional bodies through specific movement and breathing in order to alleviate trapped trauma or upset in the body. It can be used for both our physical and emotional bodies, and is a holistic movement method able to target both collectively.

History

In Sanskrit, the term Yoga comes from the root word 'Yuj', meaning to join or connect. ​ ​ ​ Yoga is a 5,000 year old practice which focuses on joining the separate self to the rest of the universal self. The origins of Yoga can be traced back to the Vedas, which were written between 7000-150 BCE, and document an array of practices, chants, knowledge, rituals and ceremonies. It was then Patanjali who synthesised and systematised a number of Sanskrit works into the Yoga Sutras in the 2nd century BCE, where he defined Yoga as 'Yogaś citta vritti nirodhah', meaning the stopping of movement or fluctuations of the mind. It was also in the Yoga Sutras that the eight limbed path of Ashtanga was written, which is a guide to lead the student towards samadhi (universal enlightenment).