Yoga Therapy is a form of treatment that has been used for centuries. Its therapeutic applications are wide-ranging, including stress relief, emotional regulation and mental clarity.If you are looking for a holistic, natural way to heal your body and mind, thenYoga Therapy may be the perfect solution for you. Yoga therapists have been using this ancient practice as a means of healing since its inception yet many people have forgotten the healing power of yoga.

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YogaVision offers a wide range of virtual services to help you improve your mental health and wellbeing. Our therapists are passionate about helping people restore their health and vitality through the practice of yoga.

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This article will discuss the healing power of yoga therapy and how it can be an integral part of your life to help you reduce anxiety and boost your motivation!

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What is yoga therapy?

Yoga is one of the oldest and most popular forms of movement in the world and yoga therapy is the application of yoga as a healing modality. Yoga therapy is used to treat mental, emotional and spiritual ailments.

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A yoga therapist will use a variety of techniques to help you heal, including asana (postures), pranayama (breathwork), meditation, mantra and mudra. Each session is tailored specifically for you and your needs, with a focus on finding the root cause of your ailments and providing you with an effective treatment plan. Our yoga therapist in Toronto will personalize a plan just for you.  

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In the 1920s, Swami Kuvalyananda from India coined the term "Yoga therapy" which envisioned that yoga could be used to treat medical conditions. His dedication led him to an entire lifetime campaign for its acceptance in Western medicine and researchers came to study what he knew best. Yogic practises such as breathing exercises or meditation created new knowledge about how these particular forms of physical exertion may help people suffering from ailments like diabetes or depression.

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Fast forward a hundred years and yoga has been found to be beneficial in various medical journals. Mental health professionals often recommend it as well and may integrate some aspects into their work for clients who suffer from stress or anxiety issues.

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In fact, there is so much evidence and support for yoga therapy that in the USA cardiologist Dr Dean Ornish developed a yogic based intervention to reverse heart disease which was successful enough that it's now covered by public health insurance! Likewise across Europe too--the United Kingdom’s NHS recommend their own council of Yoga Therapists as an option on complementary therapies services offered through primary care doctors' offices there too.

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What is the distinction between yoga therapy and normal yoga?

There are many different types of yoga.  Finding the right one for you is crucial to staying consistent and gaining the benefits of the practice. Yoga Therapy is a specific form of yoga that is tailored for healing. The poses and sequences are specifically chosen to help you address your intention and concerns.

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Regular yoga classes offered in gyms, studios and online generally tend to focus on the body by improving flexibility, strength, and balance.  Yoga Therapy, on the other hand, address these issues from a body-mind-spirit connection, looking at root causes, emotional factors and childhood impacts. It's a wholistic approach. If you have seen improvements in your overall health and wellbeing from a Yoga class, your time with a Yoga Therapist will deliver exponential results.

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What physical health problems can yoga therapy address?

The physical benefits of yoga therapy are wide-ranging. Yoga helps build strength, flexibility and balance which are all important for improving your health and wellbeing.

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Yoga is a great way to help you improve your posture as well as reduce pain from lower back problems or tightness in the hips and hamstrings. It also improves circulation throughout the body so that more oxygen can reach muscles! Below are some other health problems that yoga therapy can address.

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Back pain

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By improving strength and flexibility in the spine, yoga can help to reduce back pain. This is due to the fact that asanas or postures can help to maintain the spine's natural curves. Yoga also helps increase circulation in your muscles and ligaments, reducing inflammation which is often a factor for people with back pain.

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Arthritis

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Yoga therapy can help to ease the symptoms of arthritis by strengthening the joints and improving flexibility. The reason yoga is so beneficial to arthritis is that the poses are often performed slowly and with precision. This allows you to gently stretch the joints, which can help reduce pain and inflammation.

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Digestive problems

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Yoga therapy can be a great way to improve your digestive health. The asanas or poses help to massage and stimulate the organs in the abdominal area, which helps increase blood flow and promote healthy digestion. Yoga also helps to reduce stress levels, which is often a contributor to digestive problems.

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Asthma

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Yoga therapy can be very beneficial to people with asthma. The breathing exercises and poses help reduce stress levels, which is often a contributor to asthma attacks. Yoga also helps stretch the muscles in your back making it easier to breathe when you are bending over or lifting something heavy! In fact, yoga has been shown to be so beneficial to asthma sufferers that the British Thoracic Society recommends it as a treatment!

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Obesity

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Yoga can help you to lose weight by increasing your muscle mass. When you engage in yoga regularly, it increases the amount of lean muscle while decreasing the amount of body fat. This means that even though your calorie intake may not change much, you will see a positive difference on the scales as well as in the mirror!

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Insomnia and sleep issues  

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Yoga can help you to improve your sleep. There are many different types of yoga, but most involve a series of poses that relax muscles and calm the mind. This helps lead to a more restful night's sleep so when morning comes around, it will be easier to wake-up and start your day!

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Another way Yoga Therapy helps with insomnia is through breathing exercises. Yoga is a great form of exercise for your respiratory system, which in turn helps oxygenate the blood and reduce stress hormones, so that you can fall asleep more quickly!

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Urinary inconsistency

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A study published here shows that yoga therapy provided preliminary evidence suggesting that a group-based yoga therapy program may help women with urinary incontinence. This is because yoga therapy helps to improve muscle strength and flexibility as well as breathing this can help urinary muscles and improve circulation.

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Headaches & Migraines

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Because of the calming and relaxing nature of yoga, it can help to reduce stress levels.Stress is a major factor for people with headaches or migraines so by lowering your stress level you may be able to decrease how often these types of attacks occur! This study that was conducted by many reputable doctors shows that Meta-analyses of the study studies found that a yoga program resulted in a significantly reduced frequency of headaches.

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What mental health problems can yoga therapy address?

Yoga has been shown to improve mental health, physical health, and spiritual well-being. It helps to reduce stress and anxiety, improve concentration, and increase self-awareness.

One of the main reasons yoga is so beneficial for mental health is because it teaches you how to focus on your breath. This can help you when you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed out. The deep breathing exercises also promote relaxation and calm the mind. Below are just some of the mental health problems that yoga therapy can address.

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Depression and anxiety

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People with depression often feel like they are weighed down by their negative feelings and emotions. Yoga can help to lighten your mood and improve your outlook on life!It also helps you learn how to focus on positive things, which is a great strategy for when you're feeling depressed or stressed out. People who practice yoga regularly have reported lower levels of depression and anxiety than those who do not practice yoga. The essence of yoga is to focus on the now and not on the past or future, which can be a great way to break free from negative thoughts and feelings.

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Childhood trauma

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Childhood trauma can have a lasting impact on someone's life. Yoga can be a great way to work through these difficult emotions and memories. The poses, breathwork, and meditation can all help you to access buried feelings and memories so that you can start to process them.

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Lack of motivation

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Having no motivation can be detrimental to your mental health. Someone who is feeling unmotivated may have low self-esteem, which can lead to a negative outlook on life and more issues in the future! Yoga helps you learn how to focus your mind so that you are fully present in each moment of every day. You will also find yourself becoming less anxious about things like work and other responsibilities. When you are less anxious, it will be easier for you to find the motivation you need to get things done. Another brilliant way to gain motivation is to see positive improvements in not only your yoga technique but how you feel about your overall health.

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Isolation

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If you struggle with feeling lonely, yoga is a great way to meet new people who share similar passions and interests. Yoga studios are generally very welcoming atmospheres where everyone comes together for the same purpose! You will also be surrounded by support on your journey as you learn more about yourself through practising yoga.  Social anxiety feels like a bad case of stage fright, where you feel like everyone is watching and judging you. This can be crippling for those who want to engage in social activities. Yoga helps to reduce this fear because it teaches you how to focus on the present moment. You will learn that most people are too wrapped up in their own lives to worry about what you are doing!

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Anger

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Having anger issues can lead to serious problems in your life. Anger can cause you to make rash decisions and lash out at the people around you, which is never a good thing! Yoga teaches you how to manage anger by calming down your body instead of lashing out physically or verbally when something makes you angry. You will also learn how to focus on positive thoughts that come. The yoga component of anger management programs, in particular, has not been well researched but this study on science direct is the first of its kind and it showed many beneficial outcomes.

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Yoga therapy vs traditional therapy

When it comes to mental health, yoga therapy is often seen as a complementary or alternative treatment to traditional therapies like counselling and medication. Yoga has been shown to be helpful for a wide variety of mental health issues, which is why many therapists are beginning to incorporate it into their practices.However, there have not been many studies that compare the effectiveness but from real-life examples and personal experience, yoga therapy is showing to be a very successful treatment.

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Yoga Therapy vs Physiotherapy

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People often find physiotherapy to be a daunting experience as it can be quite intense and there is usually a lot of pain involved. Yoga therapy, on the other hand, is gentle and slow-paced. It is perfect for those who are not comfortable with traditional physiotherapy or who find it too strenuous. In addition, yoga therapy can help to improve your overall health, which is not always the case with physiotherapy.

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Yoga Therapy vs Naturopathy

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Naturopathy is all about helping your body to heal itself. It usually involves detoxifying the body so that it can rid itself of harmful substances, which is essentially apart of yoga therapy as well! Yoga also helps you cope with stress in a much healthier way than naturopathy but both are considered complementary therapies.

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Yoga vs counselling

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Counselling isa great way to deal with mental health issues, but it can be quite expensive.Yoga therapy is a much more affordable option and it has been shown to be justas effective as counselling in many cases! In addition, yoga therapy helps you learn how to manage your own mental health, which is something that counsellors cannot always do.

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Yoga Therapy and the Polyvagal Theory

The Polyvagal Theory, which was developed by Stephen Porges, is a fairly new concept in psychology that has yet to be fully explored. However, it focuses on the relationship between the nervous system and social engagement or disengagement behaviours. Yoga therapy can help you learn how to regulate your nervous system so that you feel more comfortable engaging with other people. It can also help you to overcome social anxiety and anger issues.

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There is a lot of research that still needs to be done on yoga therapy and its effects on mental health, but the evidence that we have so far is very promising! Yoga therapy has the potential to help people with a wide variety of mental health issues and it is an affordable and accessible treatment option. If you are struggling with mental health issues, I would highly recommend giving yoga therapy a try! This study gives some great detail on the Polyvagal theory!

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How to get started with yoga therapy and what to expect

When you first meet your yoga therapist, they will discuss how to best help and support the needs that are unique only YOU! Yoga is a tremendous form of therapy, and during your first session with the therapist you'll work up an understanding of how to do daily basic practices. They might recommend at least six sessions for beginners; however, this plan can be personalized depending on what other treatments are preferred or needed alongside yoga (elements such as pranayama).

Yoga therapy is all about empowerment. Yoga therapists meet people where they are and provide tailored instructions for practising at home or in class, depending on what's best to help achieve your goals as a patient member over time - whether it be healing from cancer treatment side effects such as anxiety disorders etc., weight loss programs if you're obese but don't want surgery; fertility challenges due too high levels of hormones which can make getting pregnant difficult sometimes even impossible without medication... the possibilities really are endless!

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Final Thoughts

Yoga therapy is a powerful way to improve your physical and mental well-being. It can help you with chronic pain, anxiety or depression. If the idea of committing to an ongoing yoga practise isn’t for you though, there are other ways that using this ancient Indian healing art in conjunction with modern Western medicine could be beneficial for you. Our Toronto-based therapist will work closely with your doctor to find out if they think it might be right for you too! Contact us today so we can get started on helping you heal.