The Question I Hear All the Time

People find their way to yoga therapy through different doors. Some have been doing yoga for years and feel like something is still missing. Some are in talk therapy and their therapist suggests they try working with the body. Some have a chronic condition that hasn’t responded to conventional treatment. Some just know, at a gut level, that they need something more individualized than a group class.

Whatever door brought you here, the question is usually the same: Is yoga therapy different from regular yoga? And if so — which one do I actually need?

Let’s break it down.

What Regular Yoga Is

A regular yoga class — whether it’s Vinyasa, Hatha, Kundalini, Yin, or anything else — is a group practice designed around a general population. A skilled teacher adapts to the room, offers modifications, and holds a thoughtful space. At its best, a yoga class is genuinely healing. Many people maintain their health, manage stress, and build community through regular practice.

Group yoga is also a beautiful entry point. It introduces you to breath work, to body awareness, to the idea that how you move and how you feel are connected. For a lot of people, it’s exactly what they need.

What Yoga Therapy Is

Yoga therapy is one-on-one, clinically informed, and built entirely around you.

A yoga therapist is trained not just as a yoga teacher but as a practitioner who understands anatomy, physiology, mental health, and the therapeutic application of yogic tools. The International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT) sets the standards for this training — it’s rigorous, and it’s specific.

In yoga therapy, we don’t start with a sequence. We start with you. What are you carrying? What has your body been holding? What have you tried before, what has helped, and what hasn’t? Where do you notice tension, numbness, reactivity, resistance?

From there, we build a practice together — one that’s individualized to your nervous system, your history, your goals, and your capacity on any given day.

What Yoga Therapy Can Address

Yoga therapy isn’t a replacement for medical care. It’s an integrative practice that works alongside it. At YogaVision, I work with clients navigating:

Trauma and PTSD — yoga therapy offers somatic tools that work with the nervous system in ways that talk therapy alone often cannot reach.

Anxiety and chronic stress — we work with the breath and the nervous system directly, building regulation capacity over time.

Depression and low mood — movement and breathwork shift neurochemistry. This isn’t bypassing; it’s biology.

Chronic pain and illness — we explore what the body is asking for, how to move in ways that support rather than aggravate, and how to develop a relationship with your body that isn’t defined by what it can’t do.

Life transitions — grief, identity shifts, relationship endings, spiritual emergence. Sometimes what you need is a space that honours the whole of who you are.

How to Know Which One Is Right for You

If you’re drawn to yoga as movement, community, and general wellbeing, a group class is a wonderful place to start. Many of my yoga therapy clients also maintain a group practice alongside our work.

If you have specific physical, mental, or emotional conditions you want to address. If you’ve tried group yoga and felt like it wasn’t quite meeting you where you are. If you’re working through something that needs more than a sequence — that needs a relationship, a trained set of eyes, and a practice built exactly for you — then yoga therapy is probably what you’re looking for.

A clarity call costs you nothing and tells you everything. We’ll talk for 20 minutes, and you’ll leave knowing whether we’re a good fit.

Book a free Yoga Therapy consultation at YogaVision.

Ready to do this work in community? Harmony Within is a membership for women and 2SLGBTQIA+ people who are ready to come home to themselves — through Kundalini Yoga, nervous system repair, and honest community that actually holds you. Explore Harmony Within here.