Frances Cole Jones

What is
Yoga Therapy?

When people think of yoga, they often conjure up a mental image of someone twisted up like a pretzel or sitting in lotus (in spotless white!) and meditating.

And while neither of these things is untrue, yoga is about more than the physical body; and the idea that meditation begins (or ends…) with a serene and spotless mind is self-defeating.

So what is yoga therapy?

Yoga therapy aims to integrate your physical, mental, and emotional states into a cohesive whole – one that allows you to take decisions and choose experiences from a place of mental spaciousness, rather than reaction, or patterning.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

Albert Einstein

A yoga therapist starts where you are

Too often, however, that is exactly what we try to do—because we aren’t able to stand back from our ‘self’– with a small ‘s’ –long enough to tune into our ‘Self’: that part of us that doesn’t change when our circumstances do– that knows the next, right action and takes that action from a place of integrity.

How do we reconnect with that Self?

A yoga therapist starts where you are

What might that look like?

What might that look like?

Well, if back pain is impinging on your well-being, they might suggest beginning with some gentle movement. If undigested mental and emotional experiences are causing you to feel anxious, they might show you some conscious breathing techniques. If memories of past shame/hurt/loss are constricting your choices, simple meditation techniques might help you step back and assess.

The theologian, Albert Schweitzer said, “Every patient carries her or his own doctor inside.” A yoga therapist helps put you in touch with that part of yourself.