Yoga therapy
What is yoga therapy?
When clients seek out a yoga therapist...they are usually not coming to learn yoga, but to get help with or relief from some symptom or health condition.... In most cases, the instruction focuses on their condition and how the yoga techniques can help them feel better or improve their function, rather than on the techniques or methods of yoga practice.
-Gary Kraftsow, Yoga International
The therapeutic benefits of yoga have been proven through centuries of practice, and now through modern scientific research. Yoga therapy taps into the healing modalities of yoga to help reduce or manage symptoms, improve bodily function, restore a healthful balance, manage emotions, and cope with chronic mental and physical conditions.
Yoga International describes the role of the yoga therapist as follows:
[Yoga] therapists are trained to assess clients through listening, questioning, observing, and appropriately touching. Therapists look for ways to help their clients reduce or manage their symptoms, improve their function, and help them with their attitude in relation to their health conditions. After assessing clients, therapists establish appropriate goals, develop a practice intervention, and then teach clients to practice that intervention. In this sense, therapists choose yoga techniques in relation to how they will specifically benefit individual clients.
Who is it for and how is it different from a regular yoga practice?
Yoga therapy is for anyone who wants to address a health- or relationship issue through the ancient healing power of yoga.
A yoga therapy session has a different intent than a typical yoga practice. It is a focused, therapeutic session that applies yoga poses and techniques to support a specific set of a pre-identified health issues. Think of it as yoga being a prescribed remedy as part of a treatment plan. Doctor Atoosa uses it as an adjunctive therapy to treat children, teens, and adults with anxiety, insomnia, ADHD, chronic pain, asthma, post-COVID syndromes, digestive problems, menstrual problems, injuries, and acute and ongoing stress. She also provides prenatal yoga for pregnant people adjusting to their bodily changes and the emotional transition to parenthood.
(Note: Although yoga therapy is the primary treatment tool Doctor Atoosa uses for some conditions, she typically uses it in combination with other treatments and as part of an interdisciplinary team of practitioners. Yoga therapy is not a substitute for the diagnostic and therapeutic approaches of allopathic and integrative medicine, but can be one component of the treatment plan.)
Yoga therapy with Atoosa
Yoga therapy is an extension of Doctor Atoosa’s work as a physician. An avid yogini since her teens, she considers yoga an ancient self-healing art, and as such began prescribing yoga poses and breathing techniques to patients in the clinical setting. She taught injured athletes gentle therapeutic poses to relieve pressure on joints or to stretch tight muscles and guided a teenager suffering from panic attacks through a calming breath practice and meditation. To make it official, she decided to become a yoga teacher and is now certified to teach Hatha yoga, through Viniyoga (the parent lineage of yoga therapy); Kundalini yoga, through Radiant Child Teacher Certification; and pre- and post-natal yoga. Doctor Atoosa has also completed advanced studies in yoga anatomy and alignment, as well as pranayama and meditation. She is certified as a yoga therapist through Yoga Alliance.
Ways to work with Doctor Atoosa as a yoga therapist include:
Personalized yoga therapy treatment—Doctor Atoosa provides clients with an individualized treatment plan and a prescribed block of one-on-one sessions with her (number determined by their treatment plan).
Private classes for individuals or groups, workshops, and retreats—Doctor Atoosa tailors a class, workshop, or retreat to the specific needs and interests of participants. Topic include yoga basics, repetitive stress injuries from prolonged sitting, prenatal yoga for parents with anxiety, and more.
Wellness programming for corporations, organizations, and schools—Doctor Atoosa creates single or ongoing programming for larger groups on topics like stress reduction, meditation, focus, performance, cognitive enhancement, mitigating burnout, and more.
Schedule a free 20-minute consultation to learn how yoga therapy could benefit you, your community, or your workplace
“When I was pregnant with my firstborn, Atoosa nurtured me so much. She would come to my house and lead me in prenatal yoga. Afterwards I would fall into a deep, healing sleep. Through guided meditation she helped calm my mind and body. When I experienced back and pelvic pain, she gave me tips on how to move my body mindfully—for example, when getting out of the car, take both legs out and then stand up rather than twist and stand in one movement. These tips helped so much!”
Payment
Doctor Atoosa’s yoga therapy services may be admissible charges for flexible- and health savings accounts (HSA and FSA). Learn more about the terms and conditions here.
Practice yoga and breathwork with Doctor Atoosa
Experience the centering guidance of Doctor Atoosa as she demonstrates meditative breathwork and healing yoga routines.