Improve Your Life With Structural Yoga Therapy

By Pauline Shakti Tait, SYT

More and more doctors are referring their patients to yoga therapy as a solution to chronic back pain.

Yoga therapy is a more holistic approach to elimination of chronic pain, rather than resorting to a regime of pharmaceutical drugs or even surgery.

You don't have to live with your pain. All you need do is set aside a few minutes each day. With a small and consistent commitment it is possible. When you work with a trained structural yoga therapist, you can fulfill your inherent desire to live life to its fullest. The purpose of structural yoga therapy is to fully understand the root cause of your pain and how it affects you not just physically, but throughout mind and body. As you work through the pain management program provided, a sense of wellbeing and confidence will occur through renewed joint flexibility and muscle strength.

Your personalized structural yoga therapy course is typically conducted in 12 weekly sessions. The course begins by discussing your pain history and how it affects your daily life. Range-of-motion measurements are taken with a goniometer to determine flexibility, and muscles are tested for strength. From these results your therapist prepares a plan that includes therapeutic movements for flexibility, a suitable level of yoga poses for strength, an understanding of location and shapes of muscles being used, and powerful breath control exercises to relax mind and body.

Follow-up sessions allow time for questions, sharing, teaching and thorough understanding of required plan techniques. Your therapist will be your partner encouraging communication between sessions on questions, discoveries and other relevant points to maximize your investment. Through the correct form and level of exercise, positive results will occur almost immediately and you will feel confident and empowered.

As you progress, the level of exercise can be increased for additional structural health and strength. The structural yoga therapy course concludes with a practical and realistic personal maintenance plan designed to retain what you have gained throughout the course. Post-therapy group yoga classes are also provided.