What to expect at your first yoga therapy session?

I use the term qualified yoga therapist because a yoga instructor is different from a yoga therapist. Yoga instructors, the less they are trained and the less experience they have, are less likely to know which techniques can bring benefits (or harm) to people with medical problems, and have fewer opportunities to develop the required capacity to identify which problems may lead to injuries.

 

Yoga instructors with such a low training level are not qualified to perform yoga therapy. Before scheduling a private yoga session, be aware of the level of experience that the therapist has.
When a qualified yoga therapist is helping you in a private yoga session, you can expect a thorough evaluation of your body. The teacher will assess you for symmetry, strength, flexibility, postural patterns and tics, muscle and tissue tone, as well as mood and motivation.

 

Based on the evaluation, the teacher will typically choose certain practices that seem as though they may be helpful to you and will then watch you try out the recommended practices. You will be monitored to ensure that you are doing the poses and other practices safely and that you understand how to practice them on your own. Based on what therapists see as you practice, they may realize that what they thought would work doesn’t: it doesn’t matter whether something is supposed to be good for you. It only matters if it actually is.

 

You can expect the therapist to look closely at what you are doing and offer suggestions, adjustments, props, or modifications. You will leave your appointment with a prescription for what you can do at home. Almost anyone can do some form of yoga practice on their own, even if it’s something as simple as breath awareness. 

 

In future yoga sessions your teacher will modify and refine that plan as your body and medical condition change.