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Yoga Can Enhance Therapy
Visits to a medical doctor predominantly involve problems that are stress related. On the other hand, visits to psychotherapists with emotional symptoms are all about psychological stress. When you see a therapist, you are looking to have that stress relieved before it escalates to physical problems. And with the trend in managed care to limit the number of sessions in your therapist’s office, there is seldom time to address what lies beneath those symptoms that could escalate to real physical pain.
Just like taking a pill does not always cure the disease, fixing up old dilemmas by treating their warning signs does not always address the whole person. We Americans have become accustomed to the “quick fix” that is presented by so many segments of our lives. Sadly, this happens with the therapy experience every day.
Thomas Michael Fortel, a teacher and student of yoga at Esalen in Big Sur, California, for 18 years sees body work as a necessary and integral part of therapeutic change. "In order for there to be total and lasting change," he said, "therapy must address the whole person, not just the thinking process. I recommend that people seeking change approach healing from four directions: Psychotherapy, Yoga, Body-Mind Work, and Spiritual Practice."
I know that yoga has enhanced my life, so I decided to interview my yoga teacher, Emily Hain, after hearing this. She told me her 15-year practice of yoga saved her from depression. Coupled with psychotherapy, it became a pathway toward self-study that flowed into her everyday activities, allowing her to focus on her body rather than the disturbing thoughts that kept her in a depressive cycle. When I wondered in what ways yoga impacted therapy, she shared the following answers with me:
ML: What is your philosophy about how yoga helps change our lives?
EH: The yoga I practice and teach is about healing the splits inside us, the places of separation and dislocation. In my teaching, I encourage people to invite and welcome all aspects of their being to the practice, not just the ones we deem "good enough" or "perfect enough."
ML: In what way does yoga make us more receptive to psychotherapy?
EH: Yoga practice has brought me home to my body, something cognitive therapy never was able to accomplish for me. It is a journey from yourself to yourself with no striving. Many of us walk around as if we really don’t exist in physical form. We view our bodies with distaste and distrust, almost like a distant relative who visits once in awhile. And parts of our bodies hold on to that as hurtful emotions and stress.
Further, we spend so much time in our heads. Yoga postures build a bridge of compassion between mind and body so that one can live in some type of congruence. And the magical thing is, therapy actually begins to "take" when that bridge is part of the practice. Therapy helps change our thoughts; yoga brings us back to our bodies.
ML: In what way does that help with the "overwhelm" people feel from such fast-paced lives?
EH: Cultivating the objective and compassionate (to self) attitude takes one away from the "voices in the head" that drive us till we drop. Yoga presents an alternative to life in that fast lane. And because it is about movement and breathing, it brings a different result from, say, sitting in meditation.
ML: How often should yoga be practiced while one is in therapy?
EH: Since it brings comfort in body, mind and spirit, yoga should be practiced every day. Fifteen minutes a day is vastly more beneficial than once a week for an hour. Even that small amount of time helps people "get off the world" and come to know themselves as they really are. Therapy supports that. I think the two are inseparable.
About Mary Lansing, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist...
Mary Lansing is a therapist based in Portland, Oregon, specializing in group and couples therapy.
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