C-IAYT Yoga Therapist
Embodied Yoga Therapy
From my perspective, embodied yoga therapy is an understanding that life is an embodied experience. We embody all our experiences – from the beginning of our life to wherever we are now in this moment.
Trauma, joy, pain, grief, love, fear, security… The yoga therapist works with these embodied experiences, not necessarily trying to direct them, or change them, but rather supporting clients to create space for curiosity and allowing. Nervous system co-regulation supports emotional, spiritual, and physical well-being.
Yoga Therapy draws upon the teachings of yoga practice and philosophy, including the Pañcamaya Kośa model of the body, allowing for a multi-layered and complex understanding of our experience and healing. Briefly ,we understand these layers as the physical layer, Annamaya Kośa; the energetic life force layer, Prānamaya Kośa; the psycho-emotional-social body, Manomaya Kośa; the discerning layer, Vijñānamaya Kośa; and the spiritual awareness layer, Ānandamaya Kośa.
Embodied yoga therapy is an integrative approach that is responsive toward a client’s evolving lived experience of their body, well-being, and health.
Understanding our nervous system and co-regulation practices is a key element of embodied yoga therapy.
