All Yoga is therapeutic, but not all people have the ability to practice yoga in the form that it is taught in most public classes. Well-trained teachers offer modifications in classes to accommodate individuals with needs, thereby they modify the student's practice to participate in a class. In Yoga Therapy sessions, the class is modified to fit the student, not vice versa. Though often confused as the same, accommodation, or modification within a preset sequence is not the same as Yoga Therapy. Yoga therapy is student-centered, the teaching is designed around the specific challenges and strengths that the client brings to the mat. A 25-year-old professional dancer with chronic low back pain, an anxiety disorder, and an eating disorder, has very different therapeutic (physical, emotional and spiritual) needs than a 57-year-old accountant with high blood pressure, COPD, and a very jolly outlook on life. Accordingly, their Yoga Therapy programs would be very different. We offer private Yoga Therapy sessions, completely tailored to the individual, as well as small therapeutic classes (called "clinics") that target a specific population that face similar challenges/conditions.

Some Current Definitions of Yoga Therapy
Excerpted from the International Association for Yoga Therapists (IAYT)www.iayt.org

"Yoga therapy is that facet of the ancient science of Yoga that focuses on health and wellness at all levels of the person: physical, psychological, and spiritual. Yoga therapy focuses on the path of Yoga as a healing journey that brings balance to the body and mind through an experiential understanding of the primary intention of Yoga: awakening of Spirit, our essential nature."
Joseph Le Page, MA, Integrative Yoga Therapy (USA)

"Yoga therapy is a self-empowering process, where the care-seeker, with the help of the Yoga therapist, implements a personalized and evolving Yoga practice, that not only addresses the illness in a multi-dimensional manner, but also aims to alleviate his/her suffering in a progressive, non-invasive and complementary manner.  Depending upon the nature of the illness, Yoga therapy can not only be preventative or curative, but also serve a means to manage the illness, or facilitate healing in the person at all levels."
TKV & Kausthub Desikachar

"Yoga therapy, derived from the Yoga tradition of Patanjali and the Ayurvedic system of health care refers to the adaptation and application of Yoga techniques and practices to help individuals facing health challenges at any level manage their condition, reduce symptoms, restore balance, increase vitality, and improve attitude."
Gary Kraftsow, American Viniyoga Institute

"Yoga therapy is the adaptation of yoga practices for people with health challenges. Yoga therapists prescribe specific regimens of postures, breathing exercises, and relaxation techniques to suit individual needs. Medical research shows that Yoga therapy is among the most effective complementary therapies for several common aliments. The challenges may be an illness, a temporary condition like pregnancy or childbirth, or a chronic condition associated with old age or infirmity."
Robin Monro, Ph.D. Yoga Biomedical Trust (England)

"Yoga therapy consists of the application of yogic principles, methods, and techniques to specific human ailments. In its ideal application, Yoga therapy is preventive in nature, as is Yoga itself, but it is also restorative in many instances, palliative in others, and curative in many others."
Art Brownstein, M.D