Here is a condensed version of a paper I wrote for one of my social work classes. Kinda interesting…. Enjoy!
Yoga Therapy – Defined and Explored
The term “yoga therapy” is rather broad; almost serving as an umbrella, it houses many definitions underneath it. For example, the International Association of Yoga Therapists (2007) define yoga therapy as “the process of empowering individuals to progress toward improved health and well-being through the application of the philosophy and practice of yoga” (p. 1), while researchers Slede and Pomerantz (2001) define it as an effort to “integrate traditional yogic concepts and techniques with Western medical and psychological knowledge” (p. 62). However, it seems that a commonality can be drawn out; the definition most always tends to include yoga practice alongside with some sort of processing or talk therapy.
Yoga in its self is a combination of poses, breath awareness, and meditation (Slede & Pomerantz, 2001). More studies are showing the benefits of yoga practice, particularly with decreasing anxiety and depression (“Yoga for anxiety and depression”, 2009). Perhaps the believed benefits of yoga are leading practitioners to consider incorporating it into working with clients. Researchers also seem to be motivated to explore if evidence supports its use, particularly combined with some sort of processing.
This paper will explore the promising practice of yoga therapy with youth populations around issues of anxiety and depression, which includes school-aged children. Because the research is rather new, other studies, some looking just at yoga or a different population, will be looked at to draw conclusions of how this intervention technique could possibly be beneficial to youth.
As previously mentioned, many different approaches to yoga therapy exist. However, Libby Robold, M.A. (2002) offers a great module in working with emotionally impaired youth in her article “Yoga and Emotional Healing for Aggressive Youth”. When working with emotionally impaired youth, she breaks up her yoga therapy sessions into eight steps. Her approach helps conceptualize what yoga therapy can look like when working with children with emotional issues. Below are descriptions of the steps. In her article, she goes into much further depth for their reasoning.
1. Grounding – In this first stage, it is imperative each child has his or her own safe space, such as a mat or towel to practice his or her yoga on.
2. Rooting – The practice begins with children placing their feet to the floor and standing up, thus beginning with a steady, tall foundation.
3. Connections – This is the time of breath focusing and listening to one’s body. It allows children to start with a framework of being in control and aware.
4. Asana – Asana literally means “poses”; at this step the instructor leads the youth through a series of yoga poses.
5. Focus – Between certain flows of poses, it is important to offer focusing poses that can help the youth hold onto their focus.
6. Breathing – Again, breath awareness before, during, and after practicing the poses should be encouraged. Breathing practices are believed to soothe and balance the human nervous system.
7. Relaxation time – During this stage, Robold recommends allowing students to lie in stillness while the practitioner leads the youth on a guided journey and eventually ends in silence.
8. Closure – This final stage allows for children to share and process with the rest of the group. This is the key piece along with the guided meditation that distinguishes Robold’s approach as yoga therapy instead of just a yoga practice.
(Robold, 2002).
Children and adolescent specialist, Amy Tate, M.Ed. (2003), also incorporates yoga into her work with youth in psychiatric facilities. She believes in a very similar module to Robold, including processing and guided meditation. She also believes that discussing the philosophy behind yoga can be very beneficial to clients.
Evidentiary Findings for Yoga Therapy
Many practitioners have written about the success of yoga therapy with their clients. For instance, when explaining their use of yoga therapy, both Tate and Robold offered personal accounts of their experience with its success. Tate (2003) discusses in her article that the purpose of inpatient children clinical settings is ultimately stabilization. She feels that yoga, along with appropriate therapy and pharmacology, can be one of the best tools to help her clients attain stabilization. She did express, however, how the short-term nature of inpatient psychiatric settings makes it difficult for the full effects of yoga to be attained. Yet, she believes that it is still helpful. She feels that “yoga can offer handy tools for this population…to use to maintain control of their bodies when everything else in the world seems out of control” (p. 85).
With the objective of examining if yoga helps young adults with depression, several researchers at The University of California in Los Angeles provided a yoga intervention and measured its outcomes to 28 students at the campus (Woolery et al., 2004). The intervention consisted of two one-hour yoga sessions per week for five weeks. To measure the outcome, the researchers used the Beck Depression Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Profile of Mood States, and cortisol levels in the morning time. Their end results were that the participants showed a significant decrease in depression and anxiety, as well as several other benefits.
Diversity within Yoga Therapy
Not only are yoga therapy studies relatively scarce, but the majority have been conducted on college campuses, which fails to adequately represent the full population. However, the accounts of practitioners with children discussed earlier in the paper seem to have worked with more diverse youth populations.
Researchers Slede and Pomerantz (2001) found in their review of current literature that women tended to benefit from yoga more than men. They also found that young individuals tended to respond better than older adults.
Personal Thoughts of Yoga Therapy
Because of my own experiences with the benefits of yoga, I am very drawn to believe in its possible therapeutic power. Most evidence seems to support that yoga therapy is indeed beneficial, but the lack of more data makes its effectiveness still at a questionable stage. Slede and Pomerantz (2001) conclude that “while promising, much of the accumulated research is anecdotal, inconsistent, and in need of further study” (p. 73). I agree with their belief that more scientific research is needed to draw confident conclusions.
Looking at the specific population of youth battling depression and anxiety, there is even less specific data. However, many of the studies that looked at the same issues or the same populations seemed to show hopeful signs that yoga therapy would be helpful for them.
I believe that with more research, theoretical studies, and clarification on a precise definition of yoga therapy, social-work experts will conclude that yoga therapy is indeed a great tool for more clinicians to utilize.
