PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALING AND YOGA » Research

Research and the Emerging Field of Yoga Therapy

Gloria — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 21:06:19 +0000

It was so exciting to have attended the first Yoga Research Symposium in North America at the Himalayan Institute in Pennsylvania the first weekend in October. Around 200 Yoga teachers, healthcare professionals and researchers came together to talk and learn about the front edge of research in the emerging field of Yoga therapy. Leading researchers from the US and India shared their work in both lecture and poster presentations. Particular attention was paid to those thinking about doing research. They were educated and encouraged to do go for it! Why the focus on research? To legitimize Yoga in the west as a viable treatment modality in mainstream healthcare. In fact, the President of the Himalayan Institute, Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, PhD, shared during his keynote address he believed Yoga would have more of an anchored presence in our society within the next 10-15 years through the pioneering research that is being carried out today. This because Yoga research would have the effect of making Yoga more accessible to the westerner.

Other highlights of the symposium included a keynote address by Dean Ornish, MD who spoke about the effects of lifestyle in the treatment of heart disease. He was inspiring, eloquent and really drove home the power the individual to have an effect on the course of their health through conscious choices about diet, exercise, spiritual practice, and loving intimate relationships. Bessel van der Kolk, MD lectured on trauma, Yoga and the neurobiology of self-regulation, which I loved for a few reasons. I’ve enjoyed each and every one of his lectures to date, I do trauma therapy work myself, and because Dr. van der Kolk’s pioneering work to demonstrate the viability of Yoga in the treatment of psychological trauma has been both inspiring and validating for me. It has validated the efficacy of a gentle and subjective approach to Yoga in the treatment of trauma, an approach that mirrors my own for the past 15 years. And it has inspired me to keep doing what I do to help others to overcome the often debilitating effects of psychological trauma.

The symposium offered lectures from leading researchers about the use of Yoga in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, shortness of breath in the elderly, breast and ovarian cancer, to name a few. It offered poster presentations on 40 projects from around North America where Yoga was used effectively in the treatment of a health and mental health condition for both adults and youth.

Overall, it felt like a professional home being at this symposium. The vegetarian food was delicious, the conversations fascinating, and care and kindness that was put into the production of the event was palpable. I don’t think I’ve ever attended a symposium where there was so much felt kindness and warmth in the air.

Yoga really is on its way to becoming an accepted therapy in mainstream healthcare. Kudos to the International Association of Yoga Therapists who sponsored this very successful event.

Proven Way to Facilitate Healing

Gloria — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 21:16:45 +0000

This past August, I had the pleasure of attending a week long training at the Providence Renewal Centre in Edmonton, Alberta that offered a proven way of facilitating deep healing. Yoga Nidra is an ancient meditative practice that takes the practitioner into forgotten places within, for the purposes of deep rest, renewal and healing. Traditionally Yoga Nidra has been offered by Yoga teachers as part of a Yoga class or as a stand alone practice. But things have changed. Over the course of this week long training, I was in the presence of 40 Yoga teachers, Yoga therapists, counsellors and psychotherapists. The training, led by Master Yoga Teacher and Clinical Psychologist, Richard Miller, Ph.D, was nothing short of superb. Richard has taken a beautiful healing practice, Yoga Nidra, and made it even better. iRest is both comprehensive in design and broad in application. It can work with an individual’s beliefs or emotional experience in the moment for example, and help to dissolve any blockage that may be in the way of experiencing the peace and harmony within. This enhanced Yoga Nidra practice is being used successfully in the treatment of a number of conditions, from chronic pain to homelessness. I’m particularly excited about its promise in the treatment of addiction and psychological trauma. In fact, iRest, or Integrative Restoration, is actively being researched by the US Military with service men and women returning from combat. The research has been looking at the role of iRest in the treatment of psychological trauma. So far the research indicates iRest has a noticeable and lasting effect on quelling the symptoms of post traumatic stress in this traumatized population. Just think what this practice could do for you and me? As for addiction, Richard shared he has used iRest successfully with his clients in an inpatient setting so far.

Overall, this was an excellent training experience. It deepened and broadened the Yoga and psychotherapy work that I do. Now I have an additional and proven way that is rooted in the Yoga tradition and researched by modern science of meeting people in the moment who are struggling with the effects of psychological trauma, and of paving the psychological way for their return to the Harmony within.

Symposium on Yoga Therapy and Research

Gloria — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 18:57:38 +0000

Since the 1970′s, the field of Yoga therapy has been slowly and steadily emerging in the healthcare industry as a viable treatment for an impressive range of medical conditions. It’s been used in the treatment of osteoperosis, multiple sclerosis, cardiac arrest, chronic pain, schizophrenia, addiction, just to name a very few. Not only that, but more and more Yoga’s been actively researched with impressive results in America, Europe and India. Some of these results were showcased at the third annual Symposium on Yoga Therapy and Research in Los Angeles at the beginning of March. It was an electifying experience to be there! It was an opportunity to mingle with over 600 medical doctors (including psychiatrists), psychologists, researchers, psychotherapists, nurses and other healthcare professionals who were integrating Yoga and Yoga therapy into their healthcare practices and business ventures.

It was particularly exciting to learn about new approaches to the treatment of psychological trauma and the neurophysiology that underlys it. It was heartwarming to learn there was a strong research interest in the treatment of psychological trauma from a Yogic perspective, and to see recent research revealing its positive effect on symptom reduction. It was so encouraging and validating to learn this as for over 10 years I’ve been weaving Yoga philosophy and practice into my counselling and coaching work with people struggling to overcome the psychological effects of trauma and addiction. Now a part of me can breathe a deep sigh of relief as this approach is proving to be as effective as my clients and my own practice has taught me it is.

Yoga is such a sophisticated science. It can meet the individual where they’re at and offer relief from painful or troubling symptoms across a range of conditions, and with a depth that is out of the reach of our traditional medical doctors. We’re in an exciting era of coming to understand from a scientific perspective the depth and breadth of Yoga’s effectiveness! Of course the ancient sages, seers and enlightened beings who’ve been behind it over the past five or six thousand years have known all along what western science is beginning to learn about Yoga’s viability as a therapeutic model: It works! Here’s hoping more research will be done internationally to continue to demonstrate its efficacy to Yoga enthusiasts of all persuasions.

For more information about the recent symposium or the growing Yoga therapy profession, consider contacting the International Associaion of Yoga Therapists at IAYT.com. For further discussion about Yoga in the treatment of psychological trauma and addiction, I welcome your thoughts below. This is indeed a very exciting time to be a Yoga enthusiast!