The Impact of Yoga Therapy on State Change, is a research study recently published by my Yoga Therapy colleague Jennifer Vasquez (Assistant Professor Texas State University School of Social Work). It explores the mechanisms that facilitate healing in Yoga Therapy. It was an honor and delight to personally participate in the study interview. Here I'll highlight a few of my personal responses:
Q: Describe therapeutic Viniyoga. What is it?
A: Therapeutic Viniyoga is a method to help a person more align with their essential self.
Q: What are the general goals of therapeutic Viniyoga? What do you intend to do or facilitate in that role?
A: The goals depends on the person and how they get to their most authentic, essential nature. Some general goals... Removing obstacles, I would say is a general goal. And that's a removing of obstacles, physically, breath, mind, behavior/personality, emotions. Then when you remove the obstacle, the result would be the person feeling better.
Q: How does therapeutic Viniyoga work? Explain the mechanism or mechanisms as you understand them.
A: Relationship between the practitioner and the person, the student-teacher relationship, is vital because one of the methods is to help the student increase trust and be willing to put what they think aside... State change methods are there too... You're using techniques for the entire system (body, breath, mind, behavior, emotions) that help change how the person is operating...
Q: Describe your process of therapeutic Viniyoga. What happens over time?
A: I think the student has a better understanding of their own unique system over time. And I think that their perspective on life shifts. So sometimes people start to change and they don't like it. They want to be their old self over time and they stop yoga. They're attached. But I think sometimes it's freeing, and people see that they're causing their own suffering, and that there's something more out there. The perspective changes, and if it's available for the person, there's an increase in authentic spirituality.
Q: What are some of the techniques that you use most often in therapeutic Viniyoga?
A: Breathing! That one's easy. So breathing techniques I think are the most often I use because they are the thing the person is least used to working with. So there's a lot more available space for change and shift in the system, because we want that beautiful state change. And I would say second is metaphor, bhavana maybe would be a better word for it. Not necessarily meditation, but something that helps the student call up a feeling up inside them. And then the third is coordinating movement with breath...
Q: What role does state change have in the healing process?
A: It's like the main game. State change provides some space so that the student moves towards a trust in something positive. Then the obstacles fall away, and the system knows how to be and that's healing...
Access the full article on the study HERE
