welcome

about our yoga

class schedule

workshops

fees and prices

registration form

teachers & therapists

body-centered therapies

location

contact us

download student information form

studio policies

 

body-centered therapies

Yoga Therapy                       Therapeutic Bodywork

What is body-centered therapy?

We chose the term 'body-centered therapies' to describe our work because we feel it accurately expresses our understanding of the role of therapist and therapy in support of individual healing.  We first wanted to communicate that our therapeutic approach toward our clients is through the physical body (i.e. manipulation of soft tissue, passive and active movement of the body, and development of breath).  And we also wanted to express our understanding that, though the approach may be physical, the entire being is affected - physically, mentally, emotionally, and, spiritually.  We feel it makes a difference when the therapist and the individual receiving therapy approach their work together with the understanding that healing is a return to wholeness, a journey that does not allow for parts to be left behind.

Yoga Therapy

While the orientation of western medicine is to treat the disease; the orientation of yoga therapy is to treat the whole person.

Yoga therapy offers an approach to wellness founded on the observation that each of us is an ever-changing process arising out of hereditary factors, mental and emotional attitudes, dietary habits, exercise patterns, and a host of environmental factors.   It holds that each of these factors is intimately linked to our present state of health and together will act to influence future states of wellness.  

Yoga therapy is founded on the belief that healing is a natural process, one that arises from within and only when the appropriate conditions exist.  In yoga therapy we are most interested in coming to understand and alter the factors that might be inhibiting this natural process.  The underlying goal of the therapist is to help the individual discover and understand what in their life is skillful and supporting harmony and healing and what is unskillful and causing separation and dis-ease.  The work then is to find ways to cultivate what is skillful in attitude and action and to let go of what is not.  This is therapy intended to help each person discover their own innate ability to heal and to support each person in that process. 

Yoga Therapy sessions are designed to meet the individual needs of the person coming for therapy.  Sessions might include breathing retraining, instruction in techniques to calm and focus the mind, or development of a personal program of simple movements to release chronic tension, develop structural balance and strength, or open blockages to the free flow healing energy within the body.  

Back to Top

Therapeutic Bodywork

Our therapeutic bodywork sessions vary according to the needs of those who come to us for this work.  Therapeutic bodywork can be a treatment in itself to relieve the cumulative effects of stress on body and mind, or a therapy in support of other treatment regimens.

Physical stress often accumulate from vigorous activities such as athletics, child-rearing, or gardening.  But significant injuries are just as likely to be the result of low-grade, chronic, long-term stresses  arising out of hours spent at the computer, telephone, or driving.  Mental, physical,  and emotional stresses often combine to eventually show themselves neck, shoulder or low back pain, high blood pressure, TMJ dysfunction, chronic fatigue, diffuse myofascial pain, and disruptions to natural sleep patterns.   

When dealing with physical pain or discomfort initial efforts are directed toward relief of symptoms such as the pain itself or the limited range-of-motion associated with the pain.  This work usually joins various soft tissue therapies aimed at relieving primary contributors to soft tissue pain: excess muscle tension, myofascial restrictions, soft tissue inflammation, swelling, and the accumulation of metabolic waste products  As acute symptoms subside; a more global approach is adopted with a focus on understanding and correcting the factors contributing to the onset or the prolongation of symptoms.  

Finally, work moves to developing a plan aimed at reducing the likelihood of recurrence.  Often this means better management of the initial stressors whether physical, mental, emotional; or some combination.  Treatment strategies frequently include recommendations for simple changes in environmental and lifestyle factors at work or home and training in a series of postural re-balancing exercises.

If you have questions about our therapy offerings please take the time to communicate with us.  You may contact us  for further information by telephone or via email (Kate or John).  

Back to Top

heartwood yoga - birmingham, alabama

instructors:   john lemunyon, ryt - kate tremblay, ryt

private and classroom yoga instruction in the classical tradition

 yoga therapy

therapeutic bodywork