the-origin-of-yogatherapy

The origin of yogatherapy

Between meditation, relaxation and postures, everyone already knows the benefits of yoga: this ancestral art originating from India is very popular in the East as well as in the West for its bodily virtues. This sport makes it possible to work the body and the spirit during yoga sessions that allow both muscle strengthening and stress management.

However, the sun salutation and other yoga exercises are not only practiced as part of a sporting leisure activity: regular practice of yoga can indeed serve to rebuild one's health. This is called yogatherapy, a discipline which, through the teaching of yoga, treats both the body and the mind.

 

Yogatherapy: what is it?

The term yogatherapy consists of yoga, the sport we all know and therapy, a set of procedures for treating the body. Thus, this method allows, using yoga postures, breathing exercises and sophrology techniques, to heal the body and mind.

Aimed at people suffering from physical or mental illnesses, this discipline allows for a gradual return to mobility and well-being. It is defined as follows on the site of the institution of yogatherapy: "Yogatherapy is the specific use of the tools of yoga applied to the prevention and treatment of people suffering from pathologies".

It is widely used in the care of patients or in the prevention of physical or mental disorders. The awareness work induced by the yoga session allows to restore a certain balance in the body and thus to strengthen oneself by using one's own resources. No medication, here we only use yoga!

The interest of yoga therapy has been proven and its effectiveness is no longer in doubt: it works by making the body, emotions and psychology of the patient interact. Sessions can be collective or individual. Group classes are a good way to begin the practice of therapeutic yoga with a yoga teacher.

Of course, there is no substitute for modern medical treatment with yogatherapy: practitioners of this method use it as a complement to their treatments to relax, relieve aches and pains and achieve a certain letting go of their nervous system. Practicing therapeutic yoga is therefore complementary and very effective!

 

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A short history of yogatherapy

The term yogatherapy was coined in 1970 by Dr. Bernard Auriol. This French psychiatrist and psychotherapist, a specialist in states of consciousness, had the innovative idea of mixing the classical psychoanalysis known in the West with oriental approaches such as yoga.

He is one of those who militated in 1972 with the Ministry of Youth and Sports so that yoga could be taught in France. His main training is Hatha Yoga, but this does not prevent him from including other forms of yoga in yogatherapy.

Even if he met many oppositions because of the very original nature of his approach, Dr. Auriol's research (notably in the context of his 1970 thesis, Prolegomena to a Group Yogatherapy) showed improvements on patients interned in psychiatric hospitals.

Its conclusions can be summarized as follows: "Using asanas (postures), respiratory control, the technique of centration-decentration, verbal (walking) and non-verbal (Montauban) group phenomena, yogatherapy appears as a method of psychophysiological rebalancing that can be objectified by various biochemical weight and electro-encephalographic measurements, as a method of psycho-affective re-education using at least the phenomena of transfer and suggestion by appealing to an optimum use of the personal energies available, finally as a method of psychomotor re-education allowing a better integration of the lived body and realizing a training to conscious relaxation" - Bernard Auriol

Having thus developed a completely new method for treating patients, Dr. Auriol was able to spread the word about yogatherapy throughout France. Thus, two yogatherapy organizations were created in France to represent it:

• The Institute of Yogatherapy (IDYT): founded in 1993 by Dr. Lionel Coudron and which allows caregivers and yoga teachers to receive training in two years,
• The French Federation of Yoga Therapy (FFYT): founded in 2014, which allows aspiring yogatherapists to follow a three-year training course and requires a prior training as a yoga teacher, which generally takes four years.

Yogatherapy has thus made its way in France and is now a discipline recognized by the majority and whose effects can only be beneficial for body and mind!

 

The main yogatherapy exercises

Yogatherapy exercises are always as simple as possible: we are not looking for intense effort as in other sports, but rather for the proper execution of simple, slow and thoughtful movements. The goal is to make yogatherapy accessible to everyone, from the experienced sportsman to the person with physical or mental disabilities.

Yogatherapy is based on about 50 basic yoga exercises that are adapted to the patient by the yogatherapist. They are of several types: athletic, relaxing, meditative, respiratory or philosophical. They come from all types of yoga: Nidra, Vinyasa, Iyengar, Ashtanga or Ayurveda.

The postures used in yoga are called Asanas: they are the main exercises that yogatherapy patients must perform. To these are added the breathing exercises, called Pranayama, which are as important for the body as they are for the control of the mind. They are complemented by symbolic and spiritual exercises, the Mudras.

A yogatherapy session follows a very precise and important order that changes according to the needs of the patient. Here are some of the exercises that you can practice during your sessions:

• Meditation,
• Angle posture,
• Stretching,
• Savasana,
• Synchronized breathing,
• Half bridge,
• Halasasana,
• Salutation to the Sun,
• Self-massage of the belly.

These are very simple exercises that are within everyone's reach. Thus, they allow body parts to act efficiently and strengthen the immune system as well as the nervous system. It's easy to be healthier thanks to yogatherapy!

 

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Life Tips for Completing the Benefits of Yoga

First, it is necessary to practice regularly. Moreover, yogatherapy would be nothing without a real work on health in general. Thus, there are many life tips that will play on the 5 pillars of physical and intellectual health:

• Hygiene and rhythm of life,
• Food hygiene,
• Development of relationships with others,
• Physical activity,
• Personal mental work (emotional and spiritual).

Yoga therapy is therefore necessarily accompanied by advice on diet (eating healthy and eating enough), but also by advice on sports practice in order to maintain one's body and strengthen one's immune system through sport. With regard to mental state, it is important to communicate with others in a healthy way and without pressure.

Meditation is an element that can be practiced outside of yogatherapy sessions and it is strongly advised to practice it regularly in one's daily life. It allows one to work on oneself and, at least for a few minutes, to release all forms of psychological and physical pressure.

As the yogatherapy sessions progress and as the life advice to be practiced outside is carried out, the patient feels much stronger in his body and more relaxed in his mind. He regains a certain vitality that helps him to overcome an illness, notably by reducing pain or relaxing his psyche.

In conclusion, yogatherapy is a philosophy more than a physical activity. It combines exercises with personal refocusing and allows, whether practiced alone or as a complement to a treatment, to use ancestral Indian knowledge in order to heal minor physical ailments or recurring psychological problems such as insomnia!

 

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