Many women attend yoga classes to mend something on either a physical, energetic, emotional, mental or spiritual level. One may have an intention of mending her breath and her energy into a cohesive rhythm after a day of stressful meetings while another sets her goal of mending back pain. As yoga classes can be therapeutic, they can also present obstacles that threaten one’s safety when transitioning toward healing.

One aspect that can get in the way of healing is expectation. Many women are expected to wear what may not serve them: clothing, teaching orders, postures, heat, even live animals such as goats and snakes balancing on their joints. With such expectations, one’s attention is pulled toward external pressure instead of guided toward internal sensations. For instance, if there isn’t enough time to transition the body from one movement to another in a breath to movement class, like Vinyasa Flow, there may not be enough time to finish or become aware of the phase of breath. Presence decreases as the risk of injury and/or anxiety increases while trying to keep up with the instructor. In this case, one may not find a sense of safety in their yoga practice. Yoga is a science of the mind, therefore, if there are anxious thoughts or stressful emotions, the nervous system stays in a high-alert state (the Sympathetic Nervous System) instead of the rest-and-digest state (the Parasympathetic Nervous System) that a yoga practice aims to cultivate.

Meeting the Body Where It Is

Some women return to a class with obstacles having the mindset of needing to “get better” at following their instructor or doing a certain posture. While there’s nothing wrong with wanting to challenge oneself, this often reinforces the habit of looking outward for what perfect alignment and postures should look and feel like. The “practice” of yoga practice is lost when trying to manipulate the body and qualities of the mind. For those disheartened by expectation, self-agency can be denied instead of encouraged for growth. Yoga therapy, in contrast to general yoga classes meets an individual where one is, offering space, creativity, and choices to explore. It tailors yoga tools to the individual’s needs.

Yoga therapy is not someone prescribing a shape or breath for a woman’s herniated disc or depression. The yoga therapist knows that individuals react and respond to movement and rest differently. A specific nasal breath may calm most people, but this doesn’t mean everyone. For some, this breath may create unease. Expectations shouldn’t be attached. In a class, it’s unrealistic for a teacher to accommodate everyone’s needs, so introducing a calming breath that fits most people is appropriate, though not for all.

In yoga therapy, a client with a health situation like chronic pain, neurological issues or mental health, discloses a long-term goal to the therapist and they work together for a series of weeks to try to resolve it. A client struggling with asthma might have the motivation and intention to run a 5k. There’s no expectation to “fix” the individual, but rather explore and learn about movement and mental patterns that can clear a path toward healing. The new pathway can then usher her closer toward reaching her goal. She isn’t expected to “correct” her breathing over a series of weeks and the yoga therapist doesn’t replace the supervision or guidance of healthcare providers, and works in tandem with them.

How Healing Takes Shape in Practice

Sessions for the client with asthma may include exploring what happens with breath movement alone along with other movement throughout the body in relation to her breath. She may notice the qualities of her breathing as the legs move in different ways. One misnomer about yoga therapy is that one needs to know how to do yoga postures, but the component parts that make up the postures are often explored and done so in a functional and therapeutic way. The specific reason may differ due to reasons explored in classes. For example, the same client with asthma may be asked to lift her hips into a bridge—not to build muscle strength, but to see if the sense of “smooth breathing” labeled earlier by the client while standing or seated can be maintained. Strength can only follow when there’s ease and safety.   

Yoga tools including movement, breath, philosophy and rest are used to understand the entire person’s story which can’t be fully recognized in classes. This deeper level of utilizing the tools sets apart the yoga instructor, offering directions in a flow class from the therapist that can build a relationship with a client—comprising equal presence, curiosity and connection. There’s no “power-over” relationship.

From Watching to Being Seen

Though there are moments for visual learning, the habit of constant teacher-watching for how to feel and look while practicing yoga has been grooved in the history of yoga’s teaching. As yoga was nearly exclusively taught and practiced by men, the physical posture part asked male teens to follow their male teacher. This paved the way for the forceful physical styles of yoga in the West (hatha yoga) that asks the students to mirror their instructor for precision. The physical practice of yoga is ubiquitous, leading to the idea that yoga is only a physical practice.

Although yoga is currently taught and practiced more by women, the original patriarchal attitude of follow-the-leader still prevails in most classes that can inadvertently create unsafe environments. But with most yoga therapists being women that watch and grow curious with their clients through invitational language, there’s room to shift the old paradigm from an individual that follows someone to an individual that follows herself.  

BrittanyCapozzi, C-IAYT, is a yoga therapist in Massachusetts who specializes in sensory-based approaches that help women rebuild self-trust after pain, illness, injury or trauma. She integrates movement, writing and sound to support nervous system safety and reconnection. For more information or to make an appointment, visit UnderstoryYogaTherapy.com.