Working with our Bodies Therapeutically

“i dive into the well of my body and end up in another world
everything i need already exists in me
there is no need to look elsewhere”
homebody - rupi kaur

This is a huge topic that I will just skim over here! I am currently developing an Embodied Yoga Therapy Diploma with my wonderful teacher and friend, Sarah Harlow, planned to start in Spring 2023 at Yogasara. Please contact us if you are interested to learn more.

The body is a map of our personal & ancestral history, storing our experiences in her physicality. Working with the body can facilitate moving through embodied trauma, physical illness and built-up stress in a way that talking therapies often overlook. It allows us to know ourselves from the inside-out. Our body is the antenna through which we receive information about present moment cues of safety and danger, it is through our body that we have access to much wisdom and also capacity to make shifts in unhelpful patterns. I weave body-based approaches into my therapy work to a greater or lesser extent depending on the needs and preferences of who I am working with. This often begins with understanding polyvagal theory and how this is relevant to our day-to-day lives.

Yoga and psychology overlap in a variety of ways including: promoting a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world; unhooking from unhelpful thinking patterns and beliefs; regulating emotions; opening up to sitting with and processing painful experiences; exploring the healing potential of the breath; increasing compassion for self, others and nature; deepening our connections to ourselves and others through witnessing our common humanity & interconnectedness, and more. For these reasons, yogasana is a natural compliment to psychological work, and the other threads of a yoga sadhana – such as meditation and breathwork - can combine with the physical practice to offer a holistic therapeutic approach.

For me, working with yoga and embodied healing modalities has also allowed me to change my relationship with and management of a number of chronic health conditions (including endometriosis, PCOS, coeliacs, IBS, asthma, psoriasis and insomnia) – partly through recognising the interconnectedness of body-mind with support of the map that the koshas offer. It has, perhaps more importantly, offered me a philosophical lineage with which to interrogate and make sense of my experiences, offering a container and a sense of grounding, to the various aspects of my inner work. I have found this invaluable for supporting my clients with the bigger questions in life, including their own spiritual crises.