Let’s delve into the meaning of some fundamental words to grasp the essence of Yoga as Therapy. “Therapy” comes from the Greek therapeia, meaning “act of healing, restoring health.” “Cura,” from Latin, means “act of caring; watching over,” while “Health,” from Latin “salus,” refers to “good health,” related to “salvus,” meaning “safe, secure.” The Indo-European root of this word is “sol,” meaning “whole.” Good health, then, is a condition where a person is, and feels, “whole.” It often implies having all parts of the body solidly in place and functionally integrated. Being “whole” implies an individual’s awareness and possession of oneself in all dimensions; in all areas that constitute them as human. Therefore, the breadth of the concept of health reflects one’s conception of the human being.
Yoga’s view of human constitution determines the scope of the term Yoga Therapy. As Therapy aims to establish the consciousness of “wholeness,” this means that without access to one’s full being, there is an absence of a healthy condition, i.e., there is some level of illness. Thus, self-ignorance is a diseased condition; it is already an illness and possibly the root of all illnesses.
Yoga conceives humans as entities that emerge in the world from an original source and do not detach from their origin upon emergence. On the contrary, the origin always constitutes the ultimate instance of the originated. Therefore, by exploring the maximum possibilities of the human, one experiences the dimension from which they come. It is the deepest core of the human.
This original identity is the Being from which the human entity emerges. It is the Infinite! The so-called “divine presence” in every human. In this perspective, the human being is ultimately divine. Therefore, Yoga as Therapy aims to create conditions for humans to deconstruct the notion of themselves based on the dynamics of the originated, i.e., time, memories, and thus experience ahistorical, timeless, the experience of being divine. This is health. The consciousness of “being whole.”
Often, the term Yoga Therapy is perceived as a reduction; a diminishment of the breadth of Yoga in its traditional origin. It is seen as a lesser and utilitarian use of practices, disconnected from its original purpose.
This somewhat pejorative view of the term Yoga Therapy has its reasons. One of these misconceptions is the diminished view of what health means and what therapy means. In these incomplete conceptions, there is, let’s say, a “pharmaceutical” use of yogic techniques, where exercises are applied based on isolated symptoms. Or a physiotherapeutic use of techniques with an emphasis on exercises for postural correction, stretching, alignment… etc. None of this is inherently bad, but in none of these cases is the being considered as a whole and its infinite possibilities.
Another curious aspect is that in this reduced conception, when it comes to addressing the mental, emotional aspect, it tends to be approached in a simplistic way. An approach that encourages self-deception by attempting psychological changes based on the artificial and fantastical cultivation of moral virtues or supposedly positive thoughts and attitudes without having built a foundation of energetic and emotional support capable of giving consistency to such virtues.
A conception of Yoga Therapy with these characteristics would indeed be reductionist and almost caricatured in relation to what Yoga is as an ancestral tradition of consciousness enlightenment. It is possible to understand then that when one hears the expression Yoga Therapy, there may indeed be a certain discomfort with this term and the impression that it is something utilitarian and much less than the very essential meaning of the word Yoga.
However, if we understand Therapy as a procedure to extinguish all illness and admit that the root of illnesses is ignorance about oneself and the notion of a separate self, then we will agree that Yoga is the Therapy for this planet whose inhabitants suffer from this basic illness which is the deception about what one is. Yoga is the state of consciousness beyond the illusion of a self based on time.
In the classic words of Shri Patanjali in the Yoga Sutra, Yoga is the level of consciousness that arises when there is “the cessation of mental waves.” “The being then rests in its own origin and is no longer confused by the fluctuations of the mind.” Yoga is the absence of confusion about oneself. It is stepping out of a sense of identity based on “mental waves” and opening up to the space of being that is from its own origin. And this means a self-generated and self-generating frequency.
The countless resources developed by the sages of Yoga over millennia exist to dissolve misconceptions about one’s own identity. This launches the human into their fullness from which they can live in freedom and wisdom.
Yoga as Therapy is a process of experiencing the teachings and practices of the Yogi Tradition specifically aimed at meeting the specific needs and potentialities of each individual. What is cared for in this Therapy is to eliminate the mental and emotional confusion that generates illusions that maintain ignorance about oneself; restrict the potential of perception and generate a subjective virtual world that does not relate harmoniously to the phenomena of life.
All illness implies a certain degree of suffering. And suffering itself arises from a certain degree of illness. This means not being fully healthy. Hence the sense of therapy as a way to restore health. And health as being whole, being safe, complete.
Human’s basic illness was diagnosed by many sages, among them Siddhartha Gautama 2,500 years ago in India. He formulated it as follows: suffering exists, it has a cause, which is ignorance of where the notion of a substantial and separate self arises. This cause can end. And then describes the process of extinguishing the illusion about oneself. A process that culminates in full attention and meditation, as it is also described by Shri Patanjali in the Yoga Sutra.
Yoga as Therapy starts from this diagnosis of Buddha and its focus, as already mentioned, is clearly the extinguishing of the illusion of a self. The way Yoga directs this process is not by providing answers. It is primarily by asking questions that reveal the deception of what was thought about. And it is also by proposing specific interventions on the energetic, organic, and psychic field, capable of harmonizing these areas and expanding the capacity of perception. When the quality of the gaze changes, so does what is seen.
Yoga as Therapy thus confronts the basic human illness which is self-ignorance, and many others that both result from it and support it. Ignorance has a support base that needs to be dissolved. This base is distributed in the physical, energetic, emotional, and mental body.
The imbalances in any of these areas when undone promote favorable conditions for the deconstruction of self-illusion and access to the state of Being One which is Yoga.
PHYSICAL BODY
Yoga Therapy intervenes in the physical organism at various levels. In the muscular aspect, it acts by stretching, softening the muscular armor, creating strength, and resistance. It increases joint mobility and flexibility. It balances the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and strengthens the nerve plexuses. It stimulates glandular balance and is used as hormonal therapy with excellent results. Through breathing, it increases cellular oxygenation and vitality. It massages internal organs, modifies blood flow irrigating certain areas while relieving flow in others, thus making a fantastic intervention on the vitality and nourishment that this precious fluid carries to all cells and organs of the body.
There are postures, breaths, and other therapeutic resources to intervene and stimulate a return to balance and health in all organs and organic systems. In this sense, it is a complementary Therapy in natural partnership with medical treatment or acting preventively.
PRANIC BODY (VITALITY). On the bioenergetic or pranic plane, it is possible to unblock and better utilize the energy channels and chakras as well as to increase and distribute the vital charge appropriately. With this, the intensity of life in all organic and psychological functions is amplified. Acupuncture is an example that it is possible to intervene in the functionality of the organs of the physical body through intervention on the flow of vital energy. What Acupuncture does with needles, Yoga does with asanas, pranayamas, and concentration. But it is also necessary to understand that the vital condition, i.e., the level of the pranic energy charge, in the subtle channels and in the chakras is determinant in the quality of emotional and mental life. This aspect is absolutely fundamental in Yoga.
Any change one intends in the quality of psychological processes depends on the conditions of the bioenergetic plane. As Alexander Lowen, the celebrated psychiatrist and researcher of body/mind relations, said, “a healthy emotional function to sustain itself needs a compatible energy charge.” Conflicts have more chances of being dissolved, and a psychologically healthy life becomes possible when the life force is stronger. Meditative serenity arises when life is strong and sustains itself in peace. Much can be done in this regard with interventions in the vital, pranic dimension, and thus contribute to establishing a condition of physical, emotional, and mental health.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DIMENSION IN YOGA THERAPY
The conception that guides the psychotherapeutic work of Yoga is based on the premise that the quality of all human functions, and in this case the quality of psychological functions, depends on the condition of the structures where these functions occur. Deficient structures give rise to deficient functions.
The structures of consciousness in the Yoga view are vibrational fields where life appears as affection, cognition, will, and where a provisional notion of identity is organized. These fields are called “bodies.”
The condition of the bodies determines the quality of psychological processes. This is a therapeutic path that aims to dissipate emotional conflicts, deconstruct samskaras (conditioned latent tendencies), create conditions for the emergence of psychological attributes truly capable of responding to life in an appropriate, harmonious, and transformative way. It aims to realize the desire to experience peace, wisdom, and all the so-called virtues, but for such purposes to become possible, it will be absolutely indispensable to intervene and consequently develop the bodies. This means improving the conditions of these structures of consciousness, creating a context where psychological functions change and a harmonious and full way of being spontaneously emerges.
It is a logical formulation: antecedent and consequent. The pretension to provoke positive psychological changes without intervening in the structures from which these functions arise is to want the consequent before the antecedent. It doesn’t make sense. Unfortunately, there is much moral mystification about this. Models of virtue are presented as a moral obligation for those who intend to advance in the experience of Yoga. The mistake is to assume that with an exhortative discourse about the benefits and advantages of following a certain standard, people will change. They deceive themselves and merely change conditioning.
Those who sincerely engage in this idea of the “spiritually correct,” upon realizing that they are not truly transforming as they would like, blame themselves and think that they are not trying hard enough; or they are not “evolved” yet as they would like, but believe that “one day they will get there.” The most critical and less naive give up. They start to disbelieve in the human possibilities of transformation. They become cynical or nihilistic, and then for them, not only has God died, as the Philosopher warned more than a hundred years ago, but humanity has died as well in a certain way. This generates the belief that there is no possibility of change, and that humans are destined to be stupid and incomplete as long as they live. This risk, of a nihilism as or even more devastating than what happened in Europe, can be avoided. Simply by not creating illusory expectations in people.
Yoga Therapy admits the possibility of a mentally and emotionally rich life that can lead to an experience of fullness: the state of Yoga. The intensity of life determines what appears in it. Psychological changes only occur if there are adequate conditions for this in the structures of consciousness. By using bodily techniques, bioenergetic interventions, and guiding the process of self-observation and Meditation appropriately, this becomes possible.
Yoga as Therapy aims to free the mind from patterns that constitute self-deception. The purpose is to dissipate doubts, confusions, concepts, and convictions based on what was thought by others and not by oneself. It does not matter if this comes from a dominant mentality in a certain society or if it is a religious, political, or philosophical authority. True knowledge arises with the direct perception of the fact and not with information that comes from outside. A healthy mental attitude is established by dissipating beliefs, organizing a clear, open worldview, without rigid referents, available for the unknown. Creating clarity. Emptying the mind of yesterday and seeing the now without the veils of the past. Lucidity! In the mental plane, therefore, Yoga Therapy, in addition to dissipating the negativity of subconscious memories, creates a condition of meditative mind that opens up and accesses the dimension of the soul, which is beyond the mind and the illusory self and which is by nature unconditioned and free.
A human being who lives from the consciousness of being infinite, integrating body, emotion, and mind and going beyond oneself, accesses the self-generated and self-generating frequency of the sacred. And from there moves in the creative flow of life that springs forth with every action and manifests the power to create and overcome oneself at every moment, with every breath. The Healthy is Sacred… this is the highest human possibility and Yoga as Therapy is willing to make this possible.
INTEGRAL APPROACH OF YOGA THERAPY
Yoga Therapy in an integral approach works on the deconstruction of bodily, energetic, emotional, and mental patterns, thus opening spaces for experiences of lucidity and fullness that are inherent to the essential core of human identity. Yoga Therapy activates the creative potential and the courage to live in peace in this world.
Yoga as Therapy involves personalized guidance to meet specific needs. It uses Traditional Yoga and Meditation approaches, Exercises for Energetic and Emotional Unlocking, Hands-on Healing, and Existential Counseling. It relies on diagnostic methods such as Interviews, Tantric Numerology, and Body Reading.
Among the objectives of the course is to empower individuals to use the therapeutic resources of Yoga in an integral approach; to train Therapists who, through their own experience and knowledge of the intervention methods of Yoga Therapy, can help people restore a healthy life in connection with the sense of the sacred and thus learn to take care of themselves and their relationships.
