Mental Health Disorders and Yoga
Abstract
This study aims to determine if yoga is beneficial as a treatment for individuals with mental health disorders. This research explores different studies that have been done involving yoga with anxiety, depression, PTSD and schizophrenia. This study aims to explore how yoga has benefited individuals with a mental illness and their feelings about their experience. It also explores how trained psychologists, who are also yoga instructors, implement yoga within their practice with those suffering from mental health. Within this research, we will discuss how to become trained as a therapeutic yoga instructor as well as ethical and multicultural aspects of yoga as an intervention for those who suffer from a mental health disorder.
Keywords: Anxiety/Depression, Mental Health, PTSD, Schizophrenia, Yoga
Introduction
Basic overview of current articles
Over the last decade, we have seen research on yoga as an intervention or used adjunct to psychotherapy for different mental health disorders. In a 2015 study, forensic inpatients found mindful yoga to increase body awareness and breathing capacity, alleviate physical tension and mental distress, leading to less anxiety and increased relaxation (Sistig, Friedman, McKenna, Considine, 2015). In a six-week yoga intervention with low-income adults with mental illness, there was a decrease in anxiety and PTSD after the intervention (Brown, Eubanks, Keating, 2017). Jindani and Khalsa found that individuals with PTSD reported self-observed changes and new awareness after participating in trauma-sensitive Kundalini yoga (2015). Research has shown that some of the key elements of a yoga practice are breath, mindfulness/meditation, relationship with self and connection with the body. This is found helpful for disorders that include anxiety-based disorders, trauma, eating disorders, substance abuse and mood disorders (Roth, 2014). Understanding that the physical body and psychological have responded well through different types of research gives us insight on how to use yoga with clients.
Overview of the Research
Definition of Mental Health Disorder
According to the American Psychiatric Association DSM-5, a mental disorder is a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental processes underlying mental function (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). In this review, we will look at mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress syndrome, and schizophrenia.
Definition of Yoga
Yoga was developed over 5,000 years ago in India to help individuals with their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing (www.yogaalliance.org). Many of us in the United States have used yoga for its postures in breathing exercises or as part of a fitness program to achieve physical wellbeing (www.yogaaaliance.org). While this ancient practice was developed to help the mental and emotional wellbeing of its participants, research is required to determine the outcome and to what degree.
Importance of research as relevant to counseling
Over the years there have been many theories and techniques used to help treat mental health disorders. As a counselor, it is important to stay up to date on current research that educates us on best practices and recent findings to help us give our clients the best care. Over the years, yoga has been incorporated to help clients with their mental health. Staying up to date on research allows counselors to see changes in the techniques and interventions used with clients in a variety of mental health disorders. We learn from qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods research projects. Each type of research provides us with different insights and serves its unique purpose to counseling. Research allows us to see the benefits of new and old techniques to help us serve or clients. Understanding how yoga can help the client, what type of yoga and the length of the intervention all need to be considered when using this intervention and the research helps us make those decisions.
Quantitative Evidence for Mental Health Disorders and Yoga
Explanation of Quantitative Research
Dismantling Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
A 2017 study, took the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and dismantled the multicomponent intervention to determine the impact of emotional and physiological outcomes. There were four groups, no treatment control group, an active placebo control group consisting of a healthy snack, study breaks, games and access to a therapy dog, yoga alone and mindfulness training and meditation. College students were used as the participants and randomly assigned to one of the four groups. Each participant had the heart rate variability tested for a baseline at rest and at the post-treatment to assess their ability to manage stress after the four-week interventions, during a challenge (Hunt, Russel, Dailey, Simon, 2017).
The mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) assessed more than just yoga. It dismantled the MBSR and tested each component while leaving one group to stay combined as MBSR. The results showed the combined MBSR and the yoga groups to have the highest HRV at rest and a decline during the challenge (Hunt, Russel, Dailey, Simon, 2017).
PTSD and Yoga in Adult Women
Another study focused on PTSD and adult women. After a careful screening to make sure these women have PTSD, have not participated in a yoga class in six months, were not substance-dependent in three months, were not suicidal or homicidal, or had any recent changes to psychiatric medication, they were split randomly for either yoga or assessment control condition (Mitchell, Dick, Dimartino, Smith, Niles, Koenen & Street, 2014).
The pilot study of women with a current of full subthreshold PTSD symptoms showed decreases in reexperiencing and hyperarousal symptoms after 12 sessions of Kripalu based yoga intervention. The assessment control group also showed decreases in reexperiencing and hyperarousal symptoms. More research is needed in this area, but we do know that the participants responded positively to the intervention. Future research could include long term effects of yoga, investigating mechanisms by which yoga may impact mental health symptoms and gender comparisons (Mitchell, Dick, Dimartino, Smith, Niles, Koenen & Street, 2014).
Maternal Anxiety and Depression
In another quantitative study, data were not normally distributed, so all data were presented as medians. In a study with pregnant women with high anxiety, there were 2 groups, a yoga group that participated in an eight-week antenatal yoga class and another group that went on with treatment as usual (TAU). Both groups consisted of pregnant women who experienced high levels of stress but were low-risk pregnancies during the second and early part of the third trimester. Each group took the STAI-State and STAI-Trait, WDEQ and EPDS questionnaires at baseline and the end of the eight- weeks. Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire WDEQ is used for pregnancy-specific anxiety and EPDS is the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (Newham, Clin, Hurley, Alpin & Westwood, 2014).
In the study involving anxiety and maternity, the 59 adult women showed that a single session of yoga reduced both subjective and physiological measures of state anxiety, determined by the STAI-S and cortisol. This stayed consistent through the final class. Multiple linear regression analyses identified yoga as a predictive of greater reduction in WDEQ scores, while TAU increased elevation in EDPS scores. It was concluded that antenatal yoga is useful in reducing maternity anxiety towards childbirth (Newham, Clin, Hurley, Alpin & Westwood, 2014).
Explanation of the Statistical Methods used from Research Articles
Quantitative
Quantitative research is useful for examining the relationship between variables (Balkin, Kliest, 2017). The process includes gathering participants, obtaining measures, evaluating data, and communicating data. Numeric values are given for the phenomena as part of quantitative research (Balkin, Kliest, 2017). Each one of the articles discussed above would be considered quantitative research. Each one had its methods for analyzing the data.
The primary research approach for the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction study was quantitative measures using heart rate variability. The week before the training each group was given a baseline assessment that included demographics, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Positive and Negative Affect Scale, and the state version of the Spielberger State/Trait Anxiety Inventory. The HRV was given at resting just before the challenge and during the cognitive challenge. The use of the questionnaires and the HRV gives a picture of anxiety and depression mentally as well as the body’s heart rate response (Hunt, Russel, Dailey, Simon, 2017). In a meta-analysis study, yoga asana’s were shown to improve high-frequency heart rate variability, resting heart rate, cortisol levels, and blood pressure, showing the body changes with the yoga postures (Pascoe, Thompson, Ski, 2017).
For the PTSD pilot study, descriptive statistics were calculated using PASW statistics version 18. Growth curve models reflected dynamic change processes and model the influence of the different time formats for the yoga classes. Using code 1 for yoga and code 0 for control and observations were nested within the person as the data was longitudinal. Time sessions for the yoga classes were accounted for by dropping the “even” assessment points. The measurements used in this study were the trauma life events at the baseline only and PCL, CES-D and STAI questionnaires were done at baseline, postintervention, and 1 month follow up assessment (Mitchell, Dick, Dimartino, Smith, Niles, Koenen & Street, 2014).
The following formula was used, B*(time)/SD raw for the follow-up analysis. B= the unstandardized coefficient of the regression of slope onto the dummy-coded treatment group and the time is the mean number of days at baseline and 1 month follow up. SD raw is the baseline deviation for the total sample. P values were considered significant due to the large numbers of statistical comparisons (Mitchell, Dick, Dimartino, Smith, Niles, Koenen & Street, 2014).
The TAU and yoga groups were compared through linear data using the Mann Whitney U test. The Chi-square test or Fishers Exact test was used to analyze categorical data within both group comparison of baseline and follow-up mood scores for pre and post- class assessment of STAI-S and salivary cortisol levels using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Linear regression with bootstrapping was used to determine if maternal age, gestational age at baseline, mood questionnaires at baseline and attendance of TAU in alternative classes predicted the change in mood outcome. To get clinically meaningful between-group difference 52 women, 26 in each group would be needed, this calculation was done using a power calculation (Newham, Clin, Hurley, Alpin & Westwood, 2014).
Explanation of Effectiveness for Yoga and Mental Health
Is it Effective?
These quantitative studies are limited to mostly female participants. Two of the studies only deal with adult females. More research is needed with a larger sample of men and women to determine if yoga is beneficial for both men and women with mental health disorders. We only covered schizophrenia, PTSD and maternal anxiety in these quantitative studies. Researching other types of mental health disorders would be beneficial.
Regulating Emotions
While we have discussed yoga being beneficial for those who suffer from a mental health disorder, is it beneficial for those not diagnosed and just need help regulating emotions? The mind-body connection is reported during yoga from qualitative studies (Roth, 2014) and the salivary cortisol tests (Newham, Clin, Hurley, Alpin & Westwood, 2014), as well as the follow up mood scores in the research just described seems to indicate yoga could help those who are not diagnosed make a better connection with themselves in order to regulate emotions (Roth, 2014).
Qualitative Research for Mental Health Disorders and Yoga
PTSD and Yoga
In one qualitative study, the objective of this study was to find out how individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) perceived an eight-week Kundalini program that was designed to be trauma-sensitive. It took eighty participants who suffered from PTSD and split them into two groups, one group of forty participated in the eight-week Kundalini Yoga program and the other forty were waitlisted as a control group. Both groups demonstrated changes over the eight-weeks, but the yoga group showed a greater change (Jindani & Khalsa, 2015).
Participants were over the age of eighteen, spoke fluent English, scored below a 57 on the PCL-17, had a current yoga/meditation practice, not a safety risk and could commit to not consuming 24 hours before class. There were nine males and thirty-one females ranging in age eighteen to sixty-three. Trauma included sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, compassion fatigue, and adverse life circumstances (Jindani & Khalsa, 2015).
Psychological Lens
In another qualitative study, we can look at yoga through a psychological lens. Fourteen dually trained psychologists and registered yoga teachers were interviewed to examine: 1. How do individuals dually trained as psychologists and yoga teachers conceptualize yoga as a mental health intervention? 2. In what ways do psychologists trained as yoga teachers integrate their dual training into their current professional psychology practice (Roth, 2014)? This type of qualitative data can give insight on how to incorporate yoga with traditional therapy from a professional view.
The data revealed five domains and fifteen categories. The domains were provider context, conceptualization content, conceptualization process, clinical implications, and practice integration. This study also revealed 4 explicit yoga components to be essential for psychological benefit: breath, mindfulness/meditation, relationship with self, and connection with the body (Roth, 2014).
To understand the connection between the physical and psychological health for pain and trauma a qualitative research investigation was done using two psychotherapy groups that incorporated yoga, meditation, and relaxation. Groups were one hour and held at an urban outpatient mental health clinic. Those who were part of the qualitative study had been participating in the groups from 1-4 years. The researcher used this type of research to capture the subjective experience. Understanding their experience could be helpful to the field of psychology (Kruer-Zerhusen, 2017).
This study found the overarching theme to be “Change of State” The categorical sub- sets were a community, spirituality, and hope for change. The relationship category was the second tier with a relationship with others, a relationship with pain, and a relationship with self. Tier four was intervention modalities pain management skills, support from group members and leaders, visualization and self-reflection. Tier five is the outcome, peace, and calm (Kruer-Zerhusen, 2017).
Explanation of the Statistical Methods used from Research Articles
Qualitative
Qualitative research provides a narrative to the research, rather than a numerical value, like quantitative (Balkin & Kliest, 2017). This type of research relies on interviews, documents, and observations for the narrative findings. The data is evaluated and compared to come up with themes after coding certain words/phrases (Balkin & Kliest, 2017). Each of the articles discussed above is considered qualitative research, but each one had its way to evaluate and compare the data.
Jindani and Khalsa used a series of questions that were asked at the end of the eight- week program conducted as a phone interview within one week of the completion of the program. The lead investigator was responsible for data collection and analysis. The inductive thematic analysis described by Bruan and Clark was used to understand the participants perceptions. Data was listened to and re-read several times for accuracy. Using Nvivo10, the interview transcripts were coded using 300 different codes. Of these, twelve major codes were identified and themes and sub-themes were created.
The three themes were self-observed changes, new awareness, and yoga programs (Jindani & Khalsa, 2015). Three researchers and two study auditors used the Consensual Qualitative Research methodology. After interviews were transcribed, the first step in analyzing the data was to create a domain list. Assigning raw data to the domains allows for understanding and describing each individual’s experience. Each individual reviewed several case transcripts to see what topics emerged. Team members met in person and came up with a list of domains. After all the data was coded into one domain, the team met again to a consensus about domain content through a review of a consensus-version, which included domain titles and all of the raw data for each domain (Roth, 2014).
Using a phenomenology approach, the interview questions focused on in-depth reactions to mind-body interventions for physical and psychological symptom relief. Interviews were done in person and recorded, with the interviews lasting 45-75 minutes. All participants reported PTSD and chronical medical symptoms related to their trauma (Kruer-Zerhusen, 2017).
The recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and the researcher analyzed the data to find “meaningful units” and then searched for themes or patterns by linking these units. Data were organized and codes were used to assess emerging themes. The demographic information collected at the time of the interview were included in the data analysis, as well as any additional notes. Data was reviewed for meaning condensation and meaning categorization. Observational data was used to support observed themes. Multiple methods were used to triangulate the data by the researcher (Kruer-Zerhusen, 2017).
Yoga as Perceived by Participants
Positive feedback was received from participants from the studies above. The themes from the Kruer-Zerhusen, study found that the participants had hope for change after experiencing psychotherapy and yoga/mindful-based practices (2017). These participants not only had experienced trauma, along with anxiety/depression that comes from the trauma but also chronic pain. Participants were able to make a better connection with their self and connection with their body as well as the pain they experienced (Kruer-Zerhusen, 2017).
All participants with PTSD found themes of self-observed changes, new awareness and the yoga program itself (Jindani & Khalsa, 2015). They also revealed a change in the mind-body relationship, that allowed for personal transformation through the program. Participants reported no longer feeling consumed by emotions and feelings within the body. Through the program not only did their mood change, but they felt able to handle life stressors in a more positive way (Jindani & Khalsa, 2015).
Yoga in Clinical Practice
Psychologists who are dually trained in yoga gave us insight on how to incorporate yoga within the therapeutic setting. Yoga can be used in individual therapy, group setting or in workshops. This allows a more holistic approach to therapy by adding in the mind-body connection. They also reported that the essential components of yoga for psychological benefit was breath, mindfulness/meditation, relationship with self and connection with the body. Disorders identified as benefiting from a yoga practice include anxiety-based disorders, trauma, eating disorders, substance abuse and mood disorders (Roth, 2014).
Evidence-Based Practice of Yoga
Through the research, we have seen that yoga has been studied and valid measures have been used to determine how yoga can be used to treat mental health. Studies have shown that yoga has benefits to the psychotherapy practice, along with mindful- based training that includes yoga components. This can help counselors to determine how to best serve our clients in a therapeutic setting.
Natya Yoga
In an action-based research study, Natya yoga that includes music, movement, and psychotherapy. The stillness of traditional yoga and meditation can cause agitation and anxiety in some people, so this was designed with movement from Ashtanga yoga. In the action research methodology where the focus is on linking research with action toward a goal of making a change. In this study, patients’ voices were represented in the creation, requiring researchers to partner with them. This was done to improve treatment modality for underserved people with schizophrenia. This study validated that Natya yoga created an inner meditative calm, free from anxiety and depression (Ramaswamy, 2014).
Sitting in stillness could agitate some clients. Knowing that we can help clients create inner calmness, free from anxiety and depression is helpful through Natya yoga. Understanding as clinicians there is more than one type of yoga and the physical postures and breath can help our clients, even ones who need more movement and less stillness.
Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment
The Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment for emotional disorders includes cognitive restructuring, nonjudgmental emotional awareness, and interoceptive and emotion-focused exposure exercises. This emotion-focused cognitive behavioral therapy protocol is used to treat all anxiety and unipolar disorders. While this therapy has been proven to help with emotional disorders, a study was done to see if mantra-based meditation would offer relief from symptoms associated with the primary diagnosis. This was a single-subject study, with multiple baseline designs. There were only six participants in the study. In fourteen weeks of treatment, they received either UP treatment only, Up and one mantra-based meditation or UP with mantra-based meditation after three weeks (Roxbury, 2017).
The data was collected through self-reports of emotional wellbeing. This was done at baselines and pre and post-treatments. The data were analyzed with visual inspection by examining the change in the slope of self-reported dependent variables from baseline to intervention phase to the mantra-based meditation phase. The evidence of this study showed a decrease in symptoms from anxiety and no longer met the criteria of general anxiety disorder. It also showed an increase in quality of life experiences (Roxbury, 2017).
This study indicates that meditation, a component of yoga, is helpful for clients suffering from a general anxiety disorder. While we as counselors can still follow Unified Protocol, adding in a mantra-based meditation could help our clients not have symptoms sooner, than more traditional therapy.
Quality of Life and Anxiety
Brown, Eubanks, and Keating used mixed methods convergent parallel design to explore the effect of yoga on quality of life, trauma, and anxiety on low-income adults with mental illnesses (2017). Eighteen participants came from a community mental health agency and participated in a six-week yoga intervention. Quantitative measurements came from standardized measures of quality of life, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Tests at pre and post-intervention. Qualitative measurements were conducted using focus groups to explore barriers and the effects of participation in a yoga intervention. Quantitative data from the showed a decrease in anxiety and PTSD symptoms from the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test, but no difference in the quality of life. Qualitative data corroborate quantitative data, with improved relaxation and better anger management for those who strongly endorsed the yoga experience (Brown, Eubanks & Keating, 2017).
Those who are suffering from anxiety and PTSD could benefit from yoga interventions. The quantitative and qualitative data collected both show the benefits of adding yoga as an intervention. While it didn’t show a difference in the quality of life, the qualitative data indicated improved relaxation and anger management, which indicates the regulation of emotions.
Mindfulness and Yoga
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), uses yoga as one of the components of the evidence-based program. In a meta-analysis, using comprehensive meta-analysis software version 3, sensitivity analyses were performed using one-study-removed analyses. Subgroup analysis was conducted for different yoga and control groups, including MBSR and non-MBSR. Results of 42 studies were included showing interventions with yoga were associated with reducing cortisol, ambulatory systolic blood pressure, resting heart rate, frequency heart rate, blood glucose, cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein when compared to an active control group. These results show that yoga poses are associated with improved regulation of the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system (Pascoe, Thompson, Ski, 2017).
This study gives us information on how the body responds to the physical postures of yoga and breathwork. Understanding how the body responds to stress, through things such as heart rate, cortisol, and blood pressure, we can see how yoga helps the body’s physical response to stress and anxiety. This type of information can allow us to use yoga to help the sympathetic nervous system.
Laughing Yoga
In a mixed-methods study with laughing yoga, laughter yoga may be beneficial for those suffering from depression. The quantitative data came from the depression anxiety stress scale and the 12-item health survey. This was done at the beginning of the four weeks, at post-intervention and 3-month follow up. Data also came from the CSQ8, which is a client satisfaction questionnaire. All participants did an individual qualitative interview at the 3-month follow up (Bressington, Mui, Yu, Leung, Cheung, Wu, Bollard, Chien & Kong,2019). Using laughing yoga with clients who have depression symptoms could be beneficial according to this study.
Qualifications To be considered a therapeutic yoga instructor
To teach yoga, certification is required, but certification is not standardized (Barnett & Shale, 2012). There are millions of places to take yoga and also become certified in yoga, however, the yoga certification process leaves a lot of gray areas, which can make it difficult to determine the quality of the yoga program. There are many ways to become a registered yoga teacher (RYT), which is the respected title in the yoga community, that comes from Yoga Alliance. To become an RYT, one must complete a 200-program hour yoga teacher training that has been approved by the Yoga Alliance community. To qualify to hold a teacher training program, one must submit a curriculum and have it approved. The school/studio offering the program decides whether or not the participant passes the yoga program. Once they have completed the program, the participant applies to become an RYT through yoga alliance (www.yogaalliance.org, 2019). It would be unethical to teach yoga as a therapist if you are not certified in yoga.
This method of certification can make it difficult to determine who is a qualified yoga instructor that would fit the needs for a therapeutic setting. Looking at the curriculum of where the individual got their RYT from as well as their knowledge of anatomy, would be beneficial for therapeutic yoga (www.yogaalliance.org, 2019). It is suggested that the instructor be hired as an independent contractor and hold liability insurance, as well as having participants sign waivers to legally protect themselves against lawsuits (www.yogaallianace.org, 2019).
State of Current Research
Current research is showing that yoga is beneficial to those suffering from a mental illness. While it has been stated how to become certified to teach yoga, the type of yoga and time of intervention have all varied in the research. Through this research, we have learned studies have lasted from 4 weeks to 12 weeks and have varied in delivery. Through the research, we can acknowledge that it is important for certain illnesses, such as PTSD and schizophrenia that we don’t worsen the symptoms by asking the client to sit in stillness or do something that will cause them to have a trigger. Understanding that we want to do what is best for clients’ well-being and never ask them to stay in poses that make them uncomfortable, while attending to thoughts and feelings without labeling them as good or bad (Mitchell, Dick, Dimartino, Smith, Niles, Koenen & Street, 2014).
Legal and Ethical Considerations
The American Counseling Association has protocols set up for research and it must be followed, but keeping the clients’ best interest in mind is the biggest priority. Using section G of the American Counseling Association lays out what the protocols are for research (2014). It is important to understand research responsibilities, reporting accurate data (G.4.a), and the rights of participants (American Counseling Association, 2014). It is important to protect the identity of the participants, G.4.d, as well as protect them from any type of injury under G. 1.e (ACA, 2014).
Informed consent and explaining that the participant can stop at any point in the research are important to communicate. The participant needs to know and understand their rights within the research, according to G.2.a, of the American Counseling Association (2014). According to G.1. f, the principal researcher is responsible to maintain ethical practices of the research (ACA, 2014). This includes making sure that boundaries with participants, G.3.a, and making sure the relationship between the participants remain professional, G.3.b & c, (ACA, 2014).
Multicultural Considerations
Multicultural considerations should always be taken into account. Yoga was intended for spirituality and some religions forbid yoga (Tel, 2016). As a culturally skilled counselor, respecting religious and spiritual beliefs is more important than using Anan intervention (Arredondo, 1996). It would be unethical to force anyone into doing an alternative therapy that goes against their worldviews. However, some of the underlying principles of yoga are universal, like physical postures, guided meditation, body awareness, and breath (Telles, 2016). As counselors, we need to consider the multicultural needs of our clients and what techniques will be best for them and the American Counseling Association reminds us of that in the ethic code F.11.c (2014).
Studies have shown a variety of people who suffer from mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD have found yoga to be helpful to their wellbeing (Telles, 2016). While we need to take into consideration personal worldviews and show respect for the client’s goals, we know that some of the research has involved many different cultures for different mental health concerns. Research is done by Ong, Cashwell, and
Downs showed success with trauma-sensitive yoga among women from different ethnical backgrounds ranging in age from twenty-six to fifty-two (2019). Further studies would need to be done to determine what cultures would benefit more from this type of alternative therapy. Hays found that suggests that adapting meditations as part of cognitive-behavioral therapy can be helpful to different cultures with the help of the client (2014).
Reflection
It is important to understand that there are things not understood about yoga and psychotherapy. We need to make sure we are doing what is best for the client at all times while following best practices. Understanding that the time of the intervention, the delivery of the intervention and the training of those who are delivering the intervention all play a role in the outcome of the intervention.
The research is showing that the psychological benefits of yoga come from breath, mindfulness/meditation, relationships with self and connection with the body are the four explicit benefits of yoga components (Roth, 2014). Understanding this, along with who can benefit from this type of practice is important. As counselors, we need to make sure we are not only delivering the yoga in a therapeutic form but delivering it to those who will benefit from the practice.
Yoga Alliance is a great tool for learning how to become specialty certified in yoga. While there a many different schools for yoga, just as there are in counseling, you can request looking at a yoga school curriculum before signing up (www.yogaalliance.org). We have looked at only some of the types of yoga in this literature review Antenatal, Kripalu, Kundalini, Hatha, Laughter yoga, Mantra-based mediation and Natya and there are several more. Using an alignment-based, meditation-based yoga program while keeping in mind clients’ safety is important for intervention to be successful.
Research shows that yoga interventions have been useful for those with several types of mental health disorders. Disorders identified as benefiting from a yoga practice include anxiety-based disorders, trauma, eating disorders, substance abuse and mood disorders (Roth, 2014).
Being dually trained in yoga and psychotherapy would allow more understanding of the mental health disorder and provide the client with a more experienced treatment plan, because it would be combined with other psychotherapy techniques that have been researched and proven successful, like Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment for emotional disorders (Roxbury, 2017).
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