Ask A Therapist: How Can Yoga Support My Therapy Work?

In Ask A Therapist, our therapists answer questions about therapy, mental health, and healing practices. Today, Hannah answers the question: how can yoga support my therapy work?

Connect with Ramya at RamyaMK@RoomToBreatheChicago.Com

Connect with Hannah at Hannah@RoomToBreatheChicago.Com

Practice with Hannah Tuesday mornings online in our virtual studio.

Interview transcript {edited for clarity}

Ramya (she/her): All right. So we have the wonderful Hannah Lee today. What is the question that you came up with for our little soundbite?

Hannah Lee (she/her): Yes. I picked a question that I often get when I start working with folks in therapy, which is how can yoga support my healing or support my therapy journey? 

Ramya: Yeah. 

Hannah: And I think it's definitely a question that maybe more people have on their minds these days. One that's being more talked about.

Ramya: Yeah, of course. Well, what are your thoughts?

Hannah: Yeah, my first thought is always that, like, not all yoga is created equally. And so I think it really depends on, you know, what you're accessing, and the orientation of the practice. When I talk specifically to folks about our training at Room to Breathe around psych-sensitive yoga, there's a lot there around linking the nervous system regulation with what it means to talk through something and how talk therapy works.

Ramya: Yeah. I know, when I talk to people about how we do offer, you know, trauma-focused, psych-sensitive yoga at our practice, people are wondering what that means and how that can really be integrated into therapy as well. Do you have any thoughts on that or any insight?

Hannah: Yeah - I think just, as is one of our values, that making it work for you is really important. So for some people, that means like, they do want to do some kind of mindfulness or movement in their session with folks that I work with, but it also just means: what are the other tools that I could access outside of this once a week or every other week session with my therapist, and a lot of building body awareness can do a lot for noticing how we're feeling which I think we work really hard to not always know what we're feeling. And yeah, that's a way of kind of coming back to what's going on internally.

Ramya: Yeah, absolutely. And I think we talk a lot about, you know, the mind-body connection, and the physical, emotional connection and all of that. I'm not sure that people in the general public or in society are aware that there's different types of yoga for different kinds of things. Would you be able to share just a few different maybe modalities or things for people to look out for if they're interested?

Hannah: Yeah, a lot of the yoga in the US is fitness-based. And so I think looking for a practice that does name the lineage and the history of yoga, first of all, so important as a way to acknowledge that it's not just come from one entity out of nowhere. But it has a long, long history that often gets whitewashed and ignored. I think, looking for teachers and practices that emphasize choice and body awareness, and your own internal connection, rather than “we're going to get you into a certain pose, and then that will bring you healing or enlightenment,” because the pose itself is a means to an end rather than it being, you know, healing to stand on your head in and of itself. 

Ramya: Yeah, yeah, for sure. And then another question that I get a lot is what exactly is trauma-focused yoga? And how does that differ from, you know, kinds of yoga that focus on physical exercise and more physicality?

Hannah: I think one important piece is that it doesn't have to be something where you personally identify like, I have been traumatized, and therefore I qualify for this yoga class. But that like thinking of trauma and understanding trauma as a disruption to our nervous systems, and something that disconnected us from ourselves and our sense of safety. Pretty much all of us can say that that's been an experience that we've had to varying degrees. And that something powerful about trauma-informed yoga is that it is about restoring choice, restoring the chance to have safety in your own body and have control over where the practice is going. As a way to then imagine what might that be like as I move through my relationships or my relationship to work, or I process something that happened to me a long time ago, that there's a - almost like foundation you're building within yourself that I'm safe here, I get to make choices, I get to ask myself what I want and need now, and then I can move from that place trusting myself.

Ramya: Yeah, yeah, that's great. I don't think we see that a lot in you know, these exercise classes or any other ways that yoga tends to be marketed.

Hannah: Yeah, I think so much of fitness in general is about achieving a certain physique or image and also about pushing past your limits. And something, there can be something really healing about seeing where your limit is, and then choosing not to go past that to a point of pain or discomfort, emotional or physical. But so many, especially like athletes are pushed to a point where it's like, oh, find your limit, and then go beyond. And we do that a lot emotionally, and physically within our bodies, even if we're not professional athletes. 

Ramya: Yeah definitely. What other thoughts do you have? Anything else that we haven't talked about? 

Hannah: Something that I did in my yoga class today that I've been thinking about since is I've been offering the prompt of what are two physical sensations you have in your body? And what's one or two emotions that you notice? And I offered that at the beginning of the class, and then again at the end, and I was thinking a lot about how our sensations change throughout the day, even though we can feel like they don't, you know - I'm mad, or my back hurts. And it's been like this forever. And it's always gonna be this way. But seeing how those things ebb and flow, and then also seeing where we have some autonomy in that relationship with that experience. So I'm checking into that with myself throughout the day today, and I'm offering that maybe for you too.  

Ramya: Yeah, I love that. That is gonna be one of my takeaways.

All right, well, as we wrap up here, what would you recommend to people watching this? What's the thing that you want them to take away the most? Or how to engage in yoga and therapy at the same time?

 Hannah: Yeah, I think finding things outside of the talk therapy space that are about opportunities for mindfulness, linking breath to movement, being in the present moment without judgment, and that doesn't have to be just yoga. But that can be a really powerful tool to supplement what you're talking through in a therapy space. And of course, folks are always welcome. I teach on Tuesday morning!

Ramya: Awesome. All right. Well, check out Hannah, go to our Room to Breathe website. We have wonderful therapists. We have wonderful yoga instructors that offer a variety of classes. So check us out and see if anything that we offer interests you. 

Hannah: Thanks Ramya.

Ramya: Thanks Hannah.