Yoga Alliance and the Therapeutic Benefits of Semantics

Yoga Alliance and the Therapeutic Benefits of Semantics

Or do I need to say “general therapeutic benefits” to be in compliance? After listening to the Yoga Alliance Q&A for an hour, I’m still not sure.  Yet & still, a few things were clarified in the call.

It does take some moxie to have a Q&A on the “yoga therapy” controversy.  So I do give YA props for opening up the conversation.  Moxie, btw, is the proprietary name of a soft drink, flavored with gentian root extract, reputed to have medicinal properties, according to Wikipedia. If I am following the YA logic correctly – and I am not at all certain that I am – Moxie is an approved word, but describing it as having medicinal properties is definitely not.

Likewise, yoga can be described as supporting general wellness. Yoga prescribed by a doctor canNOT be described as therapeutic or as treatment; only a licensed medical practitioner can prescribe or perform treatment. Following this logic, if you go to the doctor for an infection and the doctor prescribes an antibiotic and the antibiotic gets rid of the infection, you cannot say that it was the antibiotic that cured you.  Antibiotics do not have a license to treat you. You could, however, say that the antibiotics provided “therapeutic benefit.”

So what’s the difference? THIS, I am sure of, as it was specifically answered in the call.  If you have read the YA web site material, you already know that YA equates “therapy” with diagnosis or treatment of health conditions. And using the word therapy may mislead the public into believing that yoga teachers can diagnose or treat health conditions.  “Therapeutic benefit” means wellness – sans diagnosis or treatment. My personal extrapolation is that it’s one thing to say that as a yoga teacher, I can support you through an illness that leads to improved wellbeing, but I cannot suggest that yoga will heal you or that yoga is treating your condition.

And if your student writes you a testimonial saying that yoga or you – healed/cured/alleviated  their illness/condition/disease – you need to reframe it and use approved words because the general public may be misled into believing that yoga teachers can treat or diagnose health conditions. Yes, on your private web site, if you use the RYT or RYS designation, whether you use the logos associated with them or not, you must be in compliance.

This goes for all advertising materials in which you refer to the RYT or RYS designations. YA did point out that being a member of YA is voluntary and that they are available to assist you with making adjustments to your languaging to be in compliance.  I have had several email exchanges with them to extensively retool the language of my RYS training programs.  And they absolutely did help me get this sorted out.

Thankfully, you can keep the name of your business – and I am curious to see how many people either add or delete the “therapy” word from their business name. That’s where the disclaimer comes in. I feel for the people who have “therapy” in their program names and now have to change them.  YA is not responsible for the expense, per the answer on the call.

If you do have extensive training as a yoga therapist, get ready to thank Yoga Alliance…. just as soon as you calm down after reading the next couple of sentences. Two of the questions that were answered on the call were from 200-hour yoga teacher training program graduates.  One 200-hour program had the words yoga therapy in it. And the second caller had done a 100-hour program after her 200-hour program that was a yoga therapy program.  Yes, you can keep your RYT designation; no, you can’t call yourself a yoga therapist – based on those credentials. Or at all on the YA site. On behalf of certified, extensively trained yoga therapists everywhere, thank you, Yoga Alliance.

I think we can all agree that an ounce of yoga prevention is worth a pound of yoga therapy. And 100 hours of yoga training does not a yoga therapist make.  I am grateful for the Yoga Alliance discussion and for the distinction. I am grateful to International Association of Yoga Therapists for raising the bar and for their upcoming certification process to officially designate yoga therapists.

I think I understand that YA is a platform for yoga teachers and not for yoga as treatment of health conditions.

I am still confused, however, by the yoga research page on the Yoga Alliance web site. If they do not want to mislead the public into believing that yoga can treat health conditions, why do they have links to evidence-based research on yoga for cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, etc? Does this make sense to you?

In compliance,

Leslie Kazadi, *CYT, E-RYT500

Alchemy Yoga Therapy, LLC

Distill your Teaching, RYS 300-hour training program

www.lesliekazadi.com

* The yoga therapy components of my teaching are based on my certification as a yoga therapist by Loyola Marymount University, not derived from my status as an E-RYT500, RYS200 or RYS300 with Yoga Alliance Registry.”

Does your Dog want to be a jockey? The Truth about Dogs

Does your Dog want to be a jockey?

The Truth about Dogs

Whether you call it puppy dog, push wall or half dog, the version of adho mukha svanasana where the hands press the wall instead of the floor is a common modification.  Theoretically, it takes the pressure out of wrists, shoulders and necks.  Again, theoretically, this makes the pose more accessible to beginners and other students who don’t have the strength or ROM, range of motion, in their upper body for a full-fledged downward facing dog.

In reality, however, this modification ends up creating compression in the shoulder joints in many older adults.  This happens despite appropriate alignment cues to ensure a long, neutral spine and modifying shoulder and wrist placement to accommodate limitations.

In general, older adults have some hearing loss, some attention deficit and thus some difficulty following cues without visual confirmation.  That means that in a group class, poses such as puppy dog can be frustrating and unsuccessful.  And that means that the risks can outweigh the rewards.

Chairs can be a great solution.  Students will be facing you.  When they can see you, they can hear you.  And they will feel calmer and have more access to feeling what is happening in their bodies.  Start from tadasana and press palms into the top of the chair back.  Step by step, walk the feet back and flex the hips and the shoulders.  Take it slowly and repeat cues for a long spine and shoulder external rotation so that students can pause and sense what is happening.  This will help both students and teacher to know when they have reached maximum benefit without any shoulder strain. AND instead, you can take the shoulders out of the equation by pressing hands into the seat of the chair in a modified ardha uttanasana, half forward fold. 

My favorite solution is a pose I made up that I call jockey pose.  No props are required and it’s a low-risk/high-rewards pose. From tadasana, take the feet as wide as the mat for an average adult. Flex the knees and hips like a chair pose.  Place the hands on the thighs just above the knees with a neutral spine, as if you were in a huddle.  For students with limited hip flexion, knee flexion or acute low-back issues, the huddle pose is enough.  Otherwise, continue with more hip flexion and neutral spine and press forearms onto thighs.  Press the palms together in Namaste and feel how this gathers and engages the core.  Drive the heels into the floor and the forearms (or hands from the huddle position) into the thighs. Sense how this takes the effort out of the legs to create a steady, "restful" position. 

Once the pose feels stable and steady, you can play! The spine “may” be parallel to the floor and the weight in the feet sinks back into the heels (as weight is always more in the heels when the knees are bent in standing poses).  Play with straightening the legs more without rounding the back and rocking more weight forward to fronts of feet as you lengthen the hamstrings.  And then bend the knees more and rock the weight back into the heels to shift the stretch to the glutes and low back.  

Jockey pose eliminates shoulder compression and has enough elements to engage students so they can truly experience “Sthira sukham asanam.”

Namaste,

 Leslie Kazadi