Walking the bridge between psychotherapy and yoga

Abstract

Both psychotherapy and yoga are routes to support individuals’ well-being and growth through exploration and integration of life experiences, relationships, and meaning-making. Yoga as a comprehensive set of practices involving mind, body, energy and awareness within a framework of life philosophy has existed for thousands of years, while psychotherapy is a comparatively recent field and has historically focused primarily on the mind (psyche + therapy). In recent years, aspects of yoga, particularly breathing practices and mindfulness, have been researched as an intervention in place of pharmaceutical intervention and alongside psychological models in the West, to support individuals’ mental health. The yoga-based or yogainformed interventions have been employed primarily to address diagnoses such as PTSD, depression and anxiety, and are considered as Yoga Therapy. Yoga Therapy is emerging as a field in its own right, however the wider weave of yoga with relational depth psychotherapy has not yet been explored, with qualitative inquiry into the practitioner's experience conspicuously absent. This research explores the practice development of one particular psychotherapist who is also a yoga teacher and yoga therapist. It examines how yoga has supported her and contributed to the processes of growth, integration and healing in her own life. Through practice illustrations, it also illuminates how the weave of both has emerged in her client work which encompasses psychotherapy, yoga therapy, and what she has come to call integrative somatic therapy. This last approach seeks to integrate yoga-based practices and perspectives into psychotherapeutic practice. The creative integration of yoga practices with psychotherapy is explored, as well as the impact of working with an integrative approach in practice.