It has been a challenge to explain the difference between attending a “normal” yoga session and a “therapy” one. Most of us have experienced that yoga as a practice is therapeutic, yet there are significant differences between a yoga teacher and a yoga therapist and between a yoga class and a yoga therapy session and an original intention of a person choosing and attending one of these two.
Although many among us will seek yoga in the nearest gym or studio just in order to get some exercise done, meet like-minded people or simply to give it a try, there is so much more to it!

I haven’t noticed iit myself for some time until I realised the incredible potential I had within me for a process of healing, self-investigation and self-development. Yoga provided these tools.
Nevertheless, when I was training to become a teacher, everyone laughed when I said my motivation was to reach enlightenment. Even my teacher from India.

That was the moment when I realised maybe there is another way to attain enlightenment and I finally immersed in a Buddhist three-year retreat and subsequent nine years of practice and study of the ancient methods and techniques to develop wisdom and compassion.
I got not even close to enlightenment after all these years yet definitely got more knowledgeable about great eastern traditions since I lived it day and night. We even had a 24-hour mantra rota going on. I do feel like I became a better person, if I may say that about myself, yet my teacher from Tibet was accused of different kinds of abuse and I personally suffered and witnessed a lot of it. 

I always felt that yoga gave me a stable foundation to overcome all these difficulties. Actually, that was the primary reason how my yoga journey began. In 1991 when the war started in Croatia and my country and my people were brutally violated, a group of yoga practitioners, whom I interviewed as a young journalist, seemed to be unaffected by hatred, despair and resentment. They kept cool minds while protecting their open hearts. They regularly gathered and practised yoga even under the bombing and targetings from the snipes’ nests. I was truly impressed and I think then and there I decided to never let go of yoga, no matter what. 

Even as a lay practitioner in that Buddhist community 25 years later I continued to give the gift of yoga therapy, of hope and sanity. As we sat for long hours of meditation and some developed backaches, knee pain, experienced panic attacks etc, others seeking preventive benefits, while others had different symptoms of old age. It was a good feeling useful through difficult times for many in a small community. Later when I moved to a quiet French town, I  started delivering sessions to local residents.

When a student seeks out a yoga therapist or a therapeutic group, they are usually not coming to learn yoga. They come to get help with or relief from some symptom or health condition that is troubling them. In most cases, the instruction focuses on their condition and how the yoga techniques can help them feel better or improve their function, rather than on the techniques or methods of yoga practice. 

It can be anything from sleeplessness, digestion issues, recovery from stroke, cancer or a recent injury. A student prefers to deal with that specific issue in the privacy of their own home or visiting the therapist’s location and in their own tempo search for inner strength to heal and improve their health and wellbeing. 

Since the beginning of my yoga therapy journey in 2001, I have treated clients with PTSD, autism, addiction, eating disorders, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, asthma, dementia, Parkinson, Alzheimer, Multiple Sclerosis, heart disease, postnatal depression, etc.

Just a recent example is a lady who had breast cancer and although physically she is very fit, she prefers to have one-on-one sessions as during that time we can focus on her personal needs and explore the new developments in recovery after the chemotherapy. We adapt each session to the current situation, where she is at the moment, healthwise, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, rather than focusing on yoga methods and practices.
My job is to understand why my clients have come to see me and determine what I can do to support them. I am trained to assess clients through listening, questioning, observing, looking for ways to help reduce or manage their symptoms, improve their function, and help them with their attitude in relation to their health conditions. After assessing them, we establish appropriate goals together, develop a practice intervention, and then I  teach clients to practice that intervention. In this sense, yoga therapists choose yoga techniques in relation to how they will specifically benefit individual clients. 

My role is also to empower clients to take a more active role in their self-care, helping them to overcome their challenges and gain independence. The yoga community can enjoy and promote clarity about these distinctions between different professions - yoga teacher and yoga therapist. They are both valuable and valid, yet different. We should all be honest and transparent about our skill sets and level of training and understanding. 

I am a yoga therapist and meditation teacher, but first of all, I will forever be a student of yoga.