Yoga Therapy
What is yoga therapy?
Yoga therapy is a healing modality that combines the tools of the yoga tradition (poses, breathwork, meditation, mindfulness, inquiry and philosophy) with an individualized approach and client-centered process. With the support of a yoga therapist, you will develop yoga-inspired practices that are evidence-informed and customized to meet your well-being goals. Yoga therapy offerings at Circle Yoga include one-on-one sessions and group yoga therapy workshops.
Because yoga understands our physical, mental and emotional health to be inseparable, it can improve well-being and support health in the face of a wide range of physical and mental health challenges. Decades of research on yoga, meditation and mindfulness have shown these practices to have benefits for many physical and mental health conditions including:
- Stress (more)
often the root of disease - Major life change
move, job/career, relationship shift, education, expanded family, empty nest, loss, disease diagnosis - Anxiety / Depression / Mental Health Challenges (more)
PTSD, emotional regulation, and self-destructive behavior patterns around food, substances, cutting - Grief (more)
current / accumulative (more) - Burnout - (more)
caretaker, work, life - Scoliosis - (more)
- Menstrual Challenges
fertility, peri-menopause, menopause (more) - Insomnia (more)
- Breathing Disorders
asthma (more), bronchitis, COPD, hyperventilation
- Cancer (more)
diagnosis, side effects of treatment process, remission, recovery - Dysautonomia (more)
- Digestive Disorders (more)
IBS, Crohn's, celiac, colitis, bloating, acid reflux, constipation, malabsorption, diabetes - Autoimmune Disorders (more)
lupus, MS, hashimoto thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis - Chronic Pain (more and more)
fibromyalgia, LBP, migraines (more), unresolved injuries - Self-destructive behavior patterns (more)
eating disorders, substance abuse, cutting - Heart Disease (more)
- Musculoskeletal Imbalances (more)
- Osteoarthritis (more)
- Overall Wellness (more)
One-on-one yoga therapy
Interested in giving yoga therapy a try? The first step is to book a free 15-minute virtual consultation with any member of the yoga therapist team. At that consultation, we will gather some basic information about your challenges and goals, including discussing which therapist(s) might be a good fit for you.
Book a Free 15-Minute Yoga Therapy Session
After your initial 15-minute consultation, If you decide to proceed, here are the usual next steps:
- You can book your first session by contacting our yoga therapist team
- After you have booked your first session, you will receive an email with intake paperwork, including a disclosure and consent form to sign
- At your first session, you will work with your therapist(s) to determine goals for yoga therapy as well as discuss further the information contained on your intake paperwork
- After each session you will receive 1-3 practices to do as “homework” between sessions. These may be poses, meditations, breathwork, mindfulness practices, journaling, etc. that help to guide the process
- Yoga therapy sessions are 60 minutes and can take place at Circle Yoga or on Zoom
Upcoming group workshops
Yoga Therapy for Stress: How to Play the Hand You're Holding
with the Circle Yoga Therapy Team
Saturdays, 3:00-4:30pm
Sept 23, Sept 30 and Oct 7
About our yoga therapists
Each member of the Circle Yoga Therapy Team is certified through the International Association of Yoga Therapists.
Kellie Finn, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT
It took me seven years to consciously feel yoga as more than physical practice. I can still embody that transitional moment on the mat where I suddenly felt like I was praying with my body, connected to a sacred intelligence that was beyond the thinking mind. This was monumental in the midst of deep struggles with bulimia, anorexia, cutting, and PTSD diagnosis. My body felt graceful, Grace-filled.
This fall marks 24 years since that transition and I am still unexpectedly marveled by the learning this path breeds. We are not alone in life, yet we are accountable to playing well the cards we hold. In yoga we do this by exploring what they are and understanding how they can empower us to live a satisfying, full, integrated-into-the-bigger-picture life. For me, being a yoga therapist means working collaboratively with others who feel drawn to yoga as a healing journey. The path is unpredictable, and that, perhaps, is the best part. I look forward to meeting you on the mat!
Yael Flusberg, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT
Given the heavy legacy I inherited as a daughter of genocide survivors who were culturally, geographically and spiritually displaced, it is not surprising that I have been most drawn to yoga’s powerful role in cultivating resiliency and helping people shift from chronic stress and trauma into transformation and growth. In my classes, training and individual sessions, I hold space for what Dr. Bessel Von Der Kolk calls “suffering management,” helping students assess their physical, energetic, psychological and spiritual health; learn evidence-based techniques that help them with their particular issues and conditions; and ultimately engage in sustainable yoga practices that helps them experience every season and stage of life as rich, meaningful and liberating. I have often been described as both mystical and irreverent.
Alex Phelan, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT
My focus in yoga therapy is empowering you to meet whatever challenges you face with self-compassion and resilience. I have personally experienced the deeply healing and transformative power of the yoga practice and have been privileged professionally to witness how yoga can alleviate pain and suffering in my clients. As a mother of two young kids and two dogs, I am deeply committed to meeting the moment that is right here and now, even when it feels chaotic and loud. As a yoga therapist, this present-moment mindfulness helps me to be present with you in a non-judgmental way for whatever chaos you may be experiencing, whether it is mental, physical or spiritual in nature.