What is Yoga Therapy?
“Yoga Therapy is the use of Yoga where there is a specific health need or needs” (The British Council for Yoga Therapy).
Through the use of yogic principles, including gentle movement (asanas), breathing practices, relaxation, mindfulness and meditation, yoga therapy can help us address health needs and achieve our specific physiological, psychological, or spiritual goals.
How can Yoga Therapy help?
Yoga Therapy can:
1) Empower practitioners to connect with their bodies and gain higher awareness of their thoughts, emotions, and behaviour patterns.
2) Help with rehabilitation, management, and improvement of specific health problems and chronic conditions.
Our approach to Yoga Therapy
What to expect in our Small Group Sessions?
Our small groups yoga therapy sessions are structured to help with the pain that is experienced as result of a variety of conditions. Our current classes cover chronic pain, back pain, lower back pain, arthritis.
After signing up to our groups sessions, you will receive a health questionnaire, a pain questionnaire and a consent form via email. You can go through these questionnaires at your own pace. You will then have a 30 minutes introductory meeting with your yoga therapist. In this meeting, your yoga therapist will go through your answers with you and asks follow-up questions to make sure that you can get the most out of the class that you have signed up to.
Our group offerings take place over consecutive terms and each term consists of 6 sessions. Together with the yoga therapist and the rest of the group, you can explore various themes and topics. Each term, themes and topic will be different so that over time, you can continue to benefit from our classes.
What to expect in a one-to-one Session?
During your first one-to-one session, together with your yoga therapist, you will explore your specific health needs and goals. Your yoga therapist will use a variety of practices, which can help you manage your pain. We recommend at least six sessions so that you can better benefit from your practice. A programme and home practice will be created based on information gathered. A number of traditional Therapy models will be used to evaluate your health from a physical, energy, mind/emotional and spiritual perspective. It’s important that you feel comfortable with the practice and you can enjoy it. Follow up sessions will involve reviewing practice, understanding what is working and not working for you. Insights and experiences can be shared enabling practice to be tailored to your preference. Yoga practices can be used alongside other forms of treatment. A safe space will be provided to support personal inquiry into how you can support your own health and well-being.
“Yoga therapy is not just a science. It is an art that entreats us to be in tune with ourselves, our relationships, and the world around us.”
— Richard Miller, Ph.D.
Nilbon Yoga Therapists
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Cath Watsham
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Julia Woodham
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Christina Jones
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Stacey Landau
About Nilbon Yoga
Nilbon Yoga’s vision is to make yoga and yoga therapy a part of the health and healthcare journey. We believe in the power of yoga therapy in bringing eudaemonic well-being to yoga practitioners. Nilbon classes are research-based, designed and delivered by experienced and certified yoga therapists, tailored to be responsive to the unique needs and goals of practitioners.
Our classes and workshops are not a substitute for medical advice or the treatments prescribed and advised by GPs or healthcare provider. Rather, through the teachings of yoga, we aim to support you to build physical, psychological, and emotional strength and resilience in a way that is responsive to your unique circumstances, while you continue to work with your GP and healthcare specialists.
At Nilbon Yoga, we believe in the power of community. We like to come together, share our interests and our love of yoga’s teaching, and maybe every now and then meet for a cup of coffee, and we invite you to join us on this journey.
About Nilbon Yoga’s Founder
Niloofar Borghei Razavi, Ph.D.
My academic background is in economics, marketing, and consumer research. I have lived in the UK since 2014 and have done a MSc and completed a PhD at Henley Business School, the University of Reading in the UK. In my PhD, I undertook an ethnographic study of patients’ and their family members’ emotions and emotional regulations during the time that they spent in the hospital.
My reflections and readings during my studies have highlighted for me the importance of the mind-body connection as well as emotional support, empathy and kindness, and the permission to feel our feelings. I have been a swimmer from my early childhood and movement has always been an important part of my life.
My mother has been my first yoga teacher and mentor. I have been a yoga practitioner for 8 years and I am a certified Yoga teacher. Yoga therapy, the mind-body connection, understanding and managing chronic pain and using yoga and its teaching and philosophy for physical, emotional, and psychological well-being are my passions and I am grateful for the opportunity of focusing on what I am passionate about through my collaboration with experienced yoga teachers and yoga therapists.