What is Viniyoga Therapy?

I was trained in the Viniyoga tradition of Mr. TKV Desikachar and Krishnamacharya, the father of modern yoga from Chennai, India by my yoga mentor Chase Bossart of the Yoga Well Institute. Chase was a longtime personal student of Mr. Desikachar. After meeting Chase during my yoga therapist training, I immersed myself in courses at the Yoga Well Institute with Chase and his wife Elizabeth, an Ayurvedic Practitioner. I studied the Yoga Sutras, the Bhagavad Gita, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Nathamuni’s Yoga Rahasya, the Ramayana, along with Ayurveda.

After completing about 7 years of diligent study and 1:1 mentorship, I decided to enroll in The Yoga Well’s 5-year yoga therapy program. I wanted to understand the tools and principles of yoga therapy more deeply, through a Viniyoga lens. In my yoga therapy program, I learned the Samkhya philosophy, an understanding of Puruṣa (consciousness or spirit) and Prakṛti (nature or matter), which provides a description of spirit’s journey into materiality and experience. I learned the pañcamaya model, how the five dimensions of the human system can be understood to help people heal. The pañcamaya model examines human functioning at the annamaya (physical), prāṇamaya (physiological), monomaya (intellectual), ānandamaya (emotions), and the vijñāñamaya (the personality) levels. This holistic model describes what operates at each level and how a shift in one level of the system can impact all levels of the system. I learned the Vyuha model which looks at the heyams or symptoms and their  hetus or causes, to determine hanams or goals and identify upayam or tools to help clients reach their goals.  

As yoga therapists we seek to understand if our clients need a Śamana (pacification) or Śodhana (cleansing) approach depending on the capacity of each client’s system, using the application of laṅghana (lightening), bṛṁhana (expanding) or samāna (balancing). A personalized practice is created for each client depending on their individual needs, be it yoga cikitsā (treatment), rakṣana (maintenance), or śikṣana (development of capacity).

The art of yoga therapy is in meeting a client, assessing their needs, identifying their goals, understanding their capacity, developing a kavaca (container or therapeutic relationship), observing them move and in asana, and using therapeutic yoga tools to design a personalized practice unique to their needs, goals, and capacities. This mentor relationship allows the powerful techniques of yoga therapy to be applied in an individualized way that is unique to each client. By the end of the initial intake session, each client will have a personalized yoga therapy practice specifically created for them, typically including some asana (movement coordinated with breath), pranayama (breathing techniques), meditation, and sometimes sound. The goal is to do your practice every day and see what you notice, and report back to your yoga therapist who will adjust your practice as you work together over time to reach your goals.

Dr. Jennifer Vasquez