Why Is It Important to do Yoga Therapy with a Licensed Mental Health Clinician?
Yoga Therapy is an unlicensed practice. While organizations such as The International Association of Yoga Therapists exist to provide research, education, training and certification* to its membership group, currently there is no state or national license to practice Yoga Therapy, which means that anyone can call themselves a “Yoga Therapist.” Yoga Therapy is a powerful treatment modality, and offers tremendous therapeutic benefit, however, like any form of treatment, particularly one that includes active engagement of the body, Yoga Therapy can elicit strong thoughts, feelings, and memories and has the potential to activate/trigger trauma responses in those with a trauma history. Therefore, at Aurora, we strongly recommend that anyone considering utilizing Yoga Therapy as an adjunctive treatment, work with a Yoga Therapist who is a Licensed Mental Health Clinician (social worker, mental health counselor, psychologist, psychotherapist, psychoanalyst) with the specialized education and training to support an individual, should challenging thoughts or feelings get activated. (*A certification as an IAYT is not a license and certification of the title Yoga Therapist is not protected by law)