Yoga Therapy: Foundations, Methods, and Practices for Common Ailments

Mark Stephens

nov 2017 · North Atlantic Books

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Introducing practical, yoga-based tools for working with a wide array of common injuries and ailments, from ankle sprains to vertigo—by the bestselling author of Teaching Yoga

With asanas, pranayamas, and meditations specific to each health condition, this is the ultimate guide for yoga teachers looking to adapt their classes to the diverse needs of their students.

Surveying historical writings on yoga, ayurveda, and scientific medical approaches to health and healing, Mark Stephens distills this received wisdom of ancient and modern practices for more insightful and practical application in today’s world. He applies these insights to healing musculoskeletal injuries; promoting a healthy reproductive system; and addressing mental, emotional, and behavioral difficulties. With each health condition, Stephens applies yoga to the most recent evidence-based practices for healing, offering an integral place for yoga in integrative health practices.

Yoga Therapy is a practical manual with a systematic approach of considering the nature of each health condition and the specific asanas, pranayamas, and meditations most helpful in healing it. Rather than adopting a narrow medical model of healing as the reduction or elimination of symptoms, Stephens invites yoga therapists, teachers and students to relate to health as a continuous, dynamic process of self-care in which the qualities of personal experience and social connectivity matter.

Stephens illustrates that how we live our lives—including our emotional states, nutrition, sleep, relationships, and sense of purpose—is reflected in our sense of balance (or imbalance) and well-being (or disease). Comprehensive, accessible, and informed by decades of deep study, practice, and teaching, this is an indispensable reference.

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Mark Stephens is a dedicated yoga student whose personal experience of yoga’s promise to make life better inspires him to share the practice through teaching and scholarly writing.
 
Described by Yoga Journal as “the teacher's teacher,” Stephens, a certified yoga therapist and member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, is the author of the international best sellers Teaching Yoga, Yoga Sequencing, and Yoga Adjustments, which have been published in nine languages.
 
From deep study of yoga history and philosophy, human anatomy and physiology, social and interpersonal dynamics, and Eastern and Western theories of being and consciousness, Stephens brings a nondogmatic, accessible, and integrated perspective to yoga therapy that makes yoga a more refined resource for healthy living.
 
Practicing yoga daily for more than twenty-five years and teaching for more than twenty years, Stephens draws from his prior years in academia, as an education consultant, and as a progressive social change activist to create practical resources for yoga teachers and therapists. In 1997 he founded Yoga Inside Foundation—establishing therapeutic yoga programs in more than 300 schools, treatment centers, and prisons across North America—for which he received Yoga Journal's first annual Karma Yoga Award.
 
Stephens lives in Santa Cruz, California, and teaches globally.