Healing Through the Body: Integrating Yoga into Therapy
May 1, 2025
Written by: Kelsey Moss, Registered Provisional Psychologist, MACP, RYT
Have you ever felt like talk therapy just isn’t enough? Like your body holds stories your words can’t quite reach? You’re not alone – many of my clients come searching for something deeper, yet still grounded in real, reputable care. They sense an inner knowing that their path forward needs to centre on the whole person—mind, body, emotions, spirit, and community. Increasingly, people are looking for healing that goes beyond our mind and thoughts.
While many traditions and practices honour this holistic vision of healing, yoga is the framework that currently resonates most deeply in my work at this time as both a Registered Provisional Psychologist and yoga teacher. This blog offers insight into how elements of yoga can be thoughtfully woven into therapy to support emotional safety, embodied healing, and spiritual clarity.
There are many mental health professionals who integrate yoga into their practices in different ways. What follows is simply one approach, shaped by previous trainings, knowledge passed on through books, past teachers, formal training in graduate studies, and my own lived experiences. My work is especially shaped by a 30-hour training on integrating yoga and polyvagal theory into therapy offered by Dr. Arielle Schwartz, with guest teachings from Dr. Stephen Porges and Deb Dana. Through this lens, therapy is no longer only a conversation—but a felt, full-bodied process that supports the nervous system, emotional resilience, and helps work toward reconnection with the Self.
Honouring the Roots of Yoga
Please join me in helping to reduce the harm done from the Western cultural appropriation of yogic wisdom traditions. In an effort to participate in decolonization efforts, I acknowledge the recency of yoga within North America as compared to the rich and extensive history of these traditions in Bharat/India, which date back thousands of years.
While I am not from India, yogic traditions have enriched my life since I was 14 years old, and have been pivotal in my own healing processes. I owe a great deal of gratitude to the teachers and historical wisdom holders who have come before me, specifically those of Indian descent. In any therapeutic context, yoga practices must be shared with cultural humility and deep respect for the traditions from which they come. While the methods used in therapy have been adapted for trauma sensitivity and psychological safety, they are offered in gratitude to the teachers and lineages that continue to inspire and guide this work. I strive to remain a lifelong student in this world—honouring the wisdom passed down through generations, and committing to sharing it with cultural awareness, inclusivity, and humility.
“If yoga is a tree, it emerged in the subcontinental land of Bharat, enriched in the soil of Sanatana Dharma/Vedic tradition/various native traditions. When this tree of yoga branches out to reach new lands, and its roots are still cultivated, connected to the Mother Tree in the Motherland - Bharat India, it retains its powerful energetic, herbal, aromatic, medicinal qualities from root, to bark, to leaf, to sap, to flower to fruit to its seeds. When this tree of yoga is severed from the roots of the motherland, I am afraid all that remains is deadened or hollow wood, which I pray will not come to be.”
Integrating Yoga into Therapy: More Than Just Movement
When many people think of yoga, they typically imagine physical postures (asana). While these are important, they are only one of Patanjali's eight limbs or branches of Ashtanga yoga. These limbs are considered guidelines on how to live a balanced life. In therapy, we explore yoga not just as exercise, but as a comprehensive path toward self-awareness, resilience, and growth. Sessions identified as integrated yoga and therapy typically involve more than one limb described below, and the chosen practices vary greatly from client to client and session to session. They are offered with intention and purpose, grounded in clients’ autonomy and psychological safety.
Here’s how the limbs of yoga might show up in a therapy session:
1. Yamas & Niyamas – Ethical Guidelines and Personal Observances
Example in therapy: cultivating compassion and curiosity toward your inner experience.
The first limb encompasses five ethical and moral principles grouped together into what are called the yamas. These invite us to go within and can show up in the therapy space as fostering a safe relational space rooted in nonviolence (ahimsa). The five niyamas guide us to further refine the relationships with ourselves and the world through various transformative practices, such as engaging in non-judgmental self-study or reflection (svadhyaya). Using these limbs as a guide, therapy can become a place where all parts of you are welcome, including the ones that feel conflicted or uncertain.
2. Asana – Postures
Example in therapy: gentle movement or grounding shapes to anchor in the present moment.
Asana are what most people think of when they think about yoga. These are the physical postures that can help us explore the experiences of both movement and stillness. Holding true to trauma-informed approaches, there is a great emphasis on choice in these practices, where clients are encouraged to listen to their bodies specifically, where they want to place their attention, how they want to breathe, and how they want to move. We might explore shapes like child’s pose (balasana) or legs-up-the-wall (viparita karani) to help feel through nervous system experiences and bring awareness to areas of the body that may feel disconnected. These movements are always invitational, never forced, and serve as doorways back to the body.
3. Pranayama – Conscious Breathing
Example in therapy: breath as a tool for self-regulation and connection.
Pranayama is designed to help us move our vital life force (prana) and increase a sense of balance in our autonomic nervous system. Breath is a profound ally in the healing process, with energizing practices for when we feel more shut down or calming practices for when we feel overstimulated. Drawing from polyvagal theory, we may invite practices such as equal breath (also known as coherence breathing, resonance frequency breathing, and sama vritti pranayama) or voo breath (bhramari pranayam). Although certain types of breathing practices tend to elicit certain types of responses (e.g., more activating or more calming), trauma-informed practices encourage clients to explore with curiosity how the breathwork lands on each given day, with each given breath.
4. Pratyahara – Turning Inward
Example in therapy: guided body scans or awareness practices that help you tune into your inner world.
In the aftermath of trauma or relational wounding, turning inward can feel unsafe or unfamiliar. Pratyahara is the practice of attending inward and directing our focus or life force (prana) toward the self. Pratyahara is about refining our relationship with our nervous system states and better understanding where we are at and how to shift between them. Together, we may practice gently withdrawing attention from the outside world to reconnect with your inner knowing, supporting the healing of mind-body disconnection and cultivating trust in your own felt sense. It’s about learning adaptive ways to lead away from external stimuli to embrace stillness and notice our inner experiences.
5. Dharana & Dhyana – Focus and Meditation
Example in therapy: mindfulness or visualization practices that build inner stability.
Dharana and dhyana are inner practices, whereby dharana is focusing our concentration on an anchor in the here-and-now, and dhyana is the experience of effortless meditation. Practices like the inner sanctuary or compassion meditations—drawn from Dr. Arielle Schwartz’s therapeutic yoga framework—can offer grounding and clarity. These limbs involve a sense of acceptance, non-judgment, and opening in the heart that can be especially helpful for clients navigating identity shifts or spiritual reflections.
6. Samadhi – Integration
Example in therapy: moments of clarity, peace, or deep self-acceptance.
This limb speaks to the quiet, spacious moments in therapy when all parts of you feel genuinely welcome, seen, and connected. While not something we chase, samadhi often arises naturally through integrative work, as clients begin to feel safe in their bodies, clear in their values, and whole in their being. It is not a permanent state of being, but rather, a temporary experience of wholeness and ease that we can appreciate while it’s here, and let it pass as it naturally will.
Trauma-Informed, Spiritually-Rooted
The therapeutic yoga I offer is informed by the belief that healing is not just psychological—it is also physiological, spiritual, and relational. Trauma impacts the nervous system and implicitly shapes how we interact with the world around us. On a deeper level, we feel the impact in our soul, heart, spirit, or however you identify with your true sense of Self. This is why it is so important to work both from the top down and the bottom up: combining talk therapy with somatic practices, nervous system education, and inner explorations.
What Sessions Might Feel Like
Through this mind-body-spirit lens, therapy becomes not just a place for coping, but a sacred space for remembering, reclaiming, and re-rooting. Sessions are collaborative and adaptive. Some days we may talk. Other days we may move, breathe, or rest in silence. We may be situated on the ground with a yoga mat rolled out and yoga prompts offering you support, or we may remain on the couch or chairs. I may invite you to notice where you feel an emotion or sensations in your body or how you can support the experience. You are always in charge. The process is gentle, personalized, and rooted in your unique goals and comfort.
Whether you’re feeling stuck, untethered, or simply ready for a different kind of healing, this approach might offer you a path home – to your body, your breath, your Self.
Interested in trying Integrated Therapeutic Yoga and Therapy for yourself?
Let’s explore what embodied therapy might look like for you.
Information in this blog is inspired by the work of Dr. Arielle Schwartz and her 30-Hour Certificate, Applied Polyvagal Theory in Therapeutic Yoga for Trauma Recovery, with special guests, Dr. Stephen Porges and Deb Dana.
