Tension and pain are messages from your body asking for your attention and care, and alerting you that something needs to change.
Yoga therapy gives you tools to help you to take care of your body and change your relationship to your tension and pain. While not a substitute for medical care, yoga therapy can help you recover from injury by helping to alleviate your tension and pain and giving you ways to safely increase your strength and range of motion.
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yoga therapy
for back and neck care
Private sessions of yoga therapy give you tools that you can use for the rest of your life to help reduce tension and pain, build awareness of unhealthy movement patterns, and learn healthy ways to move.
Samantha specializes in yoga therapy for pain in the back and neck. She substitute-teaches therapeutic classes for Upper Back and Neck Care at the Yoga Loft for two months every year, when the teacher, Anne Saliou, is continuing her studies with her teachers in India.
Yoga therapy will teach you poses to increase strength and flexibility where you need it so that your spine and neck are both supported and free, as well as relaxation techniques to reduce the stress that often comes with chronic pain.
customized therapeutic programs include
- Managing pain and healing from injury
- Reducing stress and the effects of chronic pain
- Specific poses and sequences for your home practice
- Learning healthy alignment and body mechanics
- Practicing meditation and breath awareness
you benefit by
- Increased comfort and ease in your daily activities
- Improved body alignment and freedom from pain
- Reduced visits to additional practitioners
- Gaining awareness and clarity of body and mind
private yoga therapy sessions
In private one-on-one sessions, yoga therapy can be customized for your specific needs and challenges.
You will learn a simple sequence of poses, specifically designed for your body's needs, that will begin to alleviate your pain and put you on the path to healing.
Private yoga therapy sessions can be arranged at your home or at Samantha's Hayes Valleu studio, at a time convenient for you.
For a complimentary phone consultation so that I can learn about your particular needs, please contact me at 415-260-5923, or by email at yoga@samanthaostergaard.com.
repetitive stress injuries
Our bodies were designed to be in continual movement. Holding static positions in chairs and performing repetitive motions on computers for hours at a time is not easy or natural for our bodies.
Practice therapeutic yoga poses to give your body and mind antidotes to the stressful positions you hold in a car or in front of a computer. Your healing process will be faster when you have tools you can use to help yourself.
recommended reading
- Yoga As Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing, by Timothy McCall, MD. A book about yoga therapy that shows the many different therapeutic applications of yoga, and also discusses the numerous scientific studies proving the efficacity of yoga as therapy for many different ailments and conditions.
- Back Care Basics by Mary Pullig Schatz. A good book of fundamental information about body alignment and healing from back injury.
- The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body, and Design, by Galen Cranz. An eye-opening book about how chairs are designed for status and our perception of comfort; and how sitting in chairs undermines our well-being.
helpful tools and yoga props
- Is too much computer use causing you pain? Download free software that will encourage you to Take A Break. Then don't just sit there slumping in your chair - use your break to do some yoga!
- Looking for a place to get yoga props in San Francisco? Yoga Props is recommended for their blankets and straps. Their straps are soft enough to use around the shoulders, and have sturdy and convenient buckles.
- Be sure to purchase a non-toxic sticky mat. Most mats are made of PVC, a highly toxic plastic. I recommend these mats: the Hugger Mugger Earth Elements Mat, the Manduka Eko Mat, or the Jade Yoga Harmony Mat.
- For more information on the toxicity of standard yoga mats and Green Yoga, visit the Green Yoga Association website.
Having used yoga therapy to heal her own back and neck pain, Samantha has the personal experience that helps her support others to make the changes that will help them heal.
