Evidence based vs. evidence *informed*

Yoga Therapy and Ayurveda are not prescriptive practices. Oh, I wish it were that simple!

In a world where social media offers quippy pieces of health advice, it would be so easy to be able to say: “Do these five postures for osteoporosis” or “Do this breath practice with this mudra five times per week to heal your low back” or “This 12-step protocol will reverse your infertility.”

But, alas, that is not the case. It would be downright irresponsible of me to offer prescriptive treatment, because it would undercut you as a unique individual with a unique set of circumstances.

Yoga Therapy + Ayurveda treat the person, not the diagnosis. Do you follow me?

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We’ve become obsessed as a culture with evidence based practice in modern medicine and health care. Evidence can be a good thing. I really enjoy a podcast called Evidence Based Birth, and regularly read research literature on yoga therapy, yoga practice, and women’s health; however, yoga therapy and other integrative practices recognize that we cannot make our health decisions based on scientific evidence alone.

Why? Because if we do, we would leave out many other aspects of human centered care - lifestyle practices, nutrition and food quality, cultural rituals, personal preferences, dis-ease presentation, personality, and so on.* For example, two individuals could come to me with the same condition - i.e. anxiety or hypothalamic amenorrhea or chronic sciatic nerve pain, etc. - but their treatment plans would be very different.

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What the practice of yoga therapy aims to do is offer evidence informed care. This means that we take into consideration both research and the unique individuals in front of us. A really wonderful teacher and healer once told me that “what is ‘normal’ may not be what is normal for you.”

It’s why the classes I teach are non-linear and deviate from traditional yoga asana (which was originally designed for teenage boys)… because your body will need to express and move in a way that we cannot access through poses alone. This is also why I cannot give a simple method or protocol in my work, even when working with similar conditions - there are too many other factors in the balance (see above).

Applying yoga therapy is a constant play of svadhyaya, or self-study. Together, we put together the puzzle pieces that make up the science of yoga in a configuration that is uniquely your own. We apply practices and techniques to support your condition and then you get to witness how the body responds, if it responds, and if you’d like to continue with that particular treatment plan. Treatment plans in yoga therapy include movement, meditation, breath practice, mantra, mudra, and other dinacharya (lifestyle) practices.

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Let this be a reminder to celebrate your uniqueness and that as you journey through yoga, your path to healing will be yours alone. Yoga is inherently a solo journey with trusted practitioners, therapists, and teachers as your guides. Let it be a reminder that our bodies don’t always naturally fall in line with the evidence before us, but rather we can couple the evidence with our own body/mind awareness to continue to move towards health.

I’m excited to get back on the mat in a few weeks and continue sharing Ayurvedic yoga therapy practices within the Nourish Circle community after being on maternity leave. It is incredibly humbling to live in these changing bodies, yes? Birth, postpartum, injuries, growing older, medical diagnoses, stress, pain --- it's all welcome here. What a gift that yoga and Ayurveda bring to soothe our muscles and nourish our souls.

Hope you are doing well.

Jai Ma.
With love,
Leanne

P.S. If you’re interested in learning more about the Nourish Circle and the practices we do there, please let me know. I’m making some changes before opening enrollment again, but would love to connect with you to see if it’s a fit. These practices are group yoga therapy experiences where we work through different regions of the physical and subtle body each month (for Nourish members, I updated our calendar of practices!). You can learn more about Nourish here. I’ll let you know when enrollment opens again.

P.P.S. The Postpartum Healing Mini Retreat is happening on February 12. If it calls to you, please join us or register to receive all replays and watch whenever you’d like. Please use the code: POSTPARTUM111 to get $111 off. I’ve decided to keep that code live until February 12 as you make decisions about what you need in the coming week.

*In writing this letter, I came across an article by Catherine Justice; DPT, PT C-IAYT, and program manager for Integrative Health at Hennepin Healthcare; titled The Paradox of Prescriptive Yoga from Yoga Therapy Today. You can read it here.