By Mounia Moalla
As healthcare providers, we often encounter patients whose needs extend beyond the realm that traditional medical interventions can touch. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to explore how yoga therapy could complement conventional healthcare in one of the most challenging environments imaginable: a refugee camp housing genocide survivors in northern Greece.
Working as a volunteer with Lifting Hands International (LHI), I encountered a population with complex, overlapping health presentations. The Yazidi refugees had survived systematic genocide, forced displacement, and ongoing uncertainty about their future. Their clinical presentations typically included posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), chronic pain, sleep disturbances, anxiety, and depression.
Integrating evidence-informed yoga therapy
Yoga therapy offered a unique approach that addressed both physical and psychological symptoms simultaneously. Unlike recreational yoga, yoga therapy is completely individualized and follows evidence-informed protocols designed to support specific clinical conditions. The practices promote nervous system regulation through controlled breathing exercises, improved proprioception and body awareness, stress hormone reduction through gentle movement and mindfulness, enhanced sleep quality via parasympathetic activation, and pain management through improved mobility and tension release.
In the camp, every intervention was designed using trauma-informed care principles, essential when working with this population. For example, we kept sessions to 45–60 minutes (shorter than in many yoga therapy settings), established gender-separated groups to respect cultural norms, and emphasized participant choice and autonomy.
Our intervention
Therapeutic yoga classes in the camp included
- Grounding techniques: standing poses to enhance stability and present-moment awareness
- Breathing exercises: diaphragmatic breathing for anxiety management and sleep improvement
- Gentle movement: joint mobility and muscle tension release
- Relaxation techniques: progressive muscle relaxation adapted for trauma survivors
Before completing my volunteer mission, I developed a comprehensive training to give other volunteers tools for understanding participants’ possible hypervigilance and other trauma responses and to recognize their impact. I also created a template for future sessions, carefully avoiding practices that could trigger traumatic memories.
Measurable clinical outcomes
The therapeutic benefits of our yoga classes were both immediate and sustained across multiple domains of health. Participants consistently reported improved sleep quality, with enhanced sleep onset and decreased night wakings when incorporating diaphragmatic breathing into their bedtime routines. Those suffering from chronic back pain found significant relief through modified bridge poses and gentle spinal movements, often reporting decreased pain levels after just a few sessions. Breathing exercises quickly became essential tools for managing acute anxiety episodes in daily camp life, with many participants spontaneously using these techniques during stressful moments. Perhaps most significantly, people reported improved functional capacity, feeling more present and less dissociated during daily activities, which enhanced their overall quality of life in this challenging environment.
These outcomes align with current research on yoga therapy for PTSD, chronic pain, and anxiety disorders, demonstrating the intervention’s solid evidence base.*
Expanding the model with youth-focused interventions
The following year, I returned to develop specialized programs for adolescent refugees, collaborating with LHI and additional organizations (EPIC Assist Charity Scotland and Yoga Mandala Project) to create age-appropriate interventions.
The situation of young people presented unique challenges, including developmental considerations (adapting techniques for adolescent attention spans and peer dynamics). We also saw opportunities, with possibilities for resilience building (focus on stress-management skills for future challenges) and peer education (training youth as ambassadors who could teach techniques to family members).
This population showed particularly strong responses to mindfulness and movement-based interventions, highlighting the importance of developmentally appropriate approaches when working with adolescents in crisis situations.
Implications for healthcare practice
This experience offers several valuable insights for healthcare providers. Yoga therapy’s fundamental emphasis on individual choice and autonomy naturally aligns with person-centered medical practice, potentially improving treatment adherence and outcomes by empowering patients in their healing process. The mind-body approach proves particularly efficient for complex presentations, as it addresses multiple symptoms simultaneously rather than requiring separate interventions for physical and psychological concerns. Additionally, yoga therapy protocols demonstrate remarkable cultural adaptability, allowing healthcare providers to modify interventions for diverse populations while maintaining clinical efficacy.
From a practical standpoint, yoga therapy offers a cost-effective solution with minimal equipment, making it sustainable even in resource-limited healthcare settings. Perhaps most importantly, yoga therapy integrates seamlessly with conventional treatments, enhancing rather than competing with medical care, which makes it an ideal complement to existing healthcare protocols.
The future of integrative health
My time in the refugee camp demonstrated that yoga therapy can successfully extend healthcare reach to underserved populations while maintaining clinical rigor. As healthcare systems increasingly recognize the importance of addressing social determinants of health and providing culturally responsive care, yoga can be a valuable tool for comprehensive therapy.
The principles learned in this humanitarian setting—cultural humility, individual choice, evidence-informed practice, and collaborative care—translate directly to conventional healthcare environments. Whether in refugee camps, hospitals, or community clinics, yoga therapy’s ability to meet people where they are makes it a powerful complement to conventional medicine.
Mounia Moalla, PhD, is a hospital pharmacist, author on YT (FR/AR), and yoga therapist based in France. Founder of Moon Yoga Therapy Academy, she has been instrumental in integrating yoga therapy into French hospitals and collaborates with healthcare providers to develop evidence-based practices for diverse populations. Dr. Moalla is also a volunteer expert in trauma-informed yoga for international humanitarian organizations.
*A sampling of open-access research
