By Luna Kunst
Yoga therapy often meets people at transitional moments—times when the body is relearning itself. One client with whom I worked, a senior who had recently lost more than 200 pounds, came to me after hip-replacement surgery. This devoted gardener, whom I’ll call Sharon, lives alone, and recent falls had left her afraid to move freely. Sharon’s goal was simple but profound: to reclaim everyday movements she had lost over decades of pain, immobility, and fear.
The ways we worked together probably don’t look anything like what most people imagine yoga therapy to be, yet Sharon’s story beautifully illustrates the practice’s real-world applications and infinite adaptability.
Fluid beginnings
For Sharon, yoga therapy began in the pool, not with familiar poses. The water offered density, support, and safety. Still, she found our first session terrifying. She cried, fearing she would drown—even though I was right behind her.
Sharon’s nervous system had learned to associate movement with danger. Meeting her safety needs required attunement to her psychosocial stage of development, as described in Erikson’s model, as well as grounding principles from the system of the chakras (“wheels of energy” in Sanskrit). She needed stability, trust, and a sense of being held before she could attempt anything new.
In the water, Sharon slowly discovered that she could move without pain. The buoyancy allowed her joints to decompress, her breath to deepen, and her fear to soften. She learned how to lift both legs off the pool floor—something she had not done in years. That moment of weightlessness, physical as well as emotional, was the first time she trusted her body again after all the changes she’d experienced.
We used the pool to rebuild core engagement, balance skills, and proprioception (the sense of where the body is in space). The water became a therapeutic partner, slowing Sharon’s movements, giving her feedback, and reducing the fear of falling. Once she developed confidence in this setting, we transitioned to gentle core strengthening supported by a chair on land. The pool had prepared her nervous system to believe in her own capabilities.
Slow, steady progress
On land, we continued with functional sequencing: supported hip hinging, breath-led core activation, and gradual load tolerance. We broke every movement into digestible steps. Instead of “forward fold,” we practiced “reach, hinge, pause, breathe, return.” Instead of “balance,” we practiced “shift weight, find the floor with your eyes, soften the breath.”
Our work together was slow, deliberate, and empowering. Sharon learned how to put on socks without pain, how to stabilize herself while standing at the kitchen counter, and how to prevent the falls that had previously caused serious injury. These small victories were life-changing, allowing Sharon to return to her garden with confidence and tend the plants that bring her joy.
People like Sharon may feel unable to participate in integrative therapies or that they are overlooked because of their complex needs. But yoga therapy is uniquely suited for complexity. The practice adapts to the person in front of us, not to a predetermined sequence. It honors history, trauma, and physiology, meeting the nervous system where it is and inviting it toward safety.
Functional recovery is about dignity, agency, and the return of everyday movement rather than performance. Yoga therapy gave Sharon a route back to herself—one breath, one step at a time.
Luna Kunst, NASM-CPT, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT, integrates yoga therapy, aquatic movement, and nervous system attunement to support functional recovery for clients with complex needs. Through NuReveal Yoga, she offers accessible, trauma-informed practices that rebuild confidence, stability, and everyday movement.
