Clinic Systems

A growing number of clinic systems, hospitals, and other healthcare facilities integrate yoga therapy in a variety of ways. Following are just a few examples. (Although each is listed once, some facilities may fit into multiple categories.)

Hospital and other clinical settings

Many hospital and stand-alone clinics now offer gentle group and individual yoga sessions. These may include mindfulness and other types of meditation, individual yoga therapy sessions, and small-group classes. Therapeutic yoga may be part of clinical care for specific health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, chronic pain, headaches, and more; it may also be used to help patients and providers cultivate personal stress-management practices.

Cancer care

Yoga and yoga therapy in these settings is often aimed at reducing symptoms or improving quality of life for oncology patients and, sometimes, caregivers. Sessions may also support survivors, filling gaps in post-treatment support and promoting long-term maintenance of healthy lifestyle changes.

Mental health

Yoga can be a helpful adjunctive inpatient or outpatient therapy to promote nervous system modulation, self-regulation, and improved bottom-up processing. Individual and small-group sessions may be geared toward stress-coping, self-directed tools for anxiety and depression symptoms, insomnia, and more.

Military settings and public health initiatives