Yoga and Mental Health: Children and Adolescents Make Space in the System for Deeper Practices
The popularity of Hatha-Yoga practice in mainstream American culture has opened many doors of healing for adults and children with a variety of physical and emotional illnesses. Indeed, the physical aspects of Yoga are undeniably beneficial for people of all ages. Invariably,those who take on a serious practice of âsana eventually move into the deeper practices of Yoga. In the American mental health system Yoga has been embraced as a physical practice to relieve stress, anxiety, and depression, much as any physical exercise has been touted to do the same. With this article, I intend to argue that Yoga therapy, founded in deliberate examination and holistic healing of self on each level of the fivekoshas, can be integrated into a mainstream inpatient mental health program for children and adolescents with a variety of emotional and psychological disorders. By focusing on all levels of the person—physical, psychological,energetic, and spiritual—Yoga therapists and other health care workers can provide a foundation of healing by which children and adolescents can be empowered to act on their own behalf within a system that is currently under radical reconstruction.