Sunday, September 21, 2008

Integrative Medicine - Riding a Cultural Wave

The last decade has seen a substantial shift in the awareness of all forms of 'alternative' approaches to health and wellness in our culture. For the first part of the decade I had been almost exclusively focused on growing Yoga Yoga and building a unique organization - focused on delivering classical yoga with respect for lineage, while making this yoga more accessible to a larger portion of society. Then, a few years ago the role we could play - in fact were already playing - in the context of health care became more apparent.

Students were (and always had) taken yoga for their own reasons along the spectrum of wellness. Some were healthy and wanted to expand their experience of being well into other dimensions of health (in mind or body or both), some were not well, but not yet of need of medical intervention and heard yoga might help, so they tried it and it worked. Others had already sought the intervention of a health care professional, who recommended yoga as an adjunct to the care they were providing, or who sought out yoga in order to complement the care of a more traditional provider. And occasionally individuals seek to use yoga in lieu of medical intervention as a purely personal choice.

Now, as society moved towards a 'perfect storm' which just might be a harbinger of change....
  • A health care system clearly failing from overwhelming cost and massively unacceptable results
  • Explosive growth in the use of 'alternative' approaches
  • Growing scientific evidence for the benefit of these alternative approaches
In the context of this 'storm' I've been exploring what this all means for yoga, how it is taught, how it is defined in our culture, and what the future might bring.

Recently I had the chance to attend a conference on the emerging field of Yoga Therapy, and participate in this ongoing discussion and exploration. Its an important area of growth for our profession, and I'm especially curious how it will emerge in the coming decade. In fact, in March of next year I will be presenting at the SYTAR conference on 'The Economics of Yoga Therapy'.

I'd encourage all of us to stay informed as this field evolves, matures and adapts to the needs of our communities, the knowledge of our professionals, and the development of structures that make it possible for yoga to reach ans serve more and more people.

Rich (Raghurai)