Viniyoga® and Physiotherapy
with Birgitte Skovgaard, Copenhagen, Denmark
Birgitte Skovgaard is a Physiotherapist since January 2000, and practices in Denmark. She specialises in treatment for both adults and children and has helped many in improving their welling through both Physiotherapy and Yoga Therapy.
Since 2015, she discovered Viniyoga and found the excellent synergy between Viniyoga and Physiotherapy. She therefore joined the Viniyoga® Therapy Training with Dr. Kausthub Desikachar in 2016, and has been offering Viniyoga® also to her clients in Denmark.
Here she shares her precious experience of the synergies between Viniyoga® and Physiotherapy.
1) What brought you to Viniyoga in the first place?
I met Kausthub in Copenhagen where he held a talk about Yoga Therapy. After the talk, I spoke with him and he encouraged me to write an application and to come to do the three-year training as a Viniyoga therapist.
2) How did your work teaching Viniyoga help you with your own understanding of Physiotherapy?
Already from the beginning of the first module, it became very clear to me that what I thought was Yoga Therapy was much smaller than the actual great wisdom and tools that yoga holds! Laughs….
As the title, ''Yoga Therapist,'' isn’t protected, anyone can call themselves a Yoga Therapist – that understandably gives a lot of confusion. Furthermore, a great percentage of the Western population has mostly been taught about the physical part – asanas – in their yoga classes and therefore believe that yoga = asanas. Sadly, I experience that a lot of today’s yoga studios even skip savasana! Which basically means that the students/practitioners do a physical practice and then jump right into their daily life without any time to let the practice work and integrate. Then it is not yoga, but merely a physical training which also can have it's purpose – but it isn’t yoga.
Many people, (myself included four years ago) have the understanding that Yoga Therapy basically is physiotherapy using asanas, with mere physical goals such as strength, stability, physical shape and appearance. I am well aware that this statement will be provoking for some people and that physiotherapists also work with mental strength and endurance etc. Yoga Therapy works from a totally different way of understanding the human being and the philosophy is so much greater and so beautiful and gives so much more meaning to me. It truly IS holistic!
In this education, I was suddenly given a language that could explain all of what I myself had learned and experienced throughout my education. My twenty years as a certified physiotherapist, children’s physiotherapist, psychology studies, yoga teacher training and my own walk and path in life; even as a musician. It all suddenly wove itself into a beautiful pattern of holistic understanding of the human being and its evolution. I felt and still feel very blessed to have been given the opportunity to receive these old and precious teachings. I know I will keep learning more and reap a deeper and deeper understanding for the rest of my life.
3) How do you integrate Viniyoga to your Physiotherapy Clients? How do you integrate Physiotherapy to your Yoga clients?
After you have obtained a greater view of the human being, it is very difficult to pretend that you haven’t learned it. Laughs again ….. By that I mean that working as a certified physiotherapist in Denmark you are only allowed to teach and treat certain things. The government pays part of the treatment for the patients. This obviously gave a lot of challenges during my daily work. I found that more and more patients sought me as a therapist because other people had told them about their experiences with the way I worked and taught. At first mainly only integrating breathwork, mental work and through dialog sharing some relevant teachings about how the layers of the doshas are all interwoven and how the yoga philosophy understands the human being.
As a physiotherapist, I already worked with individualized practices for my clients, so, integrating yoga therapy in their daily life came very naturally.
These practices are always created in cooperation with the client through dialog. The practices become exactly as short or long, as often, and for that time or times of the day that that person needs or can accomplish.
When teaching Viniyoga, it is a great gift having twenty years of experience as a physiotherapist. I have a very profound understanding of the physical body, human physiology, neurology, movement range, movement patterns and observing, teaching and adjusting individually. This way, Viniyoga is perfect as it is also taught in the understanding and respect for the fact that every single human being is unique and has different needs.
4) How do you find the acceptance of Viniyoga by the clients?
I find that more and more people seek a holistic approach to their illnesses and imbalances. I believe and find that the care seekers find the care provider they wish for and need. That means that the clients and students who come to me are open and ready to learn more and to make changes in their lives.
I am still very cautious about what they are ready to implement in their daily practice and life. A lot of them are still very new to yoga as a holistic health system and life philosophy. So, we start with basic things they are ready for. A few of the students in the small group classes that I teach have found the introduction of chanting mantra very provoking. That being said, I find that they generally greet Viniyoga and me as a therapist with very grateful open arms and open hearts.
Every week, I receive heartfelt words and texts of gratitude from clients and students sharing their personal experience and improvements in health and life and therefore also in their surroundings. I cannot describe how blessed I feel being allowed and able to live and share for the benefit of all the people, young and old, who seek my help!
5) What challenges have you faced in bringing Viniyoga to your clients?
As I mentioned earlier, one of the biggest challenges has actually been that Yoga Therapy isn’t (yet) accepted in the Danish healthcare system and is still very new in Danish society. I am the first and only, Viniyoga Therapist in Denmark. I couldn’t really teach freely until this summer where I gave-up my connection to the state. This means that now I am teaching and treating Yoga Therapy students freely without time and frequency restrictions. Another consequence of that is, that the clients who “only” come for physiotherapy with this same freedom of choice also have to say goodbye to the refund they used to get from the government. That means that I also lose clients now. Especially children whose parents choose cheaper or even free treatment from physiotherapists who might not even have specialized in children’s development as I have. Those children I have to let go of and just send them my most loving and healing wishes.
6) What benefits have you seen manifesting in bringing Viniyoga to your clients?
Oh, don’t get me started! Laughs out loud….Well, we get to work far more profoundly and it really doesn’t do it justice to try and describe it with words. I almost don’t know where to start. Instead of only focusing on removing the symptoms, Viniyoga gives us the opportunity to work on and explore all the different layers (koshas) and patterns of the student; physically, energetically, emotionally, wisdom wise/mentally and spiritually. Helping and facilitating every student’s own walk and work in shedding old patterns and defense mechanisms that no longer serve them and dissolving old blockages isn’t always nice, but is always worth it!
When you receive messages like these, you just get more energy to keep doing your work!
“Dear Birgitte,
Thank you so much for helping me back on track.
I will miss your teachings. Sheila.”
“Already after my first session with Birgitte I was able to sleep like I haven’t for more than one and a half year! I am so grateful!” -Susan
” I have learned to take my body's signals seriously and have become aware of what I can do now and in the future in order to improve my condition.''
''In relation to my tasks at work, I am able to hold my focus and structure. Things that were complicated are no longer.''
” When I started to work with Birgitte, I had high blood pressure and was put on sick leave from my job. I wanted to work, not to be at home. Through working with Birgitte, I was able to stay at work and lower my blood pressure quickly.'' -Ditte
“Dear Birgitte,
Thank you so very much for a fantastic course which has truly given me the push I needed! In fact, your suggestions have already become a part of my everyday routine and I am learning so much more every single day! Not only about stress on the job, but also about how I contact/connect with the world around me. I can see the difference when I look in the mirror! Thanks again.
With Love,
Peter”
7) How do you see the role of Viniyoga Therapy in the future world?
It is a gift that we now, with modern science, are able to see, measure, understand and explain why many of the tools Yogis have used for 5000 years are working. Western people need that.
The Viniyoga Therapist education has already been recognized in the USA as an extra education for doctors in their healthcare system. I see and help a lot of people who already have tried a lot of other conventional things with no or little improvement. Then they come to see me and together we create positive changes. Sometimes I also propose to my clients that they see other professionals. I have a wonderfully competent network with other professionals which I appreciate very much. Specialized psychologists and a Doctors in Ayurveda, etc. I think and hope that the yoga philosophy will become a naturally integrated part of the common
understanding of the human being, and that that wisdom of Viniyoga as a holistic health system will be a natural part of the Western healthcare system, thus integrating the best of both worlds - Eastern wisdom with Western knowledge.
I do my best to do just that. Integrating and sharing the best from both worlds
Birgitte Skovgaard can be reached at birgitte@skovgaardyogaogfysioterapi.dk