Viniyoga® and Cancer Management
with Kate Holcombe, San Francisco, USA
Kate Holcombe teaching in San Francisco, USA
Kate Holcombe is the founder of Healing Yoga Foundation, a non-profit centre based in San Francisco, dedicated to bringing the Viniyoga teachings of T Krishnamacharya and TKV Desikachar.
In 1991, as a student with Colgate University’s Study Abroad Program in India, Kate Holcombe was studying social work in the southern city of Chennai when she was hit by a motorcycle while crossing the street. Mary Louise Skelton (Mary Lou)—co-director of Colgate’s program—had been a long-time student of renowned yoga master T.K.V. Desikachar and brought Kate to him for rehabilitation and healing.
Later, Kate was hired to help lead Colgate’s Study Abroad Program in India and had the good fortune to spend the next several years in Chennai, studying one-on-one with Desikachar every day. After nearly 10 years of intensive study with her teacher, Kate returned to the U.S. in 2000. Inspired by and in honor of her teachers—Mary Lou and Desikachar—she brought with her the dream of founding a non-profit in San Francisco based on Krishnamacharya’s teachings.
Her work can be found here - https://healingyoga.org/
1) What brought you to Viniyoga in the first place?
I was first introduced to yoga in 1991 as a student of Colgate University’s study abroad program in Chennai, India (then Madras). I had met Mary Louise Skelton (the co-director of the program) at Colgate and was immediately struck by her. I learned she had been a long-time student of Srī T. Krishnamacharya and more recently of Srī TKV Desikachar, since Krishnamacharya’s passing just two years earlier at the age of 101. When I arrived in India for the program, Srī TKV Desikachar offered to teach a class to the Colgate students on Patanjali’s Yogasūtra which Mary Lou encouraged me to take. That class was my first introduction to yoga and began my lifelong love and appreciation of the yogasūtra. Two months after arriving in India, I was hit by a motorcycle while on my bicycle. I had a lot of pain as a result of the accident and difficulty sitting, walking or standing. To help with my recovery, Mary Lou brought me to see Srī Desikachar who designed a personalized practice to support my healing. When I returned to the U.S. a few months later, the doctors could not believe how well I recovered and healed, and credited Srī Desikachar’s practice which I had shown them.
2) How did your work of teaching Viniyoga to Cancer Patients manifest?
I had been hired by Colgate University to help run their India study abroad program so I was lucky enough to be living and working in Chennai (and able to continue my yoga studies) from 1991-2000. I had become very close with Mary Lou and spent a lot of time with her when her breast cancer recurred. In 1995, I was with her the last three weeks of her life and so I witnessed first-hand what an incredible support all of her years of yoga study were - even though her body was in incredible pain (and she certainly did not want to be dying), she truly wasn’t suffering. Witnessing how much yoga helped Mary Lou through her dying process changed my life. When I returned to Chennai to work a few weeks after she died, I asked Srī Desikachar if he would teach me how to help people through yoga, as Mary Lou had been helped. Supporting people with cancer was my focus from the very beginning - Mary Lou had given me so much, and I wanted to give back to others all I had received from her. Srī Desikachar agreed to teach me and since then, I have been forever grateful for all I received from him, and wanted to share with others all I have received from him. In 1998, I returned to the U.S for six months and wanted to do meaningful work there before returning to Chennai for another two years. Srī Desikachar introduced me to Michael Lerner at Commonweal in Bolinas, California where I volunteered during that short time. When I returned to San Francisco in 2000, I continued working for Commonweal and soon began teaching yoga to people with cancer as part of their Cancer Help Program team. I have been extremely blessed.
3) What frequency do you teach these students? And how long is each session?
When I moved back to San Francisco with my husband in 2000, I contacted several nonprofits and volunteered to teach yoga for them. One of the classes I taught was for women with breast cancer at a hospital in San Francisco. These classes were twice/ week for 90 minutes. Another was at Commonweal, as I mentioned above. The Commonweal Cancer Help Program (https://www.commonweal.org/program/cchp/) is a week-long, residential program for people with cancer, offered six times each year. During the retreat, yoga is offered is twice a day, for 75 minutes. In 2006 we founded the nonprofit Healing Yoga Foundation (https://healingyoga.org) where we offered weekly group classes, individual classes, and day-long support retreats for people with cancer. Classes are generally 75-90 minutes. I have also taught many, many students facing cancer privately at their homes. The length and frequency of these classes vary quite a bit, depending on many factors. All classes are personalized to the individual’s specific needs (even group classes).
4) What kind of tools do you offer them and how do they receive it?
All classes I teach for people with cancer include a check-in, guided breathing practices, guided meditation, appropriate āsana, and guided deep relaxation. I begin every class with a check in because so much changes during cancer treatment from day to day, even hour to hour. Adapting the practice according to energy levels, pain and discomfort, and other symptoms is vitally important.
While each class individualized, there are a few specific tools I consistently offer to students in both private and group classes. I always teach relaxed, diaphragmatic breathing with a slightly (comfortably) extended exhale – this not only helps support the parasympathetic nervous system (relaxation response) but also supports the lymph, as most of our lymph nodes are in and around the diaphragm. When I had my own diagnosis in 2015, I was happy to hear that several medical professionals affirmed this benefit and encouraged me to do it myself!
I am also big fan of sītalī for its cooling, anti-inflammatory effect. Simple nyāsam is also very effective for calming and reducing anxiety and for pain management. I find the students I teach are very appreciative of the simple, yet powerful tools that they can practice anywhere – sitting and waiting for an appointment, resting at home, receiving a chemotherapy infusion, even during a scan. These practices are generally very effective in helping them feel more connected to their bodies, to managing symptoms and reducing pain, and supporting sleep and relaxation.
5) What are some of the positive effects you have seen on these students?
During and after treatment for cancer, many students feel that they cannot attend regular yoga classes offered in studios or community centers because they cannot “do” many of the postures. This is very real. Fatigue is a major side effect of cancer treatment and there are countless other potential side effects of treatment that may impact āsana practice. This is why personalized practices are so important. When I went through my own treatment for breast cancer, one of the drugs I was on (and am still on) damaged my hands and my wrist – to this day I am unable to do sun salutations, downward dog, or any postures that require weight on my hands or wrists. I am grateful that I have learned and studied in this tradition and have been able to adapt my own practice, and the practices of many others, to address and support individual needs so that anyone going through cancer treatment can benefit from the tools of yoga. Being able to have access to the tools of yoga for support, especially in a way that is adapted to individual needs, is incredibly empowering.
6) What challenges have you faced in bringing Viniyoga to these students?
Perhaps the biggest challenge I have seen and faced is consistency. Given that energy levels, pain levels, and other side effects vary so much throughout treatment, attending class, or practicing at home, at a regular time each week (or day) can be challenging. I try to remind my students to be gentle and loving with themselves. I remind them that whatever they can do for themselves, even if it’s just their one favorite āsana pose, or three conscious, deep breaths, counts as “practice.”
7) What is most important for patients with Cancer?
In my opinion and personal experience it is most important to feel heard and seen, and to feel validated that whatever one is feeling and experiencing is welcome and absolutely ok. Cancer can be a time of many changes - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. It is important to allow and give permission for the full range of feelings and experiences. It is also important to remember that cancer is caused by many factors – unfortunately, over the many years I have worked with people with cancer, I have sometimes seen a tendency toward self-blame, or feeling they should have done something differently or “better” to prevent it, or heal from it (and this is sadly sometimes reinforced by some in the yoga community who speak about “manifesting” your reality). This way of thinking and speaking is harmful and simply untrue. There are so many causes of cancer – life is a mystery – and how we heal, or don’t heal, from cancer is also a mystery. As I learned from yogasūtra, the goal is to learn how to influence my experience, no matter what my circumstance, and focus on how I can move forward positively (rather than feel stuck in what I can’t change or is out of my control). Cancer is hard enough without beating ourselves up on top of it all
8) How has Viniyoga helped you in your own journey with Cancer?
I can truly say my yoga practise saved my life. And by yoga practice, I primarily credit almost thirty years of study and devotion to Patanjali’s yogasūtra. Through the hardest times of my life, the practices and teachings of this text, as I have learned from my teacher Srī TKV Desikachar, have been the foundation that helped me through. I am forever grateful.
9) How do you see the role of Viniyoga in the future of Viniyoga Therapy in the world?
I am hopeful that more and more people will come to see the value in adapting the varied tools of yoga practice to individual needs and utilizing the full breadth of yoga’s tools in support of healing - including the extraordinary text of Patanjali’s yogasūtra!