Viniyoga® in Hospital Settings
with Vidhi Sadana, Viniyoga Therapist | London, United Kingdom
Vidhi Sadana is a Clinical yoga therapist; mentor for yoga therapy training in Viniyoga® tradition. She is Complementary and Natural Health Council Profession Specific Board member for Yoga Therapy and Yoga Researcher in the NHS. She has authored articles in yoga and patient group magazines. She supported Central Middlesex Hospital (CMH) rheumatology patient group with patient driven audits and held first in UK pilot study of Yoga Therapy (Viniyoga Therapy). She has published abstracts in EULAR, Innovations in Medicine Conference for Royal College of Physicians and International Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health, Baltimore. She is also on the mind-body medicine sub-committee supported by the Royal College of Medicine (RSM).
She is taking Viniyoga Therapy into the first modular introductory course at Imperial College School of Medicine curriculum and was awarded Inspiration award 2017 (Runners Up). She delivers yoga therapy for the management of addiction in Rehab Clinics such as Promis Clinic as well as other trauma related physical and mental issues. She has collaborated with consultants and General Physicians around West London to deliver Yoga Therapy as a complementary healing modality.
Here she answers a few important questions on how she is engaging with Viniyoga Therapy in hospital settings.
1) What brought you to Viniyoga in the first place?
My own immune system disorder brought me to the Viniyoga tradition. After being a yoga teacher in London, I wanted to help people in a therapeutic way and was looking for courses of yoga therapy. After researching, I realised that the best and one of the training that was rooted in tradition and yogic philosophy was the Viniyoga tradition.
2) How did your work of teaching Viniyoga at the hospital manifest?
One of the great things about the Viniyoga training is to conduct a research paper as part of your submission to qualify. I approached a patient support group in the local hospital directed by a consultant in the hospital who was also the medical director of the group. Patients consented and I offered them Viniyoga one to one sessions. Once the patients started to get better, the consultant realised that Viniyoga had a potential help his patients with inflammation.
3) How do you find the acceptance of Viniyoga by the medical professionals at the hospital?
Acceptance is very slow and not because even if the doctors and hospitals want to have Viniyoga as part of the treatment plan for their patients, there isn't enough funding in the UK. So a combination of lack of progressiveness of some doctors and lack of funding, the uptake is very very slow.
4) How has Viniyoga helped your patients in their healing process?
Viniyoga has helped the patients to become empowered to manage their condition. They show lower anxiety and depression and a lot of them have reduced some of their long-term medications as well.
5) What challenges have you faced in bringing Viniyoga to the medical setting?
Lack of understanding firstly about what Viniyoga is and how the one to one sessions are different to "yoga". The perception of yoga in itself was a challenge as it is associated with pretzel poses and patients coming to hospital setting usually have limited abilities but lack of awareness of Viniyoga combined with their perception was a huge challenge. And lastly, funding has been challenging as Viniyoga therapist have to devalue themselves in order to match what is being offered as their daily rate. A recognition of why the Viniyoga therapists are specialist in their field is another challenge.
6) How do you see the role of Viniyoga in the future of Viniyoga Therapy in the world?
Viniyoga therapy can play an instrumental role complementing the western medicine in managing the HUGE burden of Chronic Long Term diseases. Because Viniyoga sessions are not just yoga classes with physical postures or some breathing techniques, they also include yogic counselling. So we offer not just physical or energetic tools to our patients but also support them in their emotional and mental states to help them manage their condition. This can lead to lower costs to the healthcare system as we do some of the job of physio's and counsellor in one session saving time and money.