Practicing therapeutic yoga: yoga saved me

The story and vision of Océane from MOA YOGA

Towards a therapeutic approach to yoga:

Discover the story of Oceane who was literally saved by yoga!

“I have personally been able to rescue myself from a hospital past through yoga.”

17 years of dancing, including a decade in a professional environment, destroyed my body, and I was stopped at the age of 19 the first time with a hip operation.
Not listening to my body, living in the stress, the competition, the aesthetic appearance of this art. It was 3 years later that I decided to stop everything. A second operation at the age of 21 which did not prove to be more promising for the future.
I started yoga without even being able to do the butterfly position.
And it is by observing a very fast improvement on my articular pains, of the back, of my pelvis which opened, that I did not stop any more yoga and continued to form me there abroad in various countries.

Her vision of therapeutic yoga

A complementary approach between all styles of yoga

A free and true yoga (connected and disconnected from everyday life) based on the harmony between the 3 levels (Body, mind, and breath).
I teach different types of yoga: from Hatha yoga (where I take the time to set up the pose, to find comfort in the position and to feel it internally), the Vinyasa Yoga (linking breathing to movement, as a continuous fluidity during the course, feeling his body light as if he was floating on water), by Ashtanga (always listening to his own body, with the dynamics that this style requires) and in Yin yoga (this deep inner experience of great relaxation).
I don’t identify myself with a “style” of yoga, because all yogas have the same goal, the same basic research wishing the wellbeing of the people. We also find the same positions in many different styles of yoga.
The difference is not in the positions but in what you feel, how you use your body, how you breathe, and how you practice with awareness of your body, its limits and its strengths.

The weight of the mind on the body

Through my experience of having followed people in serious illnesses: depression, loss of confidence but also my travels (among others China or India), I understood that the body is directly marked by our bad daily habits. It is not only stress that is referred to, even though most of the time we come to yoga to reduce our stress level.
I often ask my students at the beginning of the class to close their eyes and place their hands on a place in their body that hurts at the moment, and to place their hand on the heart to signify heartache = stress, or emotional pain, out of 10 people, about 7 to 8 will have their hand on the heart. They become aware from the beginning of the course that they are not there just for positions but for a much deeper purpose of well-being.
There are various reasons that affect this body (stress, food, environment, chronic diseases, personal problems of everyday life…)
Each side of the body being linked to a feminine or masculine side, I observed through yoga, reiki or foot reflexology that the problems of the students or clients were indeed their personal problem directly on their body. By becoming aware of it, by protecting yourself by bending your back, by not daring to bend your knees or elbows for “fear of letting go”, by trembling with nervousness, by observing one side completely closed compared to another, by pinching your lip or by not managing to stay still.
That’s how I bring them back to calm, by making them face their problem to succeed in detaching from it.
Hence the YOGA connected to the daily life (consciousness) and Disconnected from the daily life by managing to let go the time of a class to feel it also by returning in its daily life.

A path of personal development

I personally guide them on the path of their personal evolution.
How do you do it?
By giving tracks to exploit: The problems of teeth, ears known to destabilize during the positions of balance, giving images for back pain (“I have plenty of back” “make the back round”, shell, dietary advice oriented and accompanied by naturopaths or doctors ( dairy to be discouraged for joints, gluten to be reduced, sugar for osteoarthritis, lack of water … )

How to practice therapeutic yoga

Course of a session:

Often sitting, or lying down, I force people to settle down before starting a session.
Once the mind and the breathing are calmed and settled, we warm up the body by sun salutations or standing positions, static or in movement, also taking the time to compare balances from one foot to the other, always trying to balance the 2 sides of the body.
We finish with sequences of sitting and inversions, to finish by calming the body more and more until savasana (sometimes accompanied by mantras, ayurvedic massages, texts, or total silence)

What equipment is needed to practice therapeutic yoga?

All the accessories can be used, and I insist by seeing people who do not want to take any, to take a brick to place oneself correctly in Trikonasana is not shameful, or a strap in paschimottanasana not to force on the back by plunging towards the knees I like to specify it again.

Who can practice?

Anyone can do yoga as long as they know their weaknesses and don’t deliberately force them. Practice with awareness.

Discover Océane and her blog Moa Yoga

Océane teaches in 6 different studios in 2 regions of Brittany.

Learn more about Océane’s story