Show notes
Loren Fishman, MD, C-IAYT, (standing) led a morning practice on yoga for scoliosis (above) and an afternoon session on yoga for rotator cuff syndrome. He is on staff at Columbia University Medical School.
The 16th Symposium on Yoga Therapy and Research (SYTAR) was held June 18–20 at the Hilton Orange County/Costa Mesa Hotel in Costa Mesa, California. The conference was sponsored by the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT). More than 300 people from 20+ countries attended.
The conference included many components, including research presentations, keynote speakers, concurrent sessions and morning practices, roundtable discussions, exhibits, a photography presentation, and a banquet on Saturday night.
Keynote speakers
Holger Cramer, PhD, is a professor of research in complementary medicine at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and scientific director of the Robert Bosch Center for Integrative Medicine and Health at the Bosch Health Campus in Stuttgart. The title of his address was “Yoga for Chronic Pain: Evidence, Safety, and Implications for Global Integration.” Dr. Cramer’s research has generated high-quality evidence on the efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of traditional, complementary, and integrative medicine. It has contributed substantially to the inclusion of yoga in clinical guidelines and to its integration into routine healthcare practice worldwide, particularly in the context of chronic pain and supportive cancer care.
Dr. Cramer noted that 20% of the world’s adult population experiences pain. By 2050, that number will increase to 25%. In the U.S., 24.3% of adults currently experience pain. He referred to clinical studies that have shown that yoga can alleviate chronic pain. The style is less important; rather, practicing regularly is key. Moreover, yoga is safe and cost-effective, and remote yoga interventions are feasible, acceptable, and safe.
Why yoga for chronic pain? “People are doing it anyway,” said Dr. Cramer. “Yoga is everywhere all over the world.” Yoga practice has increased 50% in the past ten years, and doubles every ten years. And people expect yoga to increase health, energy, mood, and activity and to decrease chronic pain, especially low back pain.
Judith Hanson Lasater, PhD, PT, C-IAYT, has taught yoga since 1971 in almost all of the 50 U.S. states and on six continents. In 2016, she was chosen by Natural Health magazine as one of the five most important influencers of natural health in the United States during the previous 40 years; she was the only yoga teacher on the list.
Dr. Lasater’s topic was “Beyond Presence: Ripening into Consciousness.” She said the most important thing about yoga is to cultivate a shift in consciousness toward “being present,” which is the beginning of spiritual consciousness. When we are in the present moment, we focus on the sensation of the moment.
How not to be present? Compare ourselves to others, complain about everything, refuse to see the difference between problems and inconveniences (except for someone getting hurt, which is a problem), not forgiving ourselves or others, living in the past, and insisting we are right and are always right. How to be present? Be present in public areas like airports without looking at your phone (like everybody else is doing); become empathy and presence (be it, don’t do it); in asana, find your limit and stop before you reach it; focus your attention on the present moment. “When we are present, we know what to say and what to do,” Dr. Lasater said. “People know what you say is the truth. An integrated person is aware of immortality; cultivates the ability to see other people’s points of view, regardless of agreement; chooses compassion as their chief response to the world; and is part of a community of like-minded people who support one another.”
Helen Lavretsky, MD, MS, is a professor-in-residence in the Department of Psychiatry at UCLA and a geriatric integrative psychiatrist; she conducts federally funded research on integrative mental health using mind-body techniques. She is currently investigating novel therapeutic options for older adults with mood and cognitive disorders as well as for people with long COVID.
In her keynote, “Mind-Body Practices for Brain and Mental Health,” Dr. Lavretsky spoke about the problem of chronic stress in the aging global population. Depression, anxiety, and dementia are increasingly prevalent, she said, and the world is running out of caregivers. Her research found that aging of the brain, which leads to chronic inflammation, can be modified when people are engaged with society and provide service to others. Previously, prevention aimed at minimizing the declines associated with aging began when people were in middle age. Now, she believes, prevention should start in utero, where risk factors are shaped. Early childhood exposure to environmental and other toxicities, she said, can be remedied by early childhood yoga including breathing techniques to help children learn to deal with stress.
Dr. Lavretsky recommended yoga, tai chi, and qigong as mindful physical exercises. She emphasized the importance of centered, controlled breathing to benefit the brain, lungs, and heart. Her studies have shown that the heart rate slows and blood pressure decreases with controlled breathing. Chanting, mudras (symbolic hand gestures), breathing, and other mindful practices are also helpful.
Marsha D. Banks-Harold, MSEd, C-IAYT, is a yoga therapist, sound healer, and trauma-sensitive educator. Her keynote was entitled “Trailblazing Leadership and Emotional Intelligence: A Social Ecology Framework for Inclusion, Belonging, and Success in Yoga Therapy.” She spoke about how fostering inclusion and a sense of belonging strengthens clients’ confidence and engagement—leading to success for both clients and yoga therapists.
Banks-Harold developed the PIES*S Compassionate Action Model (based on the multi-dimensions of wellness: Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, Spiritual and Socio-Emotional. The model includes the following steps: 1) implementing self-study, encouraging clients to consciously change their behaviors and habits; 2) building relationships with clients, allowing them to feel supported, encouraged, and embraced; 3) amplifying resilience so clients know wellness is possible; and 4) fostering compassionate action, which involves responding to another’s suffering with empathy.
Banks-Harold’s work is shaped by her lived experiences including navigating cancer, mental illness, and systemic inequity; she brings compassion and humanity into her global teaching and leadership. She is the owner of PIES Fitness Yoga Studio in Alexandria, Virginia.
Concurrent sessions
In addition to Dr. Cramer’s keynote on yoga for chronic pain, pain was a common theme throughout the conference. Peter Bayley, PhD, Director of Research at the War Related Illness and Injury Study Center at VA Palo Alto, reported results from a recent randomized clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of yoga versus standard cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as a treatment for chronic pain in veterans with Gulf War illness, which is characterized by autonomic nervous system dysfunction (higher heart rate, lower heart rate variability). In the study, heart rate increased in subjects receiving CBT but remained stable with yoga. And in one category of subjects, yoga was more effective than CBT.
In her morning practice, “Yoga Therapy’s Inherent Pain Science,” Gina Shelton, a pediatric yoga therapist who is part of the pain management team at Cook Children’s in Fort Worth, Texas, compared pain to fear of pain. She said the amygdala, the part of the brain that processes emotions, memories, and survival instincts, is always looking at our emotional thoughts and beliefs about pain. The body talks to the brain, asking, “Am I safe?” “Am I in danger?” The body will let you know if it feels it’s in danger. “What feels safe to you?” asked Gina. “You decide.” Relating it to the five koshas (layers of the body), she suggested that we observe sensations and notice how our breath, emotions, intuition, and spirit relate to the sensations we feel without trying to change the sensations.
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Amber Kyliuk, a kinesiologist who is certified in pain reprocessing therapy, led a session entitled “How Curiosity Plays a Key Role in Persistent Pain Recovery.” Recovery is different for everyone, she explained. The old view of persistent pain was that it had a single cause and was unchangeable: the nervous system determined something was dangerous. The new view is that persistent pain protects us from tissue damage, is an over-sensitized system, has many causes, and is changeable.
Kyliuk explained that acute injuries will heal with time (typically). However, if we gently activate the area—not overloading it but doing manageable movement—the damaged tissues will heal/adapt much better with the prescribed movement than if they were left to heal with rest alone. Persistent pain, she said, is as an over-protective system where the danger signals (pain sensations) do not only come from tissue damage but from perceived danger arising from many sources like relationships, work, over-scheduling, a worried mind, news, etc. “When we can shift this perspective to see that not all pain sensations are tissue damaging, it allows us to look at the bigger picture and see other contributing factors to the over-protection.
“Somatic tracking, a mindfulness exercise that allows the body and mind to notice sensations with curiosity, is very useful,” said Kyliuk. “In that moment we recognize that we are safe and take the moment to notice how our body feels. Rather than react out of fear or phobia, we then connect that calm awareness to our breath. It’s a tool that we will always have with us.”
Several other concurrent sessions were held throughout the day on a variety of subjects from anatomy to philosophy, relating to the body, mind, and spirit.
Yoga in photographs
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A highlight of the conference was a special slide presentation by photographer Robert Sturman, who is known for his photography of people practicing yoga. His photos featured people in yoga postures in a variety of settings: in nature and urban environments worldwide, in prisons, in the military. And he captured diverse groups of people practicing yoga including first responders, hospital workers, and breast cancer survivors. Particularly moving were photos of veteran amputees, including one doing a handstand on a beach with his leg prostheses standing in the sand a few feet away. Many are of the Africa Yoga Project, a Kenyan organization that inspires and empowers individuals through the restoring practice of yoga. The Project’s trained yoga instructors hold classes in prisons, schools, rural villages, HIV/AIDS support centers, and many other places. A prison warden he photographed said that prisoners who practice yoga and meditation make better choices. You can see his photos on his website, https://www.robertsturmanstudio.com.
In summary, it was clear that yoga therapy has become widely accepted as a healing modality over the years as more and more research has been conducted. Next year’s conference will be virtual. For more information about the International Association of Yoga Therapists, visit http://www.iayt.org.
The post Review of the 2026 Annual Symposium for Yoga Therapy and Research appeared first on Yoga Chicago.
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