Integrating yoga into psychotherapy: The ethics of moving from the mind to the mat

Abstract

Given the rise in attention to client preferences in medical treatment and the shift in focus toward health promotion, it is not surprising that the use of complementary health approaches have increased in the past several years. Yoga is among the most prominent complementary health approaches. Recently, both qualitative and quantitative work has emerged supporting its use for a variety of medical and psychological disorders. However, there is a critical gap in knowledge regarding how to most optimally and ethically integrate complementary therapies (i.e., yoga) into current psychology practices. Moreover, it remains unclear which clients are the best candidates for receiving such complementary treatments and which therapists should provide them. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the history of yoga, the scientific evidence in support of its use for mental health issues, and an ethical framework to guide psychologists interested in integrating yoga into psychotherapy.

Keywords: Complementary therapies; Ethical decision-making; Psychotherapy; Yoga.