MTY uses a standardized way to assess and treat an individual through a plan of care using a Functional Movement Algorithm (FMA). The method provides a step-by-step checklist to ensure safe alignment, adequate breathing, and appropriate nervous system responses through a developmental movement sequence. Distinct observations of a person’s neurophysiological reactions to movement and their environment, as supported by emerging neuroscience, is considered throughout to support a balanced mind-body connection and state. The FMA is a unique key evaluative tool of MTY, which I use as a gauge in both private practice and group classes.

What has become apparent to me is that in this industrialized, consumer-driven, highly stressed society, it is imperative for clinicians to simultaneously attend to the biological, psychological, and social dimensions of illness in order to best serve their patients.4 Medical Therapeutic Yoga provides a complementary holistic alternative to the existing biomedical model with use of a biopsychosocial approach. This holistic yogic lens is a revolutionary way of understanding how a person’s subjective experience, lifestyle, and personal circumstances serve as essential contributors to accurate diagnosis, treatment decisions, and health outcomes.

Dr. Sylvie Le, DPT