Positive Health Online

Abstract

SULLIVAN and COLLEAGUES,  Maryland University of Integrative Health, USA conduct a study which proposes an explanatory framework for yoga therapy, informed by phenomenology, eudaimonia, virtue ethics, and first-person ethical inquiry.

Background

Yoga Therapy is an emerging complementary and integrative health practice for which there is increasing interest from both clinical and research perspectives.

Methodology

Currently missing, however, is an explanatory framework for the profession that provides practitioners, clients, and the public with an understanding of how various yogic traditions and principles can be understood in modern health care contexts.

Results

This study proposes an explanatory framework for yoga therapy, informed by phenomenology, eudaimonia, virtue ethics, and first-person ethical inquiry. These 4 philosophical perspectives-phenomenology, Eudaimonia, virtue ethics, and first-person ethical inquiry-provide a lens through which to understand how yogic practices support the individual's transformation in the experience of illness, pain, or disability.

Conclusion

We propose that this transformation occurs through facilitating a reharmonization of body, mind, and environment toward the experience of eudaimonic well-being.

References

Marlysa B Sullivan, Steffany Moonaz, Kristine Weber, Jessica Noggle Taylor, Laura Schmalzl. Toward an Explanatory Framework for Yoga Therapy Informed by Philosophical and Ethical Perspectives. Altern Ther Health Med.  ;24(1):38-47. Jan 2018.