Medicate With Movement, Serving clients virtually, La Salle, IL (2026)

05/24/2026

GMVs Are a Business Model and a Care Model
GMVs can support sustainability without making Yoga Therapists overstep scope.
One reason Group Medical Visits matter for Yoga Therapy is that they may offer a more sustainable business model.
The medical provider anchors the visit and billing structure.
The Yoga Therapist contributes within scope as part of the interprofessional care team.
That distinction matters.
Yoga Therapists do not need to diagnose, prescribe, or become medical providers to be valuable in healthcare.
We need clear roles, clear documentation, clear referral pathways, and fair compensation for our contribution.
GMVs may allow Yoga Therapy to be paid as part of a team-based care model while keeping the work grounded in scope, ethics, and collaboration.
Group Medical Visits + Yoga Therapy = Access, Practice, Community, Care
(AI was used for grammar & formatting)
References:
Meriage-Reiter, T. (2020). Should yoga therapy be covered by health insurance? Part 1: Cracking the code. Yoga Therapy Today, Winter 2020, 40–42.
Meriage-Reiter, T. (2020). Should yoga therapy be covered by health insurance? Part 2: Code soup—Order up! Yoga Therapy Today, Spring 2020, 32–35.
Shafto, K., Knox, J. E., Justice, C., Haddow, S., Reeves, T., Dusek, J. A., & Prasad, A. (2026). A person-centered feasibility study of integrative group medical visits for people with chronic pain. The American Journal of Medicine. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2026.04.002

05/24/2026

The Future of Yoga Therapy Is Collaborative
GMVs show a pathway into healthcare without assimilation.
The future of Yoga Therapy in healthcare is not about becoming medicine.
It is about supporting medicine.
It is about bringing embodied practice, nervous-system literacy, self-inquiry, therapeutic relationship, and whole-person care into models that already serve patients.
Group Medical Visits offer one promising pathway.
They create room for team-based care.
They create room for community.
They create room for education and practice.
They create room for patients to become active participants in their own healing.
For Yoga Therapy, this is the opportunity:
Not to be reduced to stretching.
Not to be hidden inside generic wellness.
Not to overstep scope.
But to become a trusted collaborator in whole-person healthcare.
Group Medical Visits + Yoga Therapy = Access, Practice, Community, Care
(AI was used for grammar & formatting)
References:
Shafto, K., Knox, J. E., Justice, C., Haddow, S., Reeves, T., Dusek, J. A., & Prasad, A. (2026). A person-centered feasibility study of integrative group medical visits for people with chronic pain. The American Journal of Medicine. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2026.04.002
Ijaz, N., Steinberg, M., Flaherty, T., Neubauer, T., & Thompson-Lastad, A. (2021). Beyond professional licensure: A statement of principle on culturally-responsive healthcare. Global Advances in Health and Medicine, 10, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1177/21649561211043092

05/23/2026

GMVs Support Chronic Pain Care
Chronic pain needs more than brief appointments.
Chronic pain is rarely just a tissue issue.
It often includes nervous-system sensitization, fear of movement, sleep disruption, stress physiology, isolation, fatigue, grief, and reduced confidence in the body.
That is why chronic pain care needs more than a brief appointment and a handout.
Group Medical Visits can create space for patients to learn, reflect, practice, and receive support over time.
Yoga Therapy can contribute to chronic pain GMVs by helping patients explore safe movement, breath regulation, pacing, body awareness, and a less fearful relationship with sensation.
This is not about promising a cure.
It is about helping people build capacity, choice, and confidence.
Group Medical Visits + Yoga Therapy = Access, Practice, Community, Care
(AI was used for grammar & formatting)
References:
Shafto, K., Knox, J. E., Justice, C., Haddow, S., Reeves, T., Dusek, J. A., & Prasad, A. (2026). A person-centered feasibility study of integrative group medical visits for people with chronic pain. The American Journal of Medicine. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2026.04.002
Moonaz, S., Nault, D., Cramer, H., & Ward, L. (2021). CLARIFY 2021: Explanation and elaboration of the Delphi-based guidelines for the reporting of yoga research. BMJ Open, 11(8), e045812. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045812

05/22/2026

Where Yoga Therapy Fits
Yoga Therapy supports the lived integration of medical care.
In a Group Medical Visit, the Yoga Therapist does not replace the physician, physical therapist, psychologist, nurse, or dietitian.
That is not the point.
The Yoga Therapist helps patients practice the skills that support self-regulation, symptom management, functional awareness, and self-care.
This might include:
Breath practices for nervous-system regulation.
Therapeutic movement for pacing and confidence.
Interoceptive awareness for noticing early signs of stress, fatigue, pain, or dysregulation.
Restorative practices for recovery and sleep.
Self-inquiry to support meaning, behavior change, and agency.
Yoga Therapy helps extend the care plan into the patient’s lived experience.
Group Medical Visits + Yoga Therapy = Access, Practice, Community, Care
(AI was used for grammar & formatting)
Reference:
Moonaz, S., Nault, D., Cramer, H., & Ward, L. (2021). CLARIFY 2021: Explanation and elaboration of the Delphi-based guidelines for the reporting of yoga research. BMJ Open, 11(8), e045812. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045812
Shafto, K., Knox, J. E., Justice, C., Haddow, S., Reeves, T., Dusek, J. A., & Prasad, A. (2026). A person-centered feasibility study of integrative group medical visits for people with chronic pain. The American Journal of Medicine. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2026.04.002

05/19/2026

Community Is Part of the Medicine
Healing happens through belonging, not just information.
One of the most powerful parts of a Group Medical Visit is the group itself.
Patients often carry chronic pain, stress, fatigue, illness, grief, or fear in isolation.
In a group setting, they hear:
“I am not the only one.”
That moment matters.
Community can reduce shame, normalize struggle, build confidence, and help people stay engaged in their care.
From a Yoga Therapy perspective, healing is relational. We are not just bodies with symptoms. We are whole human beings shaped by breath, nervous system patterns, relationships, environment, meaning, and lived experience.
Group Medical Visits give healthcare a way to bring the community back into care.
Group Medical Visits + Yoga Therapy = Access, Practice, Community, Care
(AI was used for grammar & formatting)
References:
Ijaz, N., Steinberg, M., Flaherty, T., Neubauer, T., & Thompson-Lastad, A. (2021). Beyond professional licensure: A statement of principle on culturally-responsive healthcare. Global Advances in Health and Medicine, 10, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1177/21649561211043092
Shafto, K., Knox, J. E., Justice, C., Haddow, S., Reeves, T., Dusek, J. A., & Prasad, A. (2026). A person-centered feasibility study of integrative group medical visits for people with chronic pain. The American Journal of Medicine. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2026.04.002

05/19/2026

What Is a Group Medical Visit?
GMVs are not wellness classes; they are structured clinical visits with more time, education, and support.
A Group Medical Visit is not simply a class.
It is a healthcare delivery model where patients with a shared concern meet together with a medical provider and care team.
The medical provider anchors the clinical visit, while the group structure creates more room for education, discussion, self-management skills, movement, mindfulness, lifestyle support, and community connection.
This matters because many chronic conditions cannot be adequately supported in a rushed appointment alone.
People need time.
They need practice.
They need relationship.
They need skills they can use between appointments.
For Yoga Therapy, Group Medical Visits may offer a practical bridge into healthcare because they create room for the very things Yoga Therapy does well: breath awareness, nervous-system regulation, therapeutic movement, interoception, self-inquiry, and sustainable self-care.
Group Medical Visits + Yoga Therapy = Access, Practice, Community, Care
(AI was used for grammar & formatting)
Reference:
Shafto, K., Knox, J. E., Justice, C., Haddow, S., Reeves, T., Dusek, J. A., & Prasad, A. (2026). A person-centered feasibility study of integrative group medical visits for people with chronic pain. The American Journal of Medicine. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2026.04.002

05/19/2026

Freedom may begin with a new experience.
Yoga Sutra 2.21 reminds us that experience itself can become a pathway toward liberation and self-knowing.
Modern neuroscience might call this neuroplasticity:
the nervous system’s ability to reorganize through repeated experience.
What we repeatedly practice…the body begins to predict.
This matters clinically.
Because many people are not just carrying symptoms— they are carrying conditioned physiological responses:
guarding,
bracing,
hypervigilance,
shutdown,
over-functioning,
people pleasing,
fear.
Over time, those patterns can begin to feel like identity.
But the nervous system can learn something new.
A slower breath.
A safer relationship.
A different movement experience.
A moment of being witnessed without judgment.
Yoga Therapy works in that space between experience and adaptation.
Not forcing change— but helping create conditions where new possibilities can emerge.
Perhaps that is what self-knowing really is:
not becoming someone else,
but uncovering what was possible beneath the conditioning all along.
(AI was used for grammar & formatting)
Interoception EmbodiedHealing TherapeuticPresence NervousSystemHealth HealingLeadership

05/18/2026

The observer beneath the experience remains whole.
Yoga Therapy is not about convincing someone they are broken.
It is helping them recognize what has been layered on top of them:
stress,
conditioning,
fear,
pain,
roles,
survival patterns,
and nervous system protection.
In modern practice, we often mistake the adaptation for the identity.
But a guarded nervous system is not a personality.
Burnout is not the self.
Pain is not the whole story.
Sometimes the work is not adding more—
but helping the system remember what was never actually lost.
Yoga Sutra 2.20 reminds us:
the seer remains untouched beneath the conditioning.
And perhaps that is why therapeutic presence matters so much.
Not because we “fix” people—
but because we help create the conditions where they can begin to perceive themselves differently.
Interoception YogaTherapy NervousSystemHealth HealingLeadership EmbodiedAwareness
(AI was used for grammar & formatting)

05/17/2026

Sometimes I think my love for interoception started long before I even had language for it.
Back in the early 2000s, I was transitioning out of the business world and into health and wellness. I first became a personal trainer, then a fitness coach, and eventually yoga became my second modality.
At the time, I was teaching people over the phone.
No video.
No camera.
No demonstrations.
Just words.
I had to learn how to listen differently.
How to cue differently.
How to help people sense themselves from the inside out.
Looking back now, I realize those experiences shaped the way I teach anatomy, yoga therapy, and embodied awareness today.
Recently, I came across an old yoga fan/practice guide with illustrated poses, safety tips, modifications, anatomy notes, and simple sequences. It reminded me how much learning used to depend on slowing down and actually paying attention to the body.
Now, as I teach Anatomy & Kinesiology for Yoga Therapy, I find myself encouraging students to do the same thing:
slow down,
learn foundational anatomy,
observe real people,
and develop discernment before relying on AI-generated answers.
Artificial intelligence can organize information.
But it cannot replace lived sensation, therapeutic presence, or the wisdom that develops when you truly learn through the body.
Maybe that’s why interoception matters so much to me.
Not because it’s trendy neuroscience—
but because I’ve watched what happens when people reconnect to themselves through awareness.
YogaScience TherapeuticPresence AnatomyAndKinesiology SomaticAwareness HealthcareEducation
(AI was used for grammar & formatting)

05/16/2026

Yoga Sutra 2.19
We name things to understand them.
Diagnosis.
Role.
Identity.
Success.
Failure.
Trauma.
Healing.
But eventually, the labels can become so loud that we forget there is still a human being underneath them.
In Yoga Sutra 2.19, Patañjali describes how Nature moves from the indistinct into form, language, categories, and identifiable qualities.
This helps us navigate the world.
But it can also limit how we see ourselves and each other.
In healthcare,
people are often reduced to symptoms,
charts,
codes,
or conditions.
In leadership,
people become performance metrics.
In life,
we can mistake a temporary state
for a permanent identity.
Yoga Therapy asks us to look deeper.
Not to deny the labels— but to remember they are not the whole person.
Discernment begins when we can hold both:
the category
and the humanity.
NervousSystemHealth TraumaInformedCare ClinicalReasoning IntegrativeHealth TherapeuticPresence
(AI was used for grammar & formatting)

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