Michigan's First Yoga Therapy Clinic Opens In Rochester Hills

ROCHESTER HILLS, MI — Michigan's first yoga therapy clinic has opened up.

Certified Yoga Therapist Claire Whittleston is behind The Yoga Clinic Michigan LLC. It's based within the HealthQuest Physical Therapy and Medical Fitness building on North Rochester Road.

"Western medicine tends to treat symptoms rather than addressing the deeper causes," Whittleston told Patch. "Yoga Therapy works with different levels of the human energy system looking to treat the whole person rather than just the condition. Within a private one on one session, I can really work with a person’s individual needs, tapping into their physical, mental and emotional levels bringing about strength, stability, restfulness and composure to the body, mind and spirit."

The Yoga Clinic provides private clinical yoga therapy sessions and small group adaptive yoga and meditation classes.

Never heard of yoga therapy? Here's a description:

Yoga Therapy assists in decreasing the effects of disease and discomfort through adaptive physical movement, breath work and relaxation techniques. It empowers individuals to manage and sustain their own sense of well-being by activating a sense of strength, stability, restfulness and composure, particularly when going through physical, mental or emotional trauma. Yoga Therapy practices support pain management, anxiety, trauma, addiction, oncology, MS, traumatic brain injury, cardiac/pulmonary issues, parkinson’s, alzheimer’s, childhood autism among many other physical, mental and emotional health conditions.

Whittleston said yoga therapy is recognized as a clinically viable treatment, with established programs at major health care centers such as The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Cleveland Clinic, and others.

She is a graduate from The Beaumont School of Yoga Therapy, headed by Director Veronica Zador — the first yoga therapy school being offered within a hospital setting.

"Being originally from the UK, I have noticed quite a few yoga therapy clinics opening up in London," Whittleston said. "In February I attended London’s first Yoga in Healthcare conference hosted by The Yoga In Healthcare Alliance (YIHA) at The University of Westminster. The conference brought together key opinion leaders and pioneers in yoga, health care, yoga research, health policy, and government to address how to integrate yoga therapy into mainstream healthcare. I was inspired even more so to open The Yoga Clinic putting Michigan on the map to be offering Yoga Therapy services."

She said she is excited to be introducing The Yoga Clinic Michigan LLC to the Rochester Hills community and surrounding areas.

"Opening a yoga therapy clinic and working to merge yoga with healthcare has been a long time dream of mine," she added. "I am a strong believer in yoga therapy and I just want to help people, especially those suffering with physical, mental and emotional trauma. I have had many people come to me during my regular yoga classes to say that they are suffering with pain or disease. I wanted to provide a space where people could go for yoga therapy catering to individual needs."

Small adaptive group chair yoga, gentle/restorative, basic and slow flow classes are also available at the Yoga Clinic.

For more information or to make an appointment, call Claire at (201) 675-5602 or visit www.clairewhittleston.com.