Are you training for the next decade? Can therapeutic yoga revolutionize the way we approach back pain and functional mobility?
Join us for a captivating conversation with Dr. Nydia Tijerina Darby, a physical therapist and therapeutic yoga specialist. Dr. Darby is always training for the next decade. Discover how Nydia’s passion for movement helped her combat anxiety and depression, setting her on a path to a rewarding career that blends physical therapy and yoga.
Nydia Tijerina Darby is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, Therapeutic Yoga Specialist and Certified Yoga Therapist. She is an experienced yoga educator, writer, published author, and international presenter on Therapeutic Yoga Lifestyle practices.
During our conversation we break down common misconceptions about yoga, challenging the idea that you need to be extremely flexible or fit a certain mold to benefit from its practice. Nydia shares the reasons why she wrote her book "Therapeutic Yoga Works:A Gentle Approach to Eliminating Back Pain and Improving Functional Mobility for Life." Her book is dedicated to making yoga accessible to everyone, emphasizing inclusivity and body positivity. We talk about the gentle yet effective methods she teaches to alleviate back pain and improve functional mobility, all backed by scientific research.
Dr. Nydia collaborates with faculty at The University of Texas Health in San Antonio on scientific research. Her research, with Dr. Amelie Ramirez, focuses on therapeutic yoga for cancer survivors. Their research found that yoga can be as effective as traditional exercise in improving health outcomes for cancer survivors. Their study revealed significant improvements in respiratory capacity, mental health, and reduced inflammation. We also talk about the importance of self-care for clinicians and the integration of therapeutic yoga into physical therapy practices. In 'preparing for the next decade,' Dr. Darby promotes preventative care to achieve holistic health and balance.
Are you training for the next decade? Can therapeutic yoga revolutionize the way we approach back pain and functional mobility?
Join us for a captivating conversation with Dr. Nydia Tijerina Darby, a physical therapist and therapeutic yoga specialist. Dr. Darby is always training for the next decade. Discover how Nydia’s passion for movement helped her combat anxiety and depression, setting her on a path to a rewarding career that blends physical therapy and yoga.
Nydia Tijerina Darby is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, Therapeutic Yoga Specialist and Certified Yoga Therapist. She is an experienced yoga educator, writer, published author, and international presenter on Therapeutic Yoga Lifestyle practices.
During our conversation we break down common misconceptions about yoga, challenging the idea that you need to be extremely flexible or fit a certain mold to benefit from its practice. Nydia shares the reasons why she wrote her book "Therapeutic Yoga Works:A Gentle Approach to Eliminating Back Pain and Improving Functional Mobility for Life." Her book is dedicated to making yoga accessible to everyone, emphasizing inclusivity and body positivity. We talk about the gentle yet effective methods she teaches to alleviate back pain and improve functional mobility, all backed by scientific research.
Dr. Nydia collaborates with faculty at The University of Texas Health in San Antonio on scientific research. Her research, with Dr. Amelie Ramirez, focuses on therapeutic yoga for cancer survivors. Their research found that yoga can be as effective as traditional exercise in improving health outcomes for cancer survivors. Their study revealed significant improvements in respiratory capacity, mental health, and reduced inflammation. We also talk about the importance of self-care for clinicians and the integration of therapeutic yoga into physical therapy practices. In 'preparing for the next decade,' Dr. Darby promotes preventative care to achieve holistic health and balance.
Nydia Tijerina Darby. I am a physical therapist, a doctor of physical therapy, a therapeutic yoga specialist and the owner and creative director of the Open Hand Institute and Nydia's Yoga Therapy Studio here in San Antonio, Texas. I like to do therapeutic yoga research and I kind of dabble in a lot of different things, but pretty much I like to get people upside down and help them learn how to take care of themselves for the long term.
Judy Oskam:
Welcome to Stories of Change and Creativity. I'm Judy Oskam and I'm super excited to share my conversation with Dr . Nydia is a doctor of physical therapy, a therapeutic yoga specialist and a certified yoga therapist. Her book is entitled Therapeutic Yoga Works A Gentle Approach to Eliminating Back Pain and Improving Functional Mobility for Life, and Nydia says she's been preparing for the next decade since she was in her 20s and she helps us all do that as well. I hope you enjoy my interview with Dr . How did you get into this in the first place?
Dr. Nydia:
Oh gosh, it is a long story, but I've been teaching exercise since I was 15 years old. I, you know, didn't realize it, but movement, just, I just loved it. And you know, didn't realize it, but movement, just, uh, I just loved it. And you know, in high school, as in dance team, I was then promoted to a position where I was leading the girls in our um, stretching and strengthening and flexibility, and that was my role in my in in in that team and and I then I also started teaching exercise at a local gym. And so, interestingly enough, when I went through um, finished high school, I already knew that I wanted, had a medical bent, I wanted to do something in medicine. But I had realized that, um, and I thought, oh yes, I'm going to medical school and I'll be a doctor. I had a few medical challenges that were related to stress. Everybody thought I had a stomach problem, but it really was anxiety, stress.
Judy Oskam:
Interesting, interesting.
Dr. Nydia:
So while I'm young this way, that's a whole other story. But while I'm young this way, I'm going to the doctor every so often and I realized that I only would see my doctor for about five minutes and that was about it. It was real short, and I love people. So in my mind, by the time I'm a senior, I'm thinking I don't think I need to be a physician. You don't spend enough time with them, with the patients. So by the time I'm a senior, I'm looking, you know, scrambling, like what am I going to be? What am I going to do?
Dr. Nydia:
And I found physical therapy and I read about it in a course manual. I never knew anybody who had had physical therapy, but it looked good. It said something, something like a physical therapist helped people with injuries, they helped them learn how to walk, they massage and you know, and they teach them exercise. And I went check, check, check. I like those things. So I found Texas Women's University. It was in Dentonxas.
Dr. Nydia:
I grew up in McAllan, Texas, which was at that time a nine hour drive. Yes, yes, you know. And so I just um, I got into the curriculum, got into school. That was another long drawn out process, but I'm teaching exercise during my college years. I'm also taking dance and movement while I'm taking. My preparatory work for physical therapy to get into my first degree was a bachelor's of science in physical therapy, and that was back in the day when you could get a bachelor's. And then from there I'm moving, I'm teaching exercise. I'm already beginning to meet some of the healthiest people I've ever met in my early years and in my early 20s and I'm seeing some things and I'm taking mental notes. They had a positive outlook on life, they were active, they moved in some form or fashion every day and they had a belief in a higher power, and I saw it in the healthiest people and I also saw the direct opposite in the least healthy.
Judy Oskam:
So I'm taking mental notes and I'm thinking In your 20s. Let me remind the listeners this is in your 20s. Oh my gosh, I didn't have that together in my 20s to really put it all together, but you were actually looking for a career that combined some of those things as a senior in high school, right?
Dr. Nydia:
Yeah, you know, I didn't realize it. What I didn't know then was why I loved exercise so much and what was happening is it was my medicine for the anxiety I had. Anxiety and depression, you know, very high level functioning depressed person really, you know hi, and back then they didn't talk about it that much, right?
Judy Oskam:
It wasn't something people talked about?
Dr. Nydia:
Oh, especially in the Hispanic culture. No, I'm Mexican American, you know, it's like. You know, get over your bad self. You know you're feeling bad, go on, go work, go do something and you'll feel better. You know, it's like you know, get over your bad self. You know you're feeling bad, moving on, yeah, go work, go do something and you'll feel better, you know.
Dr. Nydia:
So it just kind of happened that way and I'm collecting information from my clients, from my patients, about how to be the healthiest. And because I was loving teaching, exercise and doing the physical therapy, now eventually I become a physical therapist. I'm thinking to myself how can I help myself move through the decades with grace? And so I started looking for now I'm a clinician, I'm doing orthopedic and spine care, neurological care, and I'm looking for that thing that I could do for me. You know, I'm a runner and I like to swim and I do things and I'm exercising and leading exercise. But what can I do for me so that I could be the strongest, most able, 90 year old, mm-hmm? And. And so I started reading about, you know, Qigong, tai Chi, eastern medicine, martial arts, yoga, Pilates. You know, at that time I loved to read and I learned by reading, and so I'm one of those. Give me a technical manual, okay, let's have some fun here. I'll figure out how to take apart a toilet, you know? No problem, I can do this. So that's what I did. I'm reading and I'm reading and finally, eventually, I put down.
Dr. Nydia:
The yoga just made sense, and because movement and exercise are second nature to me, I just started looking at the pictures, or you know the brief description. There wasn't a lot of real good, you know instruction, but I could figure this out, and I realized that many of the traditional yoga postures were really difficult, they were not easy to do and I couldn't see. You know, I was having trouble and I was in my early 20s, later 20s, when I was out by this time and I was having difficulty with some of the postures and I couldn't imagine my patients or my clients being successful. And it hurts me to the core when someone has a perception that they can't do something, when it's a false perception, you know, it's one thing. If you know you really can't do something, that's fine. But if it's something like oh no, nydia, I, there's never, I'd never be able to stand and do that position, you know. So it's began.
Dr. Nydia:
I'm doing this practice in my home, in my living room, for myself, and it's influencing everything. It's influencing me as a clinician. I'm still teaching exercise at a local gym one night a week. It's influencing the way that I'm seeing the world, and that's because I was just doing the physical practice. I was doing breath work and that was significant, and then I was trying to keep breathing while I'm trying to stay, you know, standing on one leg, and it was difficult, so that just continued.
Dr. Nydia:
And eventually, while I was doing small groups and educating the community on things that were easy for me to share, that I thought were important, like how to take care of your back, or I do a little little workshops to small groups, like your knee pain, what does it mean? Now you know, what do you do next, and so all of those things are just kind of coming together. They're me sharing with the community. You know, one of the things that I did as a physical therapist and in my I had in my double life, which was physical therapist and a fitness trainer. Then this was before I, you know, I pretty much came out as a yoga instructor you put it all together right right, yes, you know I'm already doing some type of therapeutic yoga, but I'm not talking about it.
Dr. Nydia:
But one of the things that was happening is that it was I was working to try to help people who I noticed clinically in the clinic. In the physical therapy clinic we would have very specific direction of a diagnosis left elbow pain or biceps tear and in the medical model we, because of the insurance industry, third-party payer, we had to be very direct to working on that bicep, working on that elbow, whatever the part was. And the third-party payer did not appreciate when those of us who worked holistically this is a whole human being, it's not just an elbow.
Dr. Nydia:
This is not an elbow, you know and they would be denying claims and I was in charge of my clinic, so I was the one that would call them up and say please share with me where you have your medical degree. That's telling me that you know better than I do what this person needs. So that always made it a little bit adventurous when I was a clinician because I could. I my whole entire career. I've always seen my patients, or my clients, as a whole person, mind, body, spirit.
Dr. Nydia:
This is someone who has a knee pain or knee injury, but they also are a mother of three. They are now not able to work because their job was very physical and their whole world is now upside down. And another person might say oh, come on, lady, it's just knee pain. You know, get your act together. It's like, no, this is major because the stress involves you know. So, anyway, you know all of that over time, melded into what I do now, which is combine physical therapy, my experiences in physical therapy, fitness and yoga over 40 years, and this process is designed to help empower individuals to move the best that they can, to recognize their strengths and be aware of their limitations too. This isn't about you know, just get in there and do the work. But what you know, how do we know when to say when you know?
Dr. Nydia:
enough you know, and to preserve the body, but not just the body the mind and the spirit. And and I joke about it and I say, you know, when people ask me, what do you do, I get people upside down. That's what I do and literally I do. But also I get you know these processes of when you start to teach someone to begin to pay attention to their breathing. We're working on helping them settle their mind, calm the nervous nervous system and to become a little more introspective, and that's not an easy process. So I start with the physical. I say here, let's just do this strength or this stretch activity, let's do this posture, and oh, while you're doing that, let's, you know, keep breathing. And before you know it, if they keep doing it, they begin to change.
Judy Oskam:
Well, and having done one of your classes before, I love that it's been a while. Was that before the pandemic? I think it was before the pandemic.
Dr. Nydia:
Was it after the pandemic? It was after After the pandemic.
Judy Oskam:
Well, I did one of her sessions. It after the pandemic, after the pandemic. Well, I did one of her sessions and what I loved about the way you coached us and led us through, you guided us through and you talked to us and I was I think I was the oldest one there, but that's okay but probably the stiffest one. But I loved how you always said and I made a note of it all you have to do is breathe, and telling me that in that moment when I'm trying to get upside down myself, it was very helpful and I did your. You have quite an extensive library of resources on YouTube at your YouTube channel. I have two YouTube channels and you have two YouTube channels and you've got now the therapeuticyogaworkscom.
Dr. Nydia:
Correct, that is.
Judy Oskam:
That's a website for my new book and the new book and and I love the title of that new book because it makes sense Therapeutic Yoga Works Double meaning there, but it does work. And, like I mentioned before, we, I guess, changed computers and got rolling. I did your breathing video this morning. That makes me so happy. I did your and I'm going to send that to some other folks. But I also I broke my ankle last fall and I really am looking for anything that's helpful there, so I found your feet foundation deal whatever it's called Setting a solid foundation, setting a solid foundation.
Judy Oskam:
So I did that and that was super. I mean, I do a lot of those stretches anyway, but to do it all together as a practice, I love that and I sent it to two other friends of mine.
Dr. Nydia:
Once again you're making me so happy. Oh, I'm, you know, I'm just ear to ear with a grin.
Judy Oskam:
Well, I think, but so so I guess that's part of my question. I mean, I'm. I have a question is why? Why do people like me, let's say, why do we resist getting involved with therapeutic yoga? Why do you think there's a challenge there?
Dr. Nydia:
Well, I think, first and foremost, just yoga in and of itself, just the word yoga for many. They get a misperception that you have to be very bendy and flexible and you have to look real cute in the little outfit you know, and there's a certain idea about what someone who does yoga looks like, and I think that's the first thing that that often scares individuals away. Well, that can't be me. I can't put my leg behind my head and so and then. So that's the beginning.
Dr. Nydia:
But when, when you put together therapeutic yoga, I mean, as I was beginning to write my book, I'm asking people questions. I'm asking men and women of different backgrounds hey, I'm getting ready to write a book on therapeutic yoga, what do you think about that? And they're like what's therapeutic yoga? So it really helped me to know, to understand that I'm in my world, thinking that everybody knows what therapeutic yoga is, and I was very incorrect. And that really actually is what helped me to put the title on this book. You know, and and to be very you know, I tried to get as sexy as I could with the you know and think about something that's that you want to actually be interested in sexy, that way.
Dr. Nydia:
You know, therapeutic yoga works. That words, you know what, what. What does that mean and maybe catch someone's attention. But I also knew that if I just put the title without the next portion, which was, you know, a gentle approach to eliminating back pain and improving functional mobility for life, when I was writing my you know, to write my first book, I wanted to make certain that as many people might be interested in it, and so my parameters, what I put together, was well, as I'm thinking about it, everybody has a spine and, unfortunately, many of us will have back pain sometime in our life or know someone. So I thought, if I'm going to write my first book, it should be about the spine, because I am also a spine specialist and I have a lot of experience with that. But that, you know, can possibly be interesting to many more people.
Judy Oskam:
And the book also includes a lot of illustrations and photographs. So talk about the layout, because it's not just because it's really hard to see something and see an example of a posture if without a picture, I think. So you included all that right.
Dr. Nydia:
I did do that on purpose and I'll be really direct in saying that. When I first contacted my photographer I have a wonderful photographer that she does great work and I said, hey, I need you to come help me work with you know, you're going to photograph my images for my first book. And her first question again, she's a professional said okay, great, I'm excited to help you. Are you going to use a model or are you going to be the model? And I looked at her and I didn't in my head automatically I was going to be the model. And I looked at her and I didn't in my head automatically I was going to be the model. And I said, no, I'm going to be the model. And she goes Okay.
Dr. Nydia:
Now this is a very, again, direct thing that I want to share with you. My body is not the classic extremely lean yoga model that you typically see on the cover of yoga Journal. I have. I'm a woman with curves and I'm also, you know, post-menopausal and so I have the little roundness that a body has when you're going to be 58. Which I love.
Dr. Nydia:
I can't believe that I love it and so I knew that I needed to be the model I wanted individuals to see a body with curves and a cute little belly doing the practice, and arms. That weren't you know. They just are. It just is. You know, I'm a strong body.
Dr. Nydia:
I'm very confident in my strength, but I, you know, but I have curves and I wanted people to see that. So I said, nope, it's me and my unitard. Now it's been years since I'd put on a unitard truly, and I just said I'm going to put on this unitard and I'm just going to be the model, and it was important.
Judy Oskam:
I love that.
Dr. Nydia:
Also if someone looks at those images, maybe they'll see themselves and they'll say hey, I don't have to look like the cover of Yoga Journal or, you know, for any other you know magazine. I can actually just be in my own body.
Judy Oskam:
I love that. I love the body positive movement.
Dr. Nydia:
We shouldn't even need to have such a movement, but we do you know especially for women, I think, but men too men, yes, yes, I mean I it's been pretty brutal. Uh, growing up in the fitness industry, my whole career has always been well, if you don't look the part that, you must not be worth your salt. And over and over and over, I just kind of keep doing what I do. And well, here we are. I love that.
Judy Oskam:
Well, and and when you're researching to do the book, you also have such a great science background. Talk about some of the studies that you've been involved with which prove your point about therapeutic yoga that works.
Dr. Nydia:
Yes, I was fortunate to have an amazing student and peer and friend and mentor in Dr Amelie Ramirez. She's at UT Health and, oh my gosh, I'd have to go and look at my notes to tell you what her actual title is.
Dr. Nydia:
I just call her superwoman, yeah, but she's in charge of all of our research, and in 2009, she invited me to do yoga and cancer research with her team and she wanted to see if we could kind of, you know, do something together. And I, in my naivety, was like heck, yeah, I'm in, sign me up. And I, because I had a lot of confidence in the intervention that I would develop I knew that it worked because I had seen it over decades, the practices, and I had also worked with cancer survivors of various types, and so I knew that what I could deliver would actually be beneficial, and so we started a process in 2009. Our first cohort. We finalized a program. That then our results in 2011.
Dr. Nydia:
And by 2012, I think, 2015, we have our first publication, and what we did was one of the things that was happening in this first study for breast cancer survivors implementing therapeutic yoga is that we had this was a randomized controlled trial, so we had a group about 109 individuals we had 30 that were doing traditional strength, flexibility and cardiovascular training and they were instructed in it and then they were to do it. We had the yoga group that were attending classes at my studio under the supervision of the teachers that I had trained and myself as well, and myself as well. And then we had the control group and everybody was to do their work yoga or practice three times a week for six months, which is unusually, wonderfully long time for a study, because most yoga studies were only done for about 12 weeks maybe 16 weeks.
Dr. Nydia:
So we were fortunate there, we had time and at the end of that study, you know, now I was very interested in something that was a little bit different, because I had noticed that there was a lot of yoga research up to that point in 2009. And there was some yoga and cancer research, but none of the yoga studies that I, you know, as I did my research, they didn't tell us what they did. They just said we did yoga and sometimes they just said we did the style of yoga Iyengar or you know, Kripalu or something, but they didn't. And for me, scientific method, you've got to write down what you did so that you can then determine.
Dr. Nydia:
Yeah. So I came to my team and I said I'm going to need your help. I've never done anything like this before, but I do know and feel very strongly that I can develop a protocol, meaning there's going to be a list, we're going to go through it, they're going to practice it and we're going to try to reproduce it similarly every single time. The unique thing about the practices that I create is that, yes, while there is a structured sequence, the method that I deliver them is individualizing the practice for each person when they're doing it Right. So, which is very unique, and it is actually a very strong point of the method that I've developed and so, in a group setting, eventually you'll be doing your own thing, your own body's ability in your practice, which is really cool.
Dr. Nydia:
So we do. We have, uh, we've done some research between that time, um the most recent study that had to turn into a live stream study because of the covid pandemic yeah we were likely the only therapeutic yoga and cancer yoga, therapeutic yoga cancer study done via live stream in the world. It is highly unlikely that anybody else was doing it, because we actually didn't have a choice. Yeah, it was that or nothing. And in that study now I'm being I'm geeking out on you with this that's okay, I can nerd out too.
Dr. Nydia:
I love it. In the first study, the teams, we had exercise physiologists and then we had you know me as the physical therapist but the yoga person, and it was the exercise physiologist versus the yoga team and we're like well, exercise better, yoga better. At the end of the study, what we found was that therapeutic yoga was equally as effective as traditional strength, resistance and cardiovascular exercise, which is a win, because before then it was like well, that yoga, you know, we don't really know if it really works. So that's what gave us the foundation for our subsequent studies. One of the things that the team actually talked about was well, we saw this other thing, nydia, happening in the yoga group that we didn't see some rising benefits that were stronger in, but still not statistically significant in the yoga group versus the exercise group. And that was and they couldn't put their finger on it. They didn't know exactly why is something what's happening in the yoga group that's improving outcomes and not so much in the exercise group. They eventually started calling it the Nidia factor.
Dr. Nydia:
And when I started thinking about it. I went you know what? It's not that Our yoga participants were benefiting from community yeah, the group, because the other participants were by themselves doing exercise.
Judy Oskam:
Oh, that's a whole other study right there. Oh, my gosh, completely.
Dr. Nydia:
And so it was just so I said, okay, let's keep doing this. So the live stream that we did in 2020, one of the wonderful, some of the wonderful benefits and the results that we got where we found that if you do therapeutic yoga three times a week for four to six months, you can actually improve your respiratory capacity, your ability to breathe and bring oxygen into your body. Now this is COVID era.
Judy Oskam:
Wow.
Dr. Nydia:
We also found that these cancer survivors were actually improving their mental health. This is COVID era and all of these things were statistically significant. And all of these things were statistically significant. And we saw also another we do have another paper with this that we saw a reduction in inflammation the inflammatory cytokines. So when I talk to anybody who will listen about the benefits of therapeutic yoga, I get really strong and say I know this works, we've done the research and it doesn't have to be hard and it should feel good and the gentlest practice can really benefit you.
Judy Oskam:
I love that. Well, how about someone who's starting out? Where do they start? Obviously, they come to one of your sessions if they live in the San Antonio area or they watch your videos.
Dr. Nydia:
Or they visit with me live stream or you can live stream. I love that. I love that. So my favorite way whenever because I do also offer private therapeutic yoga instruction and a therapeutic yoga assessment for some.
Dr. Nydia:
Some individuals don't know, they're like I don't really want to start with a class, I'm embarrassed or I, you know, I don't know if I'm ready, and so we will sit down together and we'll look at their past history. The clinician in me is present, while the yoga person in me is present, and it's just a melding, and so I'm making certain that there's no reason why they shouldn't be doing this work, Clearing them from that. And then we look at their history. What have they done before? We look at physically. You know, maybe there was some old back pain or you know some surgery, and then we start to, you know, do work together, and I always start by assessing their breath and their position and their mobility. Coming back to the book Therapeutic Yoga Works, that book is actually when you read it. It's actually sharing a private practice that I did with an individual who had intense back pain. So it's when you read that book it's actually written in dialogue. It's, it's a story.
Dr. Nydia:
And it's the story of a woman who had extreme back pain, and when you read it, it's like you are a beautiful butterfly in the room, while she and I, caroline, are doing the work to help her regain her function and her quality of life. And so you know, I share that, because those that individual instruction is important and I offer that. But ultimately, my goal is to teach people how to take care of themselves for the long term and so empower them and give them the tools, and that's why we start with the breath, because the most important thing we will do today is breathe, and when we breathe efficiently, the nervous system says thank you.
Judy Oskam:
Yeah, yeah. Well, look back at that high school senior. What would you tell her after we've gone through all of this? And what would you say to her now? Oh my gosh, she's proud of you.
Dr. Nydia:
I know, oh, she wouldn't imagine. I would tell her, oh goodness, that I would tell her more early in life that she should just not care what anybody thinks. I love that.
Judy Oskam:
Yes.
Dr. Nydia:
She should just do she's always been an oddball and just go with it, babe, because you're going to be fine.
Judy Oskam:
Yes, don't worry about that. I so love that. Well, and look ahead in five years from now. What's your goal? Because I know your goal is to change the world. I know that. I know that about you. You pegged me, yeah. And what are you going to be doing in five years and what's the practice going to be doing?
Dr. Nydia:
And you know, I really wasn't sure I wanted to write a book, but I wasn't sure if I was going to like it, the process or be any good. Well, I loved it. I want to continue writing. I have so much to share and some people are like me. They like to read books and learn about stuff, and it's just so important to continue. You know, reading it's just such a great way to stimulate our brain and so I want to write, continue writing.
Dr. Nydia:
I will continue to provide these gentle therapeutic yoga practices at my I do have a home studio and I will provide that and to the community. Whenever I'm invited to go somewhere that I will go if I can to. Also to continue to educate clinicians. I've been very fortunate that the Texas Physical Therapy Association has they're my friends and I get invited when I submit. They invite me to come and present about the therapeutic yoga to physical therapists and physical therapist assistants and students, and so I want to continue doing that and I'll do more workshops at my home studio to invite clinicians and anybody who wants to come and do a workshop, you know, but it's a really neat thing to dangle the carrot about. You can get continuing education towards your license. When you come and do therapeutic yoga for two days straight and eat nutritious and delicious meals and then relax and breathe, and they're like, seriously, and I'm like, oh yeah, I've got the accreditation, I'm all in.
Judy Oskam:
I love that and that's a win-win, because then their patients are the beneficiaries, right.
Dr. Nydia:
When I do those programs I focus on the clinician because I want their self-care to rise. These are servants, these are people who have a service-oriented mind, body and spirit and they want to help. But oftentimes those of us with a servant's heart, we don't put ourselves first, we go last. So I want them to be able to embody the practice, to experience it, to benefit from it and then hopefully it'll influence their clinical practice, kind of like the way it influenced mine, you know. And then I just kind of kept doing it because it felt good and I kept sharing it because I knew it was good.
Judy Oskam:
But what you did was you went in and you found the framework for putting it all together. That's, that takes some heavy lifting.
Dr. Nydia:
It was really an accident. I'm such a nerd, I love to take things apart, I can't help myself. And so when I was on my living room floor you know, I'm a manually trained physical therapist, both my husband and I are manually trained that means that we do like osteopathic or chiropractic mobilizing and, you know, manipulating the joints, and I realized that when I was doing a posture and I was realized that when I was doing a posture and I was and I and it was a hard one, so I would take it apart to bring it down to its essential element and then I would start building it back up. You know well, if you want to stand with one leg on one leg, with the other leg behind your head which, by the way, I don't recommend but if you want to do that, how do you start doing that? Well, at first you got to be good at standing on both legs. You know both feet have to be grounded. You want to do that. How do you start doing that? Well, at first you got to be good at standing on both legs. You know both feet have to be grounded. You have to learn that before you can even try to think about lifting one of the legs up even an inch off the floor.
Dr. Nydia:
So I was noticing that when I take these postures apart, the traditional ones, and turn them into what I thought was the best way to do them oops, a little bit different then. What was happening is I could see the potential for therapeutically mobilizing the major joints and bringing the body into balance in a way that I could do it for myself. Now, if you've ever had manual therapies, the clinician does it to you, which puts you in a very dependent situation. If you have pain, you've got to go to your clinician and they've got to fix you and it's like no, no, no, no. Again, I have strong opinions about this. But if we're not empowering our patients, if we're not giving them the tools strong opinion coming at you we're not doing our job we got to be able to. It's more cost effective If we teach them they you know, I want my clients to fire me.
Judy Oskam:
It's like I'm done with you.
Dr. Nydia:
Nydia, I feel fabulous. I don't need to come back to our one-on-one or physical therapy, but I'll do my practice and I'm looking, I'm feeling good and yay, that's what I want. And my husband jokes with me because he and I are both co-owners of the multiple programs that we run, and he's a silent partner. And he says Nydia. And he's a silent partner and he says, Nydia, you know, your business model kind of sucks. You're supposed to make them want to come back and give you more money. You know Right. And I tell him I said, well, here's the reality.
Dr. Nydia:
Unfortunately, there are so many people who are living with pain that I wish that I could just do the funnest part of my work, which is doing the prevention, where you know, hey, let's just do the exercise and have fun. No one has pain. But I'm not. I'm not afraid that I'm not, that I'm going to be out of a job. I wish that part of my job could be over, which would be great, because then people aren't living in pain, People are feeling strong, and then we could just become superhuman altogether.
Judy Oskam:
Right, right. Well, it's such a challenging, I guess, future that you're trying to solve there, I think. But as someone who's been in one of your sessions and really needs to get back and do that, I want to bring my husband and have you analyze him a little bit. Soccer player really tight hamstrings really, really beat up for years.
Dr. Nydia:
And he has great potential and he's got good potential, so I'll be knocking on your door, but I look forward to it Well, and I love that you've provided the resources.
Judy Oskam:
So talk a little bit about what's on your YouTube channel so that people know what to do, and I'll put the actual addresses in the show notes for you.
Dr. Nydia:
Thank you Well first and foremost, the book itself has its own website. Therapeuticyogaworks. com itself has its own website, TherapeuticYogaWorks. com, and in that book, on that website, are all of the practices that are in the book. You don't have to buy the book If you just want to go and get an idea of what the practices are like. I recorded 22 postures that are all in the book. I recorded the therapeutic sun salutation that helps us get down onto the floor and then helps us get back up, which is very important If you end up on the floor and you can't get up, that's the problem and some breathing audio recordings where you just lie there or sit there and just maximize your oxygenation with gentle, rhythmic breathing.
Dr. Nydia:
So there's so much. Just in therapeuticyogawork works. com you could go to my YouTube page, Nydia's yoga therapy and the open hand Institute. Also, I have two YouTube pages and you can go to those and I have uploaded so many recordings of classes. You could do a 10 minute, a 15 minute, you could do a whole full class, 60 minute or 75 minute class. I put them there on purpose. Then there's my specialty foot stuff.
Dr. Nydia:
I had classes more about your hip, you know, maybe your I saw that yeah I have my own father who was a very dedicated practitioner, non-traditional hispanic male truck driver. Him I recorded, uh, him, we were doing a seated yoga with Pedro. Oh, go, look for that. It's pretty hilarious. I am, you know, I'm sometimes speaking some Spanglish, you know, and it's just and I'm going between Spanish and English and and it's just shows you that you know, you can sit there and breathe and do some activities and even when you're limited in your emotion, you're still doing the practice, practice and it's so valuable. I love that.
Dr. Nydia:
I also have a video with my now 87 year old mother doing her practice, and this one is yoga for knee strength awareness with Bobby.
Dr. Nydia:
So some, she has two knee joint replacements and so she's an example of, yes, you still can. And in that particular practice for people with knee pain or knee issues, there's a special little section at the beginning teaches you how to do traditional isometric strengthening and mobility of your knees to improve your function, and then in the practice there's also standing postures and balancing and things that we do. So there's just a lot in there. I have, you know, vimeocom and I have, through my own studio, some video on demand services and so, but I like to let the community know that the other services are completely free. If you have internet access, then you could go and find those and the therapeuticyogaworkscom also. The only thing that'll happen you get on my email list, that's it Completely free access. And I want you know. If you know someone who might benefit, please share it, because that's another reason why I did it to give it to the community, because I know this works.
Judy Oskam:
And, yes, you've proven it works. It's evident that it does, and we're all the beneficiaries. This has been so fun. I appreciate this. We might have to do another round two whenever we whenever you get me going a little bit here.
Dr. Nydia:
Oh, I think it would be so fun for you to share about your adventures. That's great, that's great, it's just been so wonderful. I so appreciate your invitation and I love just. You know you got a beautiful smile and your energy is so magnificent, so thank you so much.
Judy Oskam:
Thank you, and I'll put information in the show notes. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, and I'll put information in the show notes. And thank you for listening to Stories of Change and Creativity. I love Dr Nydia and I love what she's doing and the resources are out there. So check out the show notes for more information and remember if you've got a story to share or know someone who does reach out to me at judyoskam. com. Thanks for listening.
